We do keep being told this most delightful story: that raising the price of something isn’t going to change demand for that same thing that has just risen in price. This does rather contradict most of what we know about economics and the price system: demand curves do slope downwards after all.
True, there is one well known exception, what is called a Giffen Good (the definition of which is a good where the demand curve does not slope downwards). The only proven examples of this are wheat noodles in North China and rice in South China. But the general point is accepted that it probably applies to the subsistence carbohydrate in subsistence economies. People are living so close to the starvation line that when the price of the basic foodstuff goes up they have to cut their expenditures on other foods (possibly, little tasties or sauces to get that basic glop down) and increase their demand for that basic subsistence food in order to stay alive. They’re limited by the fact that they already live so close to the 2,000 or 3,000 calories a day needed to keep going. So, this might also apply to tortillas in the poorer parts of Mexico, or mealie meal in sub-Saharan Africa and so on.
Dispatches From The Front 