Food policy
Basic food prices in Mexico are practically out of control, the Federal Consumer Protection Agency said Sunday.
In just three years, the cost of primary foods has risen 66.7 percent, indicating a large gap between salary and consumer prices. In 2006, it cost 812.92 pesos to buy 42 items, or 16 days worth of minimum wage, but in 2009, those items cost 1,358 pesos, or 23.6 days of minimum wage.
(Erika Velasco, The [Mexico City] News)
While we have yet to see a food crisis in Mexico, and other than some sporadic “tortilla riots” a few years ago, there hasn’t been much mention of this growing problem, either. The Calderón Administration, a couple of priority issues earlier promised to do something about holding down food prices, through “voluntary agreements” with producers. Yeah, like that worked.
mexfiles.net 
Richard,
Living here I am fully aware that prices have risen, but I don’t think they have risen this much. I of course don’t minimize the difficulties my neighbors have paying for stuff, but they’d be starving if the rises were this big. I also notice that produce in particular goes up and down seasonally, so that avocadoes, for instance, are pretty close to what they were last year and the year before. We buy tortillas in our neighborhood, and their price is the same. Chicken is noticeably more expensive now, however. My husband says the math in the article is contradictory, but I haven’t the math patience at the moment to figure that out (or listen patiently to him).