Food riots redux: lessons from the 2007–08 food crisis

ABSTRACT

The 2007–08 global food crisis led to hunger riots around the world. Food prices have again risen spectacularly since the COVID-19 pandemic but have fortunately not led to major social unrest in the global South. In this research note, we argue that the difference lies, in part, in the nature of the two price shocks and, in part, in the policy response from governments and international organizations. This time round, the stability of rice prices appears to have dampened the impact of food inflation in major rice-importing countries. This pattern of global rice price is in sharp contrast to that seen in 2008 when the price tripled between January and May. The two food crises also differ substantially in the extent and responsiveness of public policy. Right from March 2020, governments began taking fiscal and administrative measures to help the populations suffering from the loss of livelihood. Nonetheless, food inflation remains a concern, and prolonged conflict in Ukraine and the ongoing inflation spiral could put in jeopardy the mitigating effects of anti-inflationary policy measures.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid-19
• 2007-08
• food prices
• riots

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• O11
• Q18

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Berdin et al. (2022), for instance, examine six food commodities using monthly data for the 1990–2017 period and report evidence pointing to an increased role played by Manipulators during the period most associated with financialization. Similarly, Etienne, Irwin, and Garcia (2018) report some impact of speculative trading on corn prices depending on the speculative measure used.