Insect found in Tijuana poses risk to California citrus trade

A tiny insect that can carry a disease that kills citrus trees has been discovered just blocks south of the border in Tijuana, sending shock waves through the California citrus industry.

The disease, known as citrus greening, has already killed tens of thousands of acres of orange groves in Florida and has the potential to ruin much of California's $1.2-billion citrus-growing business, industry officials said.

Mexican agricultural officials found the Asian citrus psyllid in orange trees growing near homes in the vicinity of the California border.

But the officials are annoyed at the alarm sounded by California citrus farmers, saying there's no evidence that these bugs have come into contact with the bacterium that causes the disease, also known as huanglongbing or yellow dragon disease, or that citrus greening is infecting Mexican citrus groves.

Read on about the bug here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Los Angeles

Strict health and safety guidelines for Mexico produce

After problems earlier this month with tomatoes in the United States that carried salmonella, the Dallas Morning News brings us this report about the safety and health restrictions imposed on produce plants that harvest and package south of the border.

"Glenn Fry helps run Taylor Farms de Mexico's new $14-million plant [in San Jose Iturbide, Mexico]. He picked the land where it sits and designed just about every facet of it, down to the statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe at the entrance and the jacaranda and palm trees."

" 'In the United States you can stumble once, two, three times and still survive,' Mr. Fry says he tells his workers. 'Not in Mexico. Because of a perception problem, all you need is one problem to destroy your entire operation.' "

Read the report, which also includes a great video dispatch, here...

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: A tomato vendor waits for customers at the Central de Abastos market in Mexico City. Tomatoes stopped from shipment across the U.S. border are flooding markets in Mexico City. Credit: Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press

Food shortages in Latin America may foreshadow famine

Food shortages, we know, are a problem in Latin America, as these dispatches from Haiti and Nicaragua last month show. In Dust Up this week, Paul Roberts and Jacob Grier debate the new food economy:

We're not "headed" for a major global food shortage this year -- it's already here. Because of a perfect storm of drought, booming demand from Asia and ill-considered energy policy, global grain reserves have fallen to their lowest level in half a century. The real question is whether today's crisis is short-term and, if not, what action needs to be taken.

In related news, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon moved yesterday to cap prices on basic food items such as beans, fruit juices and canned tuna in the country.

Producers are essentially agreeing not to pass on their rising production costs to consumers. That enables the government to achieve price controls without direct economic intervention, such as through subsidies or ordering sanctions against manufacturers.

"This reflects a commitment by Mexican entrepreneurs with the country," Calderon said. "Fixed, stable prices . . . will be an enormous help to family budgets."

Read Marla Dickerson's report in The Times here.

And read the BBC and NYT dispatches here.

Photo: Blanca Castro weighs red beans at the Wholesale Market in Managua, Nicaragua. Hunger is on the rise in Central America as global prices for grains and fuel soar.

Credit: Tomas Stargardter/For The Los Angeles Times

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Mexican farmers angry over FDA salmonella probe

Farmers are mad enough to throw, well, rotten tomatoes at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is focusing heavily on Mexico as a potential source of the fruit that has sickened hundreds of people in the United States with salmonella, writes Marla Dickerson from Mexico City. The Associated Press reported last week that Mexican growers and their government called a U.S. warning against certain types of their tomatoes unjust.

The response from Mexico follows the hunt for salmonella-tainted tomatoes, which according to our report from Tiffany Hsu, has now caused 277 reported infections in 28 states and Washington, D.C., since mid-April and has led to at least 43 hospitalizations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Mexican tomatoes are putrefying in warehouses south of the border. Producers say they're losing millions of dollars in export sales even though U.S. health officials haven't discovered the pathogen in any of the Mexican samples they've tested.

Read on...

Photo: Workers separate tomatoes at the sprawling Central de Abastos market in Mexico City.  Credit: Gregory Bull, Associated Press

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Mexico protests U.S. tomato salmonella warnings

"Mexican growers and their government on Wednesday called a U.S. warning against certain types of their tomatoes unjust, saying it has brought exports to a halt and could cripple Mexico's $900 million industry," writes the Associated Press.

Growers said their produce is subject to double the scrutiny that U.S. tomatoes face: inspected first by Mexican officials and then again at the border when crossing into the U.S."

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still hunting for the source of a salmonella outbreak linked to three types of raw tomatoes that has sickened 167 people in 17 U.S. states since mid-April. It has cleared imports from at least six countries -- but not Mexico, which sends 80 percent of its tomato exports to the United States."

" 'This action, which has no scientific basis, is excluding exports of Mexican tomatoes from the U.S. market,'  Mexico's Agriculture Department said in a statement. 'The FDA's unjust action is causing severe damage to Mexico's tomato industry, which provides thousands of jobs.' "

Photo: Workers separate tomatoes at the sprawling Central de Abastos market in Mexico City.  Credit: Gregory Bull, Associated Press

-- Reed Johnson in Mexico City

Emergency funding for Latin America announced

With soaring food prices triggering unrest and threatening Latin America's economic progress, the Inter-American Development Bank today announced an emergency credit line for countries in the region, The Times' Nicole Gaouette reports from Washington.

The $500-million fund will support projects that improve agricultural productivity, invest in rural areas, improve distribution and strengthen programs designed to improve health and encourage education.

Recent Times stories have highlighted some of the food shortage problems that Latin America is experiencing -- see these dispatches from Haiti and Nicaragua earlier this month.

The BBC reported Tuesday that the Mexican government is taking matters into its own hands by announcing that it will give its poorest citizens a monthly cash payment of 120 pesos ($11.55) to help them cope with rising food prices. That's about an extra 4 pesos a day. Big deal. See President Felipe Calderon's speech on the matter here.

Photo: Wilma Sosa buys cooking oil at the Wholesale Market of Managua, Nicaragua. Tomas Stargardter / For The Times

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Nicaragua hit by food shortages on top of high prices

Earlier this month, our report from Nicaragua by Marla Dickerson documented how high food prices were hitting the country's population hard. Now, a violent transportation strike in the Central American nation is causing food shortages by preventing produce from getting to market.

''Things are going from worse to more worst,'' said veteran market vendor Manuel Ramírez, inventing a superlative to describe his frustration with the unraveling situation in Nicaragua.

''Even the [produce] baskets look like they are on strike,'' he said, nodding to the large market bins that are empty except for a few rotting tomatoes and what appears to have been lettuce." Miami Herald.

Photo: Maria Concepcion Ramos, 39, carries a bag of rice on her head while shopping with her daughter Corina at the wholesale market in Managua. Tomas Stargardter / For The Times

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City