Use your loaf: food prices and the Arab uprising- my article in the Observer Food Monthly

"People in Arab countries have always relied on bread as a low-cost source of sustenance. In Yemen alone there are more than 20 different kinds of bread, each made and baked differently. In Egypt, bread is known as aish, meaning "life". It is the inseparable companion of all dishes, even some desserts. The Fertile Crescent, stretching from the Egyptian Nile to the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates, is where agriculture began, where wheat, lentils, chickpeas, sheep and goats and olives were first cultivated. Today, that same region is the largest importer of food in the world."


http://m.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/17/bread-food-arab-spring?cat=lifeandstyle&type=article