Abstract

REYES GUZMAN, Gerardo. Incremento en los precios del maíz y la tortilla en México. Prob. Des [online]. 2007, vol.38, n.151, pp.103-126. ISSN 0301-7036.

George W. Bush proposed to reduce petroleum consumption 20% by 2017. Both ethanol and liquid coal have been considered for this. It is planned to increase the production of ethanol to 35 billion gallons a year and to raise efficiency levels in the use of gasoline. An annual 35 billion gallons of ethanol in 2017 is equivalent today to 317.5 million tons of corn. Under present conditions it is impossible to achieve that target without the help of Latin American countries allied to the United States. As a consequence the economies involved are now facing a bottleneck that should be evaluated.

Keywords : corn; ethanol; bio-fuel; atmospheric warming; tortilla; livestock sector; inflation and poverty.