In a spectacle similar to the one conjured up by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, a Mexican judiciary panel handed the nation's presidency to Felipe Calderón last week. Even The New York Times, in its circumspect way, acknowledged that the new president-elect's narrow victory over leftist rival Andrés Manuel López Obrador involved seemingly illegal activity by Calderón's governmental and big-business supporters.
Classic Mexican cuisine is falling victim to crony-inflected neoliberalism.
Photo: iStockphoto
Calderón represents Mexico's conservative National Action Party (PAN), which scuttled more than 70 years of one-party rule by defeating the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the 2000 presidential election. But PAN candidate Vicente Fox's victory that year, despite all of the international hoopla it generated, did not mark a fundamental shift in Mexico's economic policy. Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive, essentially preserved the economic regime that had been instituted by the PRI in the mid-1980s.
Since that time, Mexico has generally hewn to the "neoliberal" economic line beloved of Wall Street and the International Monetary Fund: low taxes, tight monetary and fiscal policies, privatization of governmental enterprises, and a commitment to the free flow of capital and goods. To be sure, this agenda has been implemented with a dose of cronyism that might make Dick Cheney and his old Halliburton pals blush. But Wall Street has applauded the effort (save for its wrathful reaction to the nation's severe financial crisis in 1994 and 1995); the Mexican stock market, 40 percent of whose shares are foreign-owned, has boomed since 1995. Over the same period, job growth has sputtered, and wages still hover at 1993 levels.
As the tens of millions of Mexicans, mostly poor and working-class, who bitterly oppose Calderón contemplate more of the same, it's worth revisiting the important and largely forgotten story of how crony-inflected neoliberalism destroyed the quality of that iconic traditional staple, the tortilla -- and how, in the process, local-food infrastructure, public health, and rural economies suffered while corporate profits fattened.
The People of the Corn
Archaeologists believe corn was first domesticated in Mexico's Sierra Madre region around 3,000 B.C. At some point later, the Mesoamericans began transforming the grain into tortillas. "It is not known for how many millennia [tortillas have] been a staple," writes Allan Davidson in The Oxford Companion to Food, "but when the conquistadores arrived in the New World in the late 15th century, they discovered that the inhabitants made flat corn breads."
Until recently, the process for making tortillas had remained essentially constant over the centuries. In a technique known as nixtamalization, corn (hominy, not the sweet variety eaten off the cob) is simmered in water mixed with slaked lime. When the hulls loosen, they're peeled off and the corn is ground into a dough called masa, which is then formed into flat rounds and cooked on a hot griddle. The result is a triumph of toasty corn flavor, and when wrapped around a stew made from dried chile peppers, it surely ranks as one of the treasures of world culinary culture.
Tortillas on the griddle.
Photo: iStockphoto
Tortillas remain a staple of the Mexican diet; the average person consumes 10 per day, and the country's vast poor population relies on them for the bulk of their caloric intake. But since the early 1980s, the old process has undergone a rapid transformation.
Before that time, neighborhood- and village-scale tortillerias (artisanal tortilla factories) bought corn at subsidized prices and transformed it into tortillas; they also sold masa for home production. (In rural areas, smallholders made the tortillas they consumed from their homegrown corn, selling the excess grain into regional markets.) Now, however, most tortillas in Mexico are made not from fresh masa, but rather from processed rehydrated corn flour. And tortilla consumption is slowly falling, its place being taken by white bread.
Free-market champions tend to hail these developments as the result of free people pursuing their own choices unfettered by government control. In reality, though, large infusions of government cash and influence -- not the market's invisible hand -- powered the industrial tortilla's rapid rise.
All Hail the Tortilla King
In the late 1980s, a small corn-flour manufacturer called Maseca struggled to find a market for its product. The company fancied its processed flour to be a more efficient base for tortilla production than traditional masa. The problem, Anthony DePalma of The New York Times reported back in 1996, was taste: Mexican consumers overwhelmingly preferred the sweeter, more robust flavor of traditional, masa-based tortillas.
