I feel like we are talking a great deal these days about the intersection of politics and food production, but I had never heard this story before.  

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?

Is it bad that I was salivating through most of the story?  I've had a true masa tortilla once; I agree that it is one of the finest foods we monkeys have concoted.

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.

Thanks, Tom, for this fascinating essay.  As painful as anything that touches on the IMF, the WTO and Mexican politics is, nevertheless foody-lit is as a rule lots of fun.

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?

  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

A few years ago, my food science expertise was sought by a large tortilla maker in Fresno, CA.  She was watching her share of the LA market erode as Pepsi-owned tortilla brands started to dominate supermarkets.  According to her, today's Mexican-American consumer prefers tortillas made with the corn flour method over the masa method because the corn flour method produces a tortilla that retains its softness longer.  As you mention, the corn flour method produces a blander product.  The modern consumer, whatever race or cultural background, seems to put texture and convenience over flavor.  You see this trend with virtually any food.  So the flour method involves fewer production steps, and is especially adapted to large scale production.

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

While I really appreciated the insight on the decadence of the real authentic tortillas, I have to point out that even after the recount Calderón came out a clear winner, even if by a slim margin.  

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.

No, I do not think so.

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.

Right, lysine!  Thanks, Meander.

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.

The problem is that Mexico's corn was subsidized before ADM and NAFTA came along. So that form of economic corruption was in place and ready to be expanded by outside forces, which is what happened.
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.