On 7/21/2011 11:38 AM, DGDevin wrote:
....

Actually if poor Mexicans are starving it's because the cost of corn
imported from the U.S. under free trade agreements is so low it
undercuts small Mexican farmers....

I've seen that touted before but world corn markets are currently (and
have been for several years) at all-time highs. Why aren't they
planting fence-row to fence-row to take advantage of these prices now?

I don't believe the argument makes any sense; I don't know a lot about
Mexican ag sector away from the border country but I think the biggest
problem for it is the same as for the rest of the Mexican economy of
corruption and instability makes it unpalatable and nearly impossible to
run any modern business venture as an individual as is the greatest
proportion of US production ag. While they may be technically organized
for legal and tax reasons, as LLC or other entities rather than as sole
proprietorships, they're still "family farm" operations, just larger
(which is virtually mandatory given the cost of labor, equipment and
other inputs, it takes a significant scale factor over which to amortize
the investment).

--