Food riot: Difference between revisions
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'''Food riots''' occur if there is a shortage and/or unequal distribution of food. Causes can be food price rises, [[harvest]] failures, incompetent food storage, transport problems, food speculation, hoarding, poisoning of food, or attacks by pests.<ref name="Patel & McMicheal">{{cite journal|last=Patel|first=Raj|coauthors=Philip McMichael|title=A Political Economy of the Food Riot|journal=Review (Fernand Braudel Center)|date=2009|volume=32|issue=1|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40647787|accessdate=3 March 2014}}</ref> When the public becomes too desperate in such conditions, they may attack shops, farms, homes, or government buildings to attain bread or other staple foods such as grain or salt, as in the [[1977 Egyptian Bread Riots]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Egypt battle toll: 43 dead|url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KuBUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=R5IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6724,3934220&dq=food+riots+egypt&hl=en|accessdate=25 March 2013|newspaper=The Age|date=1977-01-21}}</ref> Often, food riots are part of a larger social movement, such as the [[Russian revolution]] or the [[French revolution]]. |
'''Food riots''' occur if there is a shortage and/or unequal distribution of food. Causes can be food price rises, [[harvest]] failures, incompetent food storage, transport problems, food speculation, hoarding, poisoning of food, or attacks by pests.<ref name="Patel & McMicheal">{{cite journal|last=Patel|first=Raj|coauthors=Philip McMichael|title=A Political Economy of the Food Riot|journal=Review (Fernand Braudel Center)|date=2009|volume=32|issue=1|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40647787|accessdate=3 March 2014}}</ref> Hence, the pathway between food related issues such as crop failure, price hike or volatility and an actual “[[riot]]” is often complex.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sneyd|first=Lauren|coauthors=Alexander Legwegoh, and Evan DG Fraser.|title=Food riots: Media perspectives on the causes of food protest in Africa.|journal=Food security|date=2013|volume=5|issue=4|pages=485-497.|doi=10.1007/s12571-013-0272-x}}</ref> Some argue that volatile and high food price are just part of a “perfect storm” combining with climate change, population growth, resource scarcity, and urbanization leading to social unrest.<ref name="Godfray et al">{{cite journal|last=Godfray|first=H. Charles J|coauthors=Ian R. Crute, Lawrence Haddad, David Lawrence, James F. Muir, Nicholas Nisbett, Jules Pretty, Sherman Robinson, Camilla Toulmin, and Rosalind Whiteley.|title=The future of the global food system.|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|date=2010|volume=365|issue=1554|doi=10.1098/rstb.2010.0180|accessdate=3 March 2014}}</ref> <ref>{{cite news|last=BBC News|title=Global crisis 'to strike by 2030'|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/7951838.stm|accessdate=3 March 2014|newspaper=BBC News UK|date=19 March 2009}}</ref> When the public becomes too desperate in such conditions, they may attack shops, farms, homes, or government buildings to attain bread or other staple foods such as grain or salt, as in the [[1977 Egyptian Bread Riots]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Egypt battle toll: 43 dead|url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KuBUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=R5IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6724,3934220&dq=food+riots+egypt&hl=en|accessdate=25 March 2013|newspaper=The Age|date=1977-01-21}}</ref> Often, it is more than an issue of hunger and the need to obtain bread for immediate caloric satisfaction, food riots are part of a larger social movement, such as the [[Russian revolution]] or the [[French revolution]]. Thus in places with low political freedom there is an increased likelihood for social unrest when food prices are volatile or suddenly rise.<ref name="Walton and Seddon">{{cite book|last=Walton, John K.,|first=John K.,|title=Free markets and food riots: The politics of global adjustment.|date=2008|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=Cambridge MA|isbn=0-631-18245-4|coauthors=David Seddon}}</ref> |
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==Twenty-first century== |
==Twenty-first century== |
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Revision as of 16:03, 3 March 2014
Food riots occur if there is a shortage and/or unequal distribution of food. Causes can be food price rises, harvest failures, incompetent food storage, transport problems, food speculation, hoarding, poisoning of food, or attacks by pests.[1] Hence, the pathway between food related issues such as crop failure, price hike or volatility and an actual “riot” is often complex.[2] Some argue that volatile and high food price are just part of a “perfect storm” combining with climate change, population growth, resource scarcity, and urbanization leading to social unrest.[3] [4] When the public becomes too desperate in such conditions, they may attack shops, farms, homes, or government buildings to attain bread or other staple foods such as grain or salt, as in the 1977 Egyptian Bread Riots.[5] Often, it is more than an issue of hunger and the need to obtain bread for immediate caloric satisfaction, food riots are part of a larger social movement, such as the Russian revolution or the French revolution. Thus in places with low political freedom there is an increased likelihood for social unrest when food prices are volatile or suddenly rise.[6]
Twenty-first century
During the period 2007-2008, a rise in global food prices led to riots in various countries. A similar crisis recurred in 2010-2011.
Due to a wheat crop failure in the mid-western United States due to drought in 2012, as well as simultaneous dryness during the start of the Russia's wheat season, a deficient monsoon rainfall in India and a drought in Africa's Sahel region, prediction were made for a possible outbreak of protests and riots akin to previous years. Yaneer Bar-Yam, the president of the New England Complex Systems Institute, said that computer modelling suggested an outbreak of instability, while he also blamed the use of corn for ethanol as exacerbating the problem. However, the director of trade and markets and the Food and Agriculture Organisation, David Hallam, said that there was no imminent danger of such an outcome, though a worsening change in climate and government policies, such as export bans and panicked-buying, could trigger such a scenario. Oxfam added that a one percent increase in the price of food could lead to 16 million more falling below the poverty line.[7] The International Food Policy Research Institute's Director-General Shenggen Fan suggested a global crisis could "hit us very soon. [Using corn for ethanol] actually pushed global food prices higher and many poor people, particularly women and children, have suffered."[8]
See also
References
- ^ Patel, Raj (2009). "A Political Economy of the Food Riot". Review (Fernand Braudel Center). 32 (1). Retrieved 3 March 2014.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Sneyd, Lauren (2013). "Food riots: Media perspectives on the causes of food protest in Africa". Food security. 5 (4): 485-497. doi:10.1007/s12571-013-0272-x.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Godfray, H. Charles J (2010). "The future of the global food system". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 365 (1554). doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0180.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ BBC News (19 March 2009). "Global crisis 'to strike by 2030'". BBC News UK. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ^ "Egypt battle toll: 43 dead". The Age. 1977-01-21. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
- ^ Walton, John K.,, John K., (2008). Free markets and food riots: The politics of global adjustment. Cambridge MA: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-631-18245-4.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Robert Kennedy. "Food riots predicted over US crop failure - Features". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
- ^ Ann, Luzi (2012-08-14). "Global Food Crisis May Hit Us 'Very Soon,' IFPRI's Fan Says". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
Further reading
- Bush, Ray (2010). "Food Riots: Poverty, Power and Protest". Journal of Agrarian Change. 10 (1): 119–129. doi:10.1111/j.1471-0366.2009.00253.x.
