Rising Food Prices Will Guarantee More Unrest In The Arab World

Cost Of Eating Spikes For The Arab World -- Toronto Star

Let them eat bread.

That refrain, from the authoritarian regime of President Hosni Mubarak, kept impoverished Egyptians from violent rebellion for decades.

When food riots broke out in 2008, he contained them by promising to keep up the subsidies that were the barrier between malnutrition and starvation for one-third of the country’s 80 million people.

The protests that brought down his regime were driven by hunger for democracy rather than bread. But as Egypt and other Arab countries remain volatile, there are fears that spiking grain prices could propel new discontent.

In the past week, wheat prices soared by 17 per cent, a worrying sign for those countries where it is a staple of the diet.

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My Comment: This is also a problem for other countries outside the Middle East. In China, food inflation is raising the alarm for its leaders, and for most African countries .... higher prices has always meant political/social upheavals that inevitably lead to war and conflict.