An Arab Spring Economics Recipe: Add high food prices to trade barriers, get revolutions

Tyler Cowen, American economist, academic, and writer

You state that food is a result of capitalist supply and demand. It seems logical and simple, but people don't think about food in those terms. How did you come up with that?
I grew up as a kid reading classical economic works by Adam Smith, David Ricardo and James Mill. Those are the origins of economics, as we all know. For obvious reasons, they're obsessed with food. That's almost all they write about because that's what the economy was about back then. If you have a background in classical economics, the notion that economics is about food comes very naturally. Maybe the world has forgotten that somewhat.

In the Middle East, eating a more Westernised diet is a sign of worldliness but it may not be as healthy as eating traditional meals. How did the idea of local eating transform into a lower-status symbol?
There's a class division in a lot of those societies. You either do things that are Western to show you have money, but it's not necessarily healthy. I think if they became a little more obsessed with, say Indian or Chinese food, they'll do better. There are issues with diabetes and obesity in many of these wealthier Gulf nations. They also tend not to be physically active because that also has a stigma. So it's one thing to eat if you're physically active, you can get away with doing so much more.

Also, they have servants, and they import labour. A lot of people are just not working; they don't have to work. That's a lethal combination. And the idea of, "Oh, I'm going to go to the gym," like they say in America, it's not the same there. It's too much like work.

You point out that there is no shortage of food in the world. But there is a shortage of money for poor people to buy the food. It seems almost ironic. What are the factors that affect this polar phenomenon?
If you look at wheat and rice, there have been price spikes over the last five years and they've made food a lot harder for poor people to afford. The so-called "Green Revolution" has somewhat slowed down. This is an unreported story. Crop yields are stagnant. It isn't a problem we can solve overnight but it's really one of the biggest problems in the world. It hardly gets any publicity. But for poor people in India, the Middle East and parts of Africa, it really matters.

Some of the problems are we don't have enough trade. It could be either legal barriers or just costly to transport or trade things. If there could be a shortage of rice in one place, it actually not that easy to ship a lot of rice in there because of bad roads and so on.

So if countries worked on improving the transportation infrastructure, would that lower food prices in some parts of the world?
Exactly, that would do a lot to feed people. Again, it sounds much more mundane but it's more important than what people in the food world usually talk about.

So when companies like Wal-Mart bring their logistics ability to Africa, it actually could be a good thing for the poor people of Africa?
It's exactly what we need more of. Yes. 

Yet there's a fear Wal-Mart will put the smaller stores out of business.
Yes, they do so sometimes, but they do so by charging lower prices. It makes it more accessible and more reliable. It's not just the pricing at any one point and time. It's what happens in the very worst periods. Companies like Wal-Mart are very, very good at keeping up supply and being regular.

Are there other things that people can do to feed the poor people in the Middle East, especially in the Arab nations that have undergone revolutions?
Adidas Yeezy shoes