Ethanol,Illegal-Immigration?

Could the demand for ethanol reduce illegal immigration?



High U.S. corn prices grow profits for Mexican farmers



CIUDAD SERDAN, Mexico — Rogelio Zacaula plucks an ear of corn from his field with the pride of a prospector unearthing the gold that legend says is buried in the slopes surrounding the nearby Orizaba volcano.

International corn prices driven by the burgeoning U.S. ethanol industry have soared to their highest in a decade, making farmers like Zacaula feel like they just won the jackpot.

“I have never seen prices like this,” said Zacaula, 66, who has been growing corn since he was 10. “We suffered for so many years, years in which no one even wanted to buy our crop — until now.”

Corn had languished around $2 a bushel for years before the ethanol boom caused prices to soar, reaching $4.04 a bushel last week. Corn prices should reach new highs over the next five years, according to Keith Collins, chief economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Mexican farmers who now plant corn on 21 million acres are proposing expanding that by 4.3 million acres this year alone. They also want the government to fund the irrigation of another 1.9 million acres, said Carlos Salazar of the National Confederation of Mexican Corn Growers.

“Maybe the government will finally pay attention to us now that we’re all dressed up pretty,” Salazar said, referring to the healthy profits.

The hike in corn prices has hurt consumers, especially poor Mexicans whose diet depends on tortillas. It is also tough on livestock producers who buy feed corn.

Growers hope the ethanol phenomenon will cushion what they feared would be a devastating blow with the full opening of borders to U.S. exports of corn and beans in 2008 under the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

Since 1994, Mexico’s rural sector has lost an estimated 1.6 million jobs, prompting many farmers to seek work in the U.S.

But Zacaula says many of his fellow corn farmers are sticking around now while the money is good...

Chicago Herald

 

I would think that this demand for corn because of ethanol could now help those who are struggling to afford tortillas and may affect immigration.

With the expanding of the corn industry because of the demand for ethanol more workers will be needed which will translate into more job opportunities that can help people to afford the tortilla prices and these new jobs could help those workers stay in Mexico who were considering going to the U.S because of a lack of jobs in the corn industry that had been hurt by subsidized U.S corn.

 

High prices for corn will translate into the most poor being unable to afford corn for tortillas. Something the market in the States is worried about as well, pushing the price of corn so high that it's value as a food commodity for livestock as well as human consumption is unreasonable.

I don't see ethanol as the answer to oil consumption. I saw a program on alternative vehicles and the one I would like to see promoted is the compressed air vehicle. But I am sure the energy lobbyists won't let it's manufacture be possible. Would put them out of business.

http://www.theaircar.com/

 

Good. Enough illegal immigration bullshit. If they put me in charge, I'd solve in the problem in a heartbeat.

Either:

Invade Mexico

Kick out illegals, they are ILLEGAL. They're not LEGAL immigrants, there's a difference. And to all my fellow SOCIALISTS, the Soviet Union would've been harsh to illegals, maybe that is why only now people are trying to get into Russia, so don't flame me.

Document the current illegals, lock down the border.

Really, if I see people racing towards my border, who's to say it's not an invading army? Nothing an M60 couldn't handle Noone enters my land and gets away with it! mwahaha

 

You have more in common with the "illegal" immigrants than with the fucks in the government telling us that immigrants are causing all of our financial problems. We have plenty here. The problem is that the capitalists leave us with only enough to get by and keep reprouducing (ie making future workers), and a couple well off people so that we think its possible to do better. You should side with the immigrants. They aren't an invading army, they just want a better life. Locking the border is also dumb. Borders only serve the government's needs. I could go on, but how about you do some thinking of your own instead.

 

They don't pay taxes, so they cost money. No SS# = No tax money.

 

So then make them legal and they'll pay taxes. Then you can use that money to invade Mexico. You can have your cake and eat it too.

 

That was one of the routes that I listed - They need to stop being patriotic expats when they abandon their original nation of birth, don't you say? It is an insult to my grandparents that had to learn English when they arrived here from Italy.

 

I'm sure they would rather be in Mexico. But they can't survive there. That's why they are patriotic expats. It's not their fault that their government is fucking them over. That's what governments have always done.

And how is that an insult to your grandparents? The didn't have to learn English, they could have gone right on speaking Italian. I'm guessing they chose to learn to make communication (and getting employment) easier for themselves.

 

Yeah, *only* English was allowed in the late 50's/early 60's. It was a conservative era, now it's more progressive and *cough cough* "tolerant." Mexicans came in at the right time.

 

Another thing about Mexico's tortilla prices is that Mexico has one company with a monopoly on making tortillas so this lack of competition with tortillas is also contributing to the higher prices.

 

So... you would prefer things to be like they used to be?

 

I wasn't around, so how the hell would I know lol I like this technology.

 

OK, it's time for a history lesson.
This was way before most of you were born, I barely remember it.
http://www.farmworkers.org/benglish.html
It worked well, they paid taxes and didn't abuse the social service system.
Now the problem is overwhelming. ............

 

Why not just apply legally? I hope they'll try to fix their own government.

 

Yeah, I know some immigrants who are undocumented. Instead of getting citizenship, they just refuse to. They go around my town offering employers labor for the tidy sum of $1.50 an hour, because they hate Americans and want them to be poor. They purposefully have 15 kids here because they don't want anybody else's kids learning in public school. They also do their best to get hurt and sick so that they can use up the state's money. They think this is funny. Meanwhile, the loneliest guy in town (previously the Maytag repairman) is the guy who works at the citizenship kiosk.

I think they should definitely put that fence up on the border. Of course, then we would also have to ban ladders from being owned or sold in any border states. And possibly ropes. And also sheets, which can be made into ropes.

 

lol Just because someone is a Socialist, doesn't mean they have to be Liberal

 

We should question right now why the big push towards ethanol. It's been subsidized since the seventies. And was marginally profitable at best. Why the push now. How many of the elites have figured out a way to make it pay off for them now.

 

1) Perhaps the elites figure on living long enough that the result of a switch to ethanol will effect them. Or rather the effects of Not Switching will effect them.

2) If ethanol benifits the elites, we need to ask whether the other benifits of ethanol outweigh the bad of making the elites even richer.

 

If land is being used to grow for auto fuel, then i'd like to
see that land revert to nature, become a carbon sink.
Perhaps a pasture.

Are our autos now consuming land and crops as well as oil?

Corn should be eaten not driven.

Isn't it wonderfull to be Archer Daniels Midland with enviros
clamoring to subsidise your eathanol production.