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Wheat Prices Push Egyptian Military To Bake Bread |
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Written by Heather McKee
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Monday, 31 March 2008 |
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Wheat prices have been skyrocketing as farmers ditch their wheat crops to grow corn for recently fashionable biofuels ( as Envirovore reported.) Here in the U.S., some of us may be feeling the crunch of the extra quarter tacked onto our hot dog buns, but I suspect that many of us have not even noticed the creeping prices.
In Egypt, however, one-fifth of the citizens live below the poverty line, and they are reliant upon government subsidized flatbread to survive. The recent upward spiral in wheat prices has massively increased the demand for the subsidized bread, leading to critical shortages.
Last week, after 7 people died in lines outside bakeries selling subsidized bread (two from stabbing, five from exhaustion) the Egyptian President ordered the military to start baking bread to fill the demand. They have recently opened 10 bakeries in Cairo, and have set up 500 kiosks for distribution.
Some groups are speculating that the bread shortages are being exacerbated by bakeries selling their subsidized wheat on the black market. Did you get that? Wheat on the black market?
Our oil and energy dependencies are having mind-bogglingly far-reaching effects on world food supplies - not just on our gas cards.
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