MER Article

Extractive Agribusinesses—Guaranteeing Food Security in the Gulf

The 2022 Food and Agriculture Organization report on food security and nutrition in the Arab region makes for bleak reading. Between 2014 and 2021, the total number of Arabs suffering from moderate to severe food insecurity increased from 120 million to 154 million.[1] This insecurity, however, was not distributed

Christian Henderson • 9 min read

Current Analysis

The Ukraine War, Grain Trade and Bread in Egypt

One year on from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, what does the ongoing war mean for Egypt's bread subsidy?

Jessica Barnes • 11 min read

Current Analysis

Benefiting from the Misery of Others

Asher Orkaby examines the politics and unforeseen consequences of international aid in response to war and suffering in Yemen. He finds that much of the humanitarian aid actually exacerbates the war by fostering a lucrative wartime economy, disincentivizing peaceful resolutions and prolonging nation

Asher Orkaby • 14 min read

Current Analysis

The Savor of Memory

Laleh Khalili draws on memories from childhood, her experience of leaving Iran and her ongoing interest in cooking to review a series of classic and contemporary Iranian cookbooks. Through them she reflects on the politics of identity in the Iranian diaspora and the global circuits of foodways refle

Laleh Khalili • 17 min read

Current Analysis

On the Breadline in Sisi's Egypt

On March 6, 2017, hundreds of local residents took to the streets of towns and cities in Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta after the Ministry of Supply cut their daily ration of subsidized baladi bread. By the following day, thousands were protesting in 17 districts across the country. In

Neil Ketchley, Thoraya El-Rayyes • 10 min read

Current Analysis

The Humble Tomato

In early February 2011, shortly after the beginning of the January 25 revolution that toppled Husni Mubarak, I made a phone call to a friend in an informal area of Cairo. I wanted to check on her wellbeing, and was interested to hear her perspective on reports that some of

Tessa Farmer • 3 min read

MER Article

Starvation, Submission and Survival

On December 23, 2012, following a week of imposed scarcity, the Syrian town of Halfaya received 100 sacks of flour from an Islamic charity. The town’s main bakery started churning out bread, an all too infrequent occurrence since violence between the Asad regime and opposition forces escalated earli

Brent Eng, Jose Ciro Martinez • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Syria's Drought and the Rise of a War Economy

The grinding war in Syria brings new horrors with every passing week. The death toll and the number of displaced people continue to soar, as more areas of the country are reduced to rubble. This month, two additional issues with dire long-term consequences have been gaining attention: the possible d

Omar S. Dahi • 2 min read

MER Article

Primer: The Food Gap in the Middle East

As the Middle East enters the 1990s, the food situation cannot be easily captured in catch phrases like “dire emergency." Outside of the Horn of Africa, no country confronts wide-scale starvation, though poor people throughout the region face personal food emergencies daily. Agricultural production

Martha Wenger, Joe Stork • 9 min read

MER Article

The Famine This Time

Gayle Smith coordinates the Africa program at the Washington-based Development Group for Alternative Policies. In the past ten years she has worked extensively in the Horn of Africa on relief and development issues. Her most recent trip to Ethiopia and Sudan was in June 1990. She spoke with Joe Stor

Gayle Smith • 7 min read

MER Article

Absolute Distress

Most discussion of the food crisis in Africa is a model in which subsistence economies remain essentially intact and food insecurity is a transitory phenomenon, the result of external factors such as drought or war which temporarily upset the normal balance between sufficiency and dearth. My experie

Mark Duffield • 21 min read

MER Article

Food Aid Diversion

For at least six years, top officials of the Somali government diverted US food aid from the most needy to enrich their friends and to feed the army fighting a long-running border war with Ethiopia. Throughout that period, the US Agency for International Development (AID) tolerated these food divers

Steve Askin • 6 min read