Do Dietary Changes Increase the Propensity of Food Riots? An Exploratory Study of Changing Consumption Patterns and the Inclination to Engage in Food-Related Protests

Alexander Legwegoh,Philip Antwi-Agyei,Evan Fraser,Krishna Kc

doi:10.3390/su71014112

Alexander Legwegoh, Philip Antwi-Agyei + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su71014112

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Abstract

Following widespread food riots in 2008, many people argued that high food prices cause political instability and civil unrest in the form of food riots. However, subsequent research has demonstrated that political, cultural, and economic factors confound the impact of price in determining whether a food riot occurs. This paper contributes to this growing body of literature by exploring: (1) the relationship between household demographic characteristics and reported intent to riot due to future food price rises; and (2) the relationships between people’s diets and their reported intent to riot due to future food price rises. We hypothesize that local context, including demographic factors and dietary patterns, combine to predispose some groups of people to riot when food prices rise. This hypothesis is tested using household surveys (N = 300) and three focus groups discussions (N = 65) carried out in three cities in the Central African nation of Cameroon that experienced widespread food riots in 2008. Results show that some 70% of the respondents would riot if food prices went up. Also, in the event of food price rises: (1) households in Cameroon’s major cities are more likely to riot than the citizens of smaller cities; (2) Households with relatively higher educational level, high incomes, are less likely to riot. Finally, the relationship between dietary patterns and propensity to riot is not straightforward as changes in consumption of different food groups influence propensity to riot in different ways. Overall, this paper demonstrates that preemptive strategies designed to avoid future food riots in Cameroon must take into consideration these spatial, demographic, and dietary factors.

Highlights

Many authors argue that high, food prices cause food riots, and point to the food price inflation and wide spread food riots of 2008 as evidence for this relationship [1,2,3,4]
This paper presents the results from survey and focus group data collected in three Cameroonian cities where we asked respondents questions that explored: (1) the relationship between household demographic characteristics and reported intent to riot due to future food price rises; (2) the relationships between diets/dietary changes and reported intent to riot due to future food price rises
The slight difference between Bamenda and Buea may be explained by the fact that Bamenda has, since the advent of multiparty politics in Cameroon in the early 1990s, been the seat of the main opposition party in Cameroon, the Social Democratic Front (SDF)

Summary

Introduction

Many authors argue that high, food prices cause food riots, and point to the food price inflation and wide spread food riots of 2008 as evidence for this relationship [1,2,3,4]. Careful analyses of the events in 2008 suggest that perceptions of unfair politics and corrupt economics may have been more important than hunger or desperation in creating the momentum that led to the food riots [4]. Such arguments have led a number of scholars to argue that assuming a causal relationship between rising food prices and civil unrest is simplistic and that more detailed research is needed to unpack the ways in which food price rises trigger riots [1,5,6,7]

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