The food issue is worth spinning off into its own thread. I will start with two quotes from Dave_LF:
I cited a news story about bread riots in Egypt, where a large part of the population survives on subsidized bread. A few days ago, there was a similar story from Haiti:
Quote: The problem is a general one of demand/population growing faster than supply in a global system so tightly integrated and operating so close to the line that failure anywhere translates into failure everywhere.
"Modern agriculture is the process of converting petroleum into food". There's also the problem that rich(er) people will choose gas for their cars above food for poor(er) ones' tables. (both quotes are from posts on March 10)
Food riots in Haiti (April 9 article)
And today, this:
Quote: The Haitian capital remains largely paralyzed amid continuing protests and rioting over soaring food prices. . . . There were widespread demonstrations in Port-au-Prince on Monday. Then on Tuesday, protesters tried to break through the gates of the presidential palace before being chased away by United Nations peacekeepers firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
Gunfire is also reported throughout Petionville, the upscale community in the mountains above the capital where many diplomats and foreigners live. . . .
Five people have also been killed in food riots in the southern city of Les Cayes, where protesters tried to burn down the U.N. compound last week. . . .
Food prices, which have risen 40 per cent on average globally since mid-2007, are causing unrest around the world. But they pose a particular threat to democracy in Haiti, where most people live on less than $2 a day.
Rice prices 'to keep on rising'
The IRRI spokesman calls for “more research†into ways of increasing yields. I am not optimistic that this will solve the problem. Nor do I think that it is primarily a distribution problem. Rather, we may be approaching limits that have been pushed back repeatedly by “green revolutions†and dependence on fossil fuels, but which may nonetheless remain as genuine limits to the carrying capacity of the planet in terms of feeding people.
Quote: Rice prices are set to keep rising as demand for the staple is outstripping production, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has said. . . . The price of rice has risen by as much as 70% during the past year, with increases accelerating in recent weeks. . . .
"Longer term demand-supply imbalance is clearly indicated by depletion of stock that has been going on for several years," said Sushil Pandey, agricultural economist at the IRRI. . . .
Rice is the staple food for about three billion people worldwide.
Of particular interest is the work of some of the “neo-Malthusian†scholars, linking overpopulation to political violence and revolutions: for example, Ted Robert Gurr's work on political violence in the Palestinian territories and the Congo/Rwanda. [EDIT to add: I do not know Gurr's work directly, but only by references to it in secondary sources; I claim no expertise in these matters.]
In short, when there are a lot of hungry people, things get ugly.