Cut the ridiculous corn subsidies and watch biofuels collapse overnight.

The production of rice, cotton and sorghum in Mexico has dropped, while corn production, and corn subsidies, have soared.

The United States paid $26.8 billion in corn subsidies the last five years, the most for any single American farm program.

Tortilla price controls and corn subsidies began in the early 1970's during the populist presidency of Luis Echeverria as a way to protect the poor from starvation.

The government spent $41.9 billion on corn subsidies from 1995 to 2004, according to the Environmental Working Group.

The traditional Mexico of aging peasants, hardscrabble farms and corn subsidies supports Mr. Labastida.

At the time the Government had planned to end corn subsidies that kept down the price of tortillas, but later changed its mind.

Under present programs, a farmer must keep planting corn, whether it is needed or not, to retain the right to receive corn subsidies.

Bryce opposes federal corn subsidies for ethanol, citing high costs.

At the lower end of that range, the Government's projected $4.2 billion expenditure on corn subsidies in the budget running through next Sept. 30 might not be far off.