The price of rice

'Call Uncle Ben, we're running out of rice!'
Oh that it were so simple.
The Financial Times is reporting that the price of rice jumped by 30% to an all-time high at the end of this week.
The reason? Global price stocks are at their lowest since 1976 - when the world's population was considerably smaller. On Thursday, Egypt, a leading exporter, imposed a ban on selling rice abroad in a bid to contain soaring local prices.
Rice is the staple diet for 2.5 billion people, mostly in Asia. As noted yesterday, even people not inclined to social protest will take to the streets if they've nothing to eat. You could get thrown in jail, but at least you might get a square meal there from time to time.
It's not beyond the realms of possibility that food security could replace the scramble for oil as the source of underlying tensions between nations in the coming decades.
It could bring new meaning to the term 'food fight'. (Sorry)