“More Mexicans are going hungry because of a severe recession that threatens to increase malnutrition and reduce gains in the fight against poverty since the mid-1990s,” Reuters reports in a story examining hunger in Mexico.

According to Rodolfo de la Torre, who heads poverty research in Mexico for the U.N., between 1 million and 2 million Mexicans will become so poor this year that they will struggle to afford enough to eat. “Government poverty researchers estimate Mexicans living in cities must earn about $80 a month to eat enough, while those in the countryside need about $60. About 20 million Mexicans were below these cut-off levels in 2008,” Reuters writes. Aid workers say they have seen evidence of a recent increase in hunger among people going to food banks in larger cities, such as Guadalajara and Monterrey. “People in good clothes who are having trouble eating are showing up,” said Luciano Aimar, who heads Mexico’s national association of food banks.

Higher costs of food are also contributing to the situation. “A drought in Mexico has destroyed crops of corn, a key staple, and killed livestock, threatening to push prices up,” the news service reports (Lange, 8/21).