Corn grown in the USA and dumped in Mexico is destroying the livelihoods of millions of people

"The imports are squeezing out small producers. In less than a decade, subsidised corn has begun to displace communities who have successfully cultivated corn for thousands of years."
- Jose Magdaleno, corn producer in the Chiapas region, Mexico

Mexico is one of the world's largest producers of corn. Around three million people grow it, and it supports millions more. Corn was first grown thousands of years ago by the Mayans, and remains at the heart of Mexican culture and diet.

But an influx of cheap corn from the USA - made possible by a trade agreement in 1994 - has created a crisis for Mexico's corn producers. The US corn is grown on a massive scale on huge mechanised farms, keeping production costs - and prices - low. The growers receive billions of dollars in government subsidies each year.

The Mexican farmers, who cultivate corn on a much smaller scale, simply can't compete. Many are trying to make up for lost income by increasing the area they cultivate even if this means - as it often does - farming environmentally fragile land. Thousands are leaving the land that has supported their families for generations to go to the cities, where there is already huge pressure on jobs and housing.

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