Peanut Gallery: Egypt has a huge food shortage problem – it imports about half its food and is rapidly running out of money.

A state that can’t feed its people is a failed state, and that’s why the Egyptian state is at the brink of collapse, as Egypt’s defense minister warned last week.

The Islamists didn’t cause the problem… it’s been coming on for years (as David Goldman has documented). But now they own it because they’re in charge.  And it’s not going away any time in the forseeable future.

Goldman’s latest article brings us up to date. It’s a sad state of affairs for the 40+ million Egyptians living on less than $2 a day.
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“Eat Less, Egypt’s Government Tells Its People” by David P. Goldman

“Even Islamists have to eat,” I wrote under the headline “Food and Failed Arab States” in February 2011. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government takes a different view, the Washington Post reported yesterday. The trouble, the government says, is that Egyptians are eating too much. In a separate report, the government proposed to cut back its bread subsidy to three hand-sized loaves of pita bread per person per day, about 400 calories’ worth. A state that can’t feed its people is a failed state, and that’s why the Egyptian state is at the brink of collapse, as Egypt’s defense minister warned last week.

According to the Post report, the government is telling Egyptians (almost half of whom live on less than $2 a day) to eat less. You can’t make this sort of thing up. Egypt lost another $1.4 billion in foreign exchange reserves in January, and probably is flat broke after figuring in arrears to oil and food suppliers, and it imports half its food, so something had to give. In response, Egypt’s Islamist government is emulating North Korea’s approach to food shortages: Continue reading “Egypt Update: “Eat less.” – David Goldman Re-Blog” →