[Cob] Maybe the problem isn't oil

[paul]

NEZAHUALCOYOTL, Mexico -- Thick, doughy tortillas roll hot off the conveyor 
belt all day at Aurora Rosales's little shop in this congested city built on 
a dry lake bed east of Mexico City.

Using cooking techniques that date to the Mayan empire, Rosales has never 
altered her recipe. Nor did her father, grandfather or great-grandfather.
On good days, the neighbors line up for her tortillas. But these are not 
good days, and sometimes hours pass without any customers.

Mexico is in the grip of the worst tortilla crisis in its modern history. 
Dramatically rising international corn prices, spurred by demand for the 
grain-based fuel ethanol, have led to expensive tortillas. That, in turn, 
has led to lower sales for vendors such as Rosales and angry protests by 
consumers.

The uproar is exposing this country's outsize dependence on tortillas in its 
diet -- especially among the poor -- and testing the acumen of the new 
president, Felipe Calderón. It is also raising questions about the powerful 
businesses that dominate the Mexican corn market and are suspected by some 
lawmakers and regulators of unfair speculation and monopoly practices.
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This is a most disturbing piece to me.  Not only is ehtanol not as green as 
we are led to believe (it is oil dependent to grow, harvest, process and 
ship) but it literally takes the food off of somebody's table.

Now we can say that an individual fuel isn't the problem - it's the consumer 
of the fuel, the internal combustion engine.  But even that begs the real 
question of why we chose this crap over Tesla's energy sources, or even 
solar.  That is the original bottom line where The Haves push us in a 
direction that is questionable at best.