Mexico plans to encourage production of biodiesel from crops like beets, yucca root and sorghum after a new biofuel law comes into effect early next year, said Agriculture Minister Alberto Cardenas.
"Mexico could develop biodiesel faster than ethanol”, says Cardens. Ethanol, an alcohol used as an additive in gasoline to reduce emissions, is usually made from maize or sugar. But competing with the US, the world's number one maize producer and Brazil, a leader in sugar-based ethanol will be a challenge for Mexico, where cane is expensive to produce and farmers grow less maize than the country consumes. Biodiesel industry would help the country's poorest farmers, and that none of the crops Mexico currently grows for food would be replaced with biofuel plants. Critics say biofuel production hurts the poor as increased demand for crops drives up food prices. The Mexican government pressured maize flour producers in January to cap rising prices for tortillas, a staple corn pancake, amid street protests.
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