But Maseca's chief owner, Roberto González Barrera, was a personal friend of Carlos Salinas, the Harvard-educated PRI finance minister who gained the presidency in 1988 on a platform of free-market reform. Widely thought to have stolen the election -- a suspicion that has since been confirmed -- Salinas nevertheless enjoyed fame in the U.S. financial media as a Gorbachev-like reformer. Meanwhile, he ran the state like a private fiefdom, doling out favors for his friends like a Kremlin hack.
González -- and his unpopular product -- counted among Salinas' chief beneficiaries. Carlos Salinas's brother Raul ran the federal agency that administered the government's long-time tortilla-support program. Under the program -- an effort to keep tortillas cheap while also keeping farmers and tortillarias in business -- the agency bought corn from farmers at a subsidized price, and sold it to tortilla makers at a lower price. To make sure the tortilla makers passed the bargain on to consumers, the government put a price cap on tortillas.
Under Raul Salinas, the agency began to manipulate the tortilla program to favor Maseca. According to DePalma, in 1990 Raul Salinas's agency "signed an accord with Mr. González in which the rules of the market were fundamentally changed. The agreement froze the amount of corn that would be given to traditional tortilla makers and declared that all growth in the market be filled by corn flour. At the time the only producers of corn flour were the government itself, and Maseca."
Meanwhile, Maseca began offering to sell small tortilla makers equipment to switch from masa-based production to flour-based production -- and the government provided extra incentive. As DePalma reported, "Those [tortilla makers] who refused [to buy Maseca's equipment] were punished by the government, which sent them the worst corn and strictly limited the amount of grain the shops received. Hundreds of shops [went] out of business."
As Maseca's corn flour gained market share, the company began to grab an ever-greater portion of the government's tortilla subsidies. By 1994, Maseca was drawing in $300 million in government cash -- 43 percent of its total revenues, DePalma reported.
By 1996, Maseca had drawn the attention of Archer Daniels Midland, the world's largest corn broker. Itself no stranger to government largesse, ADM spotted a good business model from across the border, and bought a 22 percent stake in GRUMA, Maseca's parent company. Today, ADM's formidable board chair G. Allen Andreas sits on GRUMA's board of directors, as does the company's CFO, Douglas J. Schmalz.
GRUMA now controls 70 percent of Mexico's corn-flour market. As NAFTA opened the Mexican market to cheap, highly subsidized U.S. corn and dismantled Mexico's support for its farmers, the price of corn in Mexico plunged, providing a windfall for GRUMA and despair for Mexican corn growers. Maseca now imports 30 percent of its corn for tortilla production from the United States, according to an Oxfam report [PDF].
And as the price of corn fell, the Mexican government -- citing free-market dogma -- withdrew its ceiling on the tortilla price. According to Oxfam, between 1994 and 2001, the corn price in Mexico fell by 70 percent; meanwhile, between 1994 and 1999, the price consumers paid for their staple, tortillas, rose threefold -- further burnishing GRUMA's bottom line. And when rising tortilla prices pushed many consumers to switch to white bread, GRUMA cashed in as well. Another of its subsidiaries -- a joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland called Molinera de Mexico -- is the nation's largest wheat-flour producer, and GRUMA owns a fast-growing bread business as well.
GRUMA has also moved aggressively north into the U.S. tortilla market, and south into Central America. It is by far the world's largest corn-flour and tortilla producer.
Thanks to his patrons in the Mexican political elite, GRUMA's chief executive, Roberto González Barrera, now stands atop a global tortilla empire with annual sales of $2.4 billion. (Amazingly, he also controls a major Mexican bank, Banorte, which Carlos Salinas delivered to him amid perhaps the most disastrous bank-privatization scheme in history.)
Mexico's citizens, for their part, have gotten a consolidated tortilla industry, more expensive tortillas, deteriorating health as people abandon traditional diets, and a rural economy that can no longer support its farmers.
