Oddly enough, Obama can’t be blamed. Wonder how that happened?

What’s the number one reason we riot? The plausible, justifiable motivations of trampled-upon humanfolk to fight back are many—poverty, oppression, disenfranchisement, etc—but the big one is more primal than any of the above. It’s hunger, plain and simple. If there’s a single factor that reliably sparks social unrest, it’s food becoming too scarce or too expensive. So argues a group of complex systems theorists in Cambridge, and it makes sense.

In a 2011 paper, researchers at the Complex Systems Institute unveiled a model that accurately explained why the waves of unrest that swept the world in 2008 and 2011 crashed when they did. The number one determinant was soaring food prices. Their model identified a precise threshold for global food prices that, if breached, would lead to worldwide unrest.
[…]
CSI expects a perilous trend in rising food prices to continue. Even before the extreme weather scrambled food prices this year, their 2011 report predicted that the next great breach would occur in August 2013, and that the risk of more worldwide rioting would follow. So, if trends hold, these complex systems theorists say we’re less than one year and counting from a fireball of global unrest.



  1. GregAllen says:

    In my time overseas I never saw food riots but I did see water riots.

    So, I always assumed people would riot over water before they riot over food.

    As Americans we don’t even think about water but when when it can’t be found, you quickly think about nothing else.

  2. Dallas says:

    We need a fat tax to prevent these shortages and as a huge plus, reduce our medicare/medicaid costs.

    For every 20 pounds of grease that God did not intend the sheeple to carry around, add 10% surcharge to sugar water beverages and triple bacon burgers.

  3. dcphill says:

    “Feed me Seymour”

  4. orchidcup says:

    The liberals are to blame for everything bad.

    The conservatives are to blame for everything good.

    I have it on good authority.

    Rush Limberger.

  5. spsffan says:

    There’s plenty of food. And water. Just about 50% too many people.

    It’s as though we didn’t know what caused them!

  6. The0ne says:

    Didn’t we wish the meteor had hit earth? Was close but no one even paid attention 😀

  7. Rabble Rouser says:

    Forget the food riots, there will be water riots before that.

  8. deowll says:

    You can burn food or make plastic out of it but you can’t eat it once you do. We are using food as fuel and as a source to make plastic to be “green” and causing civil unrest among the hungry.

  9. bigdanlovin says:

    I’m surprised no one has mentioned it yet, but this might be the reasoning behind the big push to get the majority of Americans on Food Stamps (SNAP). Since Obama took office, the number of citizens on SNAP has nearly doubled. Feel free to check the figures & let me know if you think I’m full of $**t.

    • orchidcup says:

      Um, millions of unemployed people tend to qualify for food stamps.

      Try going without a job for 3 years and see if you get hungry.

    • msbpodcast says:

      I won’t debate the figures, but I would argue as to the cause of the doubling.

      Its got nothing to do with which millionaire is in office when, and everything to do with the fact that we only seem to elect millionaires. (Well, uh, duh, only millionaires run for office… [If they’re not millionaires they can’t afford the time or the money to run for office.])

      I wouldn’t expect any of them to know what to do when they’re hungry and can’t just call a restaurant for take out.

      But we’re idiots and keep on with a broken system even though we know trying it again with another bunch of millionaires isn’t going to make the situation any better.

  10. noname says:

    Mmmm… Forbