Mexico’s poor suffer as food speculation fuels tortilla crisis


A surge in financial speculation on maize is causing vastly inflated prices for corn tortillas – a sacred staple in Mexico – and threatening the health and livelihoods of the country’s poor. As part of a major report examining food speculation the Ecologist Film Unit travelled to Mexico to investigate.

The Ecologist Film Unit (EFU) is jointly operated by Ecostorm and the world’s leading environmental affairs magazine, The Ecologist. Launched in 2008, the EFU has, to date, produced eleven films on a range of largely unreported environmental issues, with a particular focus on investigating unpalatable aspects of the food industry.