Who Will Feed Egypt?

[FarCenter]

Today, the world asks "Who will rule Egypt?" Tomorrow, the world will ask, "Who will feed Egypt?" For regardless of which leader or faction emerges triumphant in the Egyptian power struggle, the new leadership will have to feed a population that is heavily dependent upon food subsidies and imported grain for its survival. And that will be a daunting task.

There was a time when Egypt was the breadbasket of the civilized world. The Roman Empire was long sustained by Egyptian wheat. Today, Egypt imports about half of its wheat, corn and other staples, and spends about $15 billion a year in food subsidies.

Few nations are as dependent on food imports as Egypt. It is, in fact, the world's largest importer of wheat. It's no coincidence that the current turmoil coincided with a surge in wheat commodity prices. Food inflation was far from the only reason people took to the streets, but it was a contributing factor. Food prices in Egypt have risen 17 percent in the past year, and in a country where 40 percent of the population lives near or below the poverty line, that's no small matter.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-walker/who-will-feed-egypt_b_816495.html

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Article from 01/31/11. But it makes the point that regardless of the political situation Egypt is truely screwed.

They have a population of 82 million, just larger than Germany, but they can raise only half of their food. Nor do they have oil or other natural resources to sell or industrial goods and services to sell in order to raise the foreign exchange needed to continually import this amount of food.

The Suez Canal is no longer so strategic, since the new container ships and oil tankers are bigger than SuezMax, and they go around South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal.

[izquierdista]

1. They need to replant their deserts

Mangroves along the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; drought tolerant desert legumes in the inland areas. The southwest deserts of the U.S. support much more life than the Egyptian desert, so it's not all a matter of rainfall. One of the problems there could have been a bumper crop of Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii) that choked out all the other desert plants. It's now a serious invasive weed in CA, AZ and NV and could turn those deserts into an Egyptian wasteland. Man is going to have to do a little investment if he wants to reclaim unproductive lands.