By Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON – Economists and experts in food security have warned repeatedly in recent years that an unbridled rise in food prices could trigger the very kind of explosion of citizen anger that’s now threatening to topple the Egyptian government. Such anger is likely to rise elsewhere, too.
A large nation with lots of desert, Egypt must import more than half of its food supply. Since 2008, there’s been sporadic unrest there as the cost of staples, from bread to fruits to vegetables, has gone up steadily.
One of those warning about the food prices was Hamdi Abdel-Azim, an economist and former president at the Sadat Academy for Social Sciences in Cairo.