A year ago I ran an entry concern-ing rising food prices and global instability. At the time, there were various groups working on this. The New England Complex Systems Institute was one at the forefront and their paper on the issue, from the year before, laid out the numbers in this potential crisis.
The paper charted the rise in the FAO food price index (which the UN uses to map the cost of food over time) and found that whenever it rose above 210, riots broke out worldwide. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 203.4 points in January 2014. If broken down, both dairy and sugar are already above 210 points, with meat, cereals and vegetable oils in the 180s.
Food prices are set to spike again this year. With so much current unrest in so many places it might be a good time to review the work of the NECSI.
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