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Text Date:
March 7 2003
Text Date:
March 7 2003
Article Text:
In 2001:
- 214 million people, nearly 43% of the Latin American population live in poverty.
- 54 million people suffer from malnutrition (11% of the total population), the majority of whom are women and children.
- 123 million people (25% of the total population) live in rural areas and depend directly or indirectly on agriculture.
- 77 million of these live in poverty, 47 million live in extreme poverty.
In 2002:
- The number of people living in poverty is expected to increase to 221 million.
Mexico Case Study:
- Basic grains imports into Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) doubled between 1994 and 2001 to 110 million tons with a value of $18.5 billion.
- In the case of corn, Mexico imports an average of 6 million tons annually, compared to 2.5 million tons prior to NAFTA.
- The US exports wheat at 46%, and corn at 20%, below their production price.
- Mexico's increasing reliance on imports has led to actual prices to Mexican producers falling between 35% and 60%.
- Today, the price of corn for producers is $80 per ton though production cost is $120 per ton - domestic production has stagnated, food dependency has increased and the livelihoods of 2.5 million corn producers have been affected.
- The price reduction has not benefited consumers and the price of tortillas, the base diet of the majority of Mexicans, has risen from 0.80 pesos/kg in 1993 to 5.00 pesos/kg in 2002.