Rising Food Prices, Social Mobilizations, and Violence: Conceptual Issues in Understanding and Responding to the Connections Linking Hunger and Conflict

Abstract

In 2008, the world confronted food‐insecurity situations that provoked political demonstrations in more than 50 countries. The alleged sources were production failures and spiking food prices because of bad weather and flawed food and development policies. But additional contributors were the legacies of food wars, armed conflicts in which one or both sides use food (or hunger) as a weapon and in which hunger persists as a consequence of conflict and its attendant social‐economic disruptions. This article argues that UN and NGO international and national agencies responding to food insecurity challenges in particular places must consider food‐and‐conflict scenarios, and adopt conflict‐concerned strategies, which are sensitive to the ways in which past foodwars have stymied increases in agricultural production, marketing, and livelihood diversification. Policy makers should also be attentive to political‐geographic‐ethnic‐religious (PGER) divisions that can skew government distributions and access to aid and potentiate additional conflict.

The sustainability and resilience of global water and food systems: Political analysis of the interplay between security, resource scarcity, political systems and global trade

“…The growing demand for food from rapidly developing countries (in particular China), the high price of oil, and the conversion of many crops to biofuel -all of which create pressure on the demand side -are highlighted by some analysts (Royal Society, 2008). For others, weather-related poor harvests, flawed food and development policies, speculation in global financial markets and the legacy of 'food wars' were also important factors (see Messer, 2009).…”

Food, Water, and Scarcity

“…Weaver and Hadley (2009) propose that there are multiple possible pathways that explain this, including (a) uncertainty and unpredictability and (b) social stigma and shame. Additionally, some work on moral economies and hunger suggest (c) perceptions of unfairness or injustice provoke emotional distress (e.g., Messer 2009;Orlove 1997;Scott 1977). Here we briefly explain each hypothesized pathway, and then examine the evidence relevant to evaluating that hypothesis in the water realm.…”

“…Studies of food riots and moral economies of food suggest that people experience anger, outrage, and other forms of emotional distress when they feel that social injustices produce food shortages or price hikes (e.g., Messer 2009;Orlove 1997;Scott 1977;Spielmann et al 2009). Recent research indicates that perceived inequity or injustice in water institutions may be a major driver of emotional distress.…”

Energy, conflict and war: Towards a conceptual framework

“…Energy and food prices displayed a trend break and started to increase in the first decade of the 21 st century, affecting the number of undernourished in the world [106]. High food prices can pose a threat to food security and trigger violent 'food riots' in vulnerable societies when interacting with socio-political factors [25,107,108], as illustrated during the world food price crises (2007-2008) [25] and 'Arab Spring' (2010) when one of the most important destabilising factors was high food prices [108,109]. The links between food prices and energy are complex, since energy is both an important input factor in modern agriculture, making energy costs a driving factor in food production cost [110], and is also interlinked with demand factors.…”