ABSTRACT

During the time period covered by the Food Riots and Food Rights project, 2007–2012, the world registered a dramatic eruption of protests on many issues, including food. This chapter examines how the historical eruption of protests throughout the period can be understood as a response to the stormy political economy of the time. The historic commodities boom that began in 2000 fueled economic growth in developing countries up until the 2007–2008 economic crisis, which reverberated from the core of global economy in 2007–2008 to the periphery in 2008–2009 and, for a few years, effectively stopped the commodities boom in its tracks. When the simmering financial crisis finally erupted in autumn of 2008, G20 countries agreed on economic stimulus to boost aggregate demand to salvage Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. The effect was primarily positive, but limited, since rehabilitated banks that sat on large cash reserves could still not be enticed to lend, and economic growth rebounded slowly when at all.