Riots continued in Algeria for a fifth day on Sunday over high food prices and unemployment. Since they began on Tuesday, three young people have been killed, and more than 1,000 have been arrested, according to the Interior Minister quoted by Magharebia.
Food prices rose rapidly in India during December (Calcutta Telegraph)
Fourteen people were killed on Sunday in clashes with security forces in Tunisia, near the border with Algeria, according to VOA.
In both countries, policemen were killed as a result of the clashes.
This comes as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announces that its food price index has reached its highest level since it was begun in 1991. Prices have risen 32% in just the last half of 2010.
High prices sparked worldwide food prices in 2008. Everyone hoped that food prices would come down, and they did for a while in 2009, and again early in 2010, but they really surged in the last half of 2010. They’re now up to new highs, higher than in 2008, and governments around the world are looking for ways to head off problems.
World food situation (FAO)
In Bangladesh, the Prime Minister announced a rationing system on Sunday, according to the Daily Star. Rice will be distributed to “the destitute and ultra-poor” at subsidized prices through ration cards.
India, which still has in effect from the 2008 crisis an export ban on rice, is also considering a plan to distribute food grains at subsidized prices to the BPL (people Below Poverty Line), according to Business Standard (India).
India’s consumers have been particularly hit by a doubling of the price of onions in the last month, according to Sify (India). However, the General Secretary of the Vegetable Traders Association is quoted as saying that the rise in onion prices is only temporary, as a fresh crop is ready to be harvested.
From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, what we’re seeing is what I call the “Malthus effect,” a continuing increase in the price of food as the population grows faster than the supply of food. (See “Food: Green revolution v Malthus effect.”)
Food prices were steady or declining until 2002. Since 2002, food prices have been surging much faster than inflation.
The survivors of World War II (GI and Silent generations) were well aware of the horrors of famine and starvation that occurred during the war, and they developed the Green Revolution to make sure that everyone in the world would be fed.
The Green Revolution led to huge increases in food production in the 1960s and 1970s, but for some reason, many people believe that the Green Revolution is some magic potion that will last forever. In many ways it was a one shot deal — improve crop yields by using a lot more water, fertilizer and insecticides. Since then, water has gotten scarcer, and fertilizer and insecticides have been overused. New, modern equipment that was made available in the 1970s is now worn out and rusting.
It’s really not surprising that the surge in food prices occurred in the same time frame as the tech, real estate and credit bubbles that have developed into the current global financial crisis. The same generational greed and nihilism that led to the global financial crisis has also led to the collapse of the Green Revolution.
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