As for tortillas themselves, according to my palate, the Maseca-based products that now proliferate throughout Mexico taste flat and dismal compared to the glorious masa-made tortillas that still flourish in some quarters of the nation. Generations of Mexicans will never taste them if Maseca's chokehold on tortilla production continues.
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Comments
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Heidi Posted 11:50 pm
14 Sep 2006
I'm allergic to wheat, so I tend to buy the corn tortillas. Maybe now I'll begin making my own instead. Does ADM actually run the entire planet unbeknownest to us? Will I finally have to begin homesteading to avoid giving them financial support?
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meander Posted 12:56 am
15 Sep 2006
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PBrazelton Posted 3:20 am
15 Sep 2006
Also, I think you should include a relevant recipe to your VR articles. All this talk of fresh tortillas makes me want to go out and make some.
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meander Posted 2:11 am
16 Sep 2006
I don't know of any Mexico-specific blogs, nor any Mexico-specific food sites, but recipes using fresh masa might be available at Rick Bayless's site (Frontera Foods) or epicurious. If you are interested in making tamales, the SF Chronicle had an article about Diana Kennedy (one of the modern legends of Mexican cooking writing in English) and her advice on tamale making.
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caniscandida Posted 7:21 am
16 Sep 2006
Yes, I do not even mind your recent sortie into NYC-bashing. Only, next time you are passing through The City, drop me a pigeon beforehand, and you can take me on an espresso safari.
I love the oblique suggestion of Frank McKinley in the NYTimes: the curious intrusions, from Vicente Fox and big business, which took place in Mexico prior to the election, would not have raised any eyebrows in the US; the election laws in Mexico are better than ours; the problem with Mexico is, it seems impossible to enforce those laws.
The archaeological excursus on the history of maize in the Mexican diet is most welcome. My understanding is that the addition of the lime is essential, in order that the diet of maize plus legumes provide a complete protein. But I have no idea how that works.
From my own recent observations in Mexico, in the refrigerated sections of American-style supermercados, but also often enough in restaurants, tortillas de trigo (wheat) seem to be the tortillas of choice, and tortillas de mai'z are definitely second-best. I do not know if that is because the Mexicans genuinely prefer the tortillas de trigo to any kind of tortilla de mai'z, or because the currently available tortillas de mai'z are too disappointing, nothing like the old kind. My own palate is of course not so exquisitely discerning as yours, but nevertheless I would trust you if you were to choose the latter.
Here is a question for journalism watchdogs. Archer-Daniels-Midland is a sponsor of my favorite TV news show, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. As it happens, I do not remember many, if any, reports on agribusiness on the News Hour. Certainly nothing critical of ADM. Do we have reason to suspect Jim Lehrer is censoring himself, and Margaret, and Ray, and Judy, and the rest, on that subject?
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bookerly Posted 1:01 pm
16 Sep 2006
Dear CanisCandida,
You raise a great question about how news operations censor.
I suspect that they are not saying "okay, we can't cover this subject." It is just that there are so many subjects, they can't cover them all anyway....
So, when selection time comes, a little part of their minds just finds other subject more pressing.
It doesn't require deliberate overt acts or thoughts, just a little nudge by the part of them that likes the money coming in....
The great thing about the American media is that it doesn't need government censorship, it has trained itself to be good!!
As for tortillas, alas, that is one of the foods not in ready supply in China. They do have a couple of Mexican restaurants that are tolerable, but just. (OTH, I ate really horrible Mexican food in San Francisco once in a restaurant that actually used Velveeta in place of cheese (many years ago)).
One of the problems in America is that corporations have been allowed to become monopolies (by both parties) dominating markets so that they can do their evil things.
There used to be a strong anti-monopoly populist flavor to American politics (Teddy Roosevelt and his Trust-Busting) which has vanished.
A sad story....
patrick
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Tom Neuhaus Posted 8:21 am
17 Sep 2006
If Grist readers want to support local tortillerias in the U.S., a good first step is to avoid Mission or Guerrero brand tortillas. If there's another brand on the supermarket shelves (and that's a big if), buy it. Also, check to see if it's locally made.
Dr. Tom Neuhaus
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akarasuma Posted 2:52 pm
18 Sep 2006
No, the "people" aren't supporting López Obrador. Those who are better off lounging on a sandwich and can of soda at Mexico City's main square with the promise of $2000 pesos a month for not doing anything are. The rest of the people just wish he'd stop being childish about losing; even the ones that didn't vote for Calderon. Even the ones that did vote for him.
Other than that, yeah, maseca tortillas suck.
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caniscandida Posted 3:43 pm
18 Sep 2006
Probably for the peace of the republic, Caldero'n should be allowed to get away with it, quite similar to the way the 2000 election in the US was settled. And AMLO and his supporters should cease and desist.
BUT, there is nothing "clear" about Caldero'n's victory.
And Caldero'n ought to remember that. He seems to be an intelligent man, and so probably will remember that, no matter what such class-warriors as Akarasuma might whisper in his ear.
Certainly, Akarasuma's vile and heartless misrepresentation of AMLO's supporters should be broadcast far and wide as a typical attitude of Caldero'n's friends.
All Mexico's true friends want this current difficulty to be resolved, and want the hope of a free and transparent electoral system to take secure root and to flourish.
If that means that AMLO and his friends must shut up right now, for a bit, so be it.
But meanwhile, there is no need whatsoever to hear about how wonderful and deserving are the already wealthy and the already empowered, los caballeros, los sen~oritos jinetitos, los limusinaditos sin piedad de los limosneros, los de arriba, and by contrast how ill-deserving are los de abajo. My God, it sounds like disgusting old Yankee Puritanism.
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meander Posted 3:49 pm
18 Sep 2006
In the last thirty years or so, scientists have uncovered the fundamental purpose of alkaline processing. First...[it makes the "hull" fall off]. Second, alkalinity improves the amino acid balance in corn by decreasing the availabiliy of the major storage protein, zein, to the human body. This protein is most deficient in lysine and tryptophan, so that reducing its contributionto the overall protein content reduces the relative deficiency of the these amino acids. The relative availability of lysine increases 2.6 times, and that of tryptophan 1.3 times, when corn is made into masa. ...for the avoidance of pellagra, alkaline conditions release corn's bound niacin, which can then be absorbed and used by the body.
Some protein is lost through the conversion, but the amino acid adjustment and niacin release received in exchange is well worth the cost.
McGee writes that corn was introduced to most parts of the old world without the secret of alkaline treatment (or perhaps the flavor was not appreciated), resulting a large number cases of pellagra in areas where corn was the predominent grain.
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caniscandida Posted 5:54 pm
18 Sep 2006
I was just looking through my books by the Mesoamerican archaeologist Michael D. Coe, for what I remembered him writing on the subject, but, alas, looked in vain. Not that it is not there -- he has plenty on teosinte and other aspects of early Mesoamerican diet, indeed he has a full-page figure with a list, in tiny print, of all the plants associated with some early sites -- , only I have not found yet what I remember.
Anyway, thanks.
Was there not something meaningful about Lysine in "Jurassic Park"? Not only were the dinosaurs all girls, they also were incapable of producing their own lysine? Or something like that.
And yet: Nature Finds A Way.
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meander Posted 2:06 pm
19 Sep 2006
I wonder if there is a giant list of fresh masa sellers on the Net somewhere?
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eyeearth Posted 5:55 am
20 Mar 2007
I notice the following sentence in your essay: "As NAFTA opened the Mexican market to cheap, highly subsidized U.S. corn and dismantled Mexico's support for its farmers, . . ." So U.S. corn is subisdized while Mexico's corn is supported. But it comes down to the same thing. Mexico and the U.S. would be better served by unsubsidized, unsupported agriculture on both sides of the border.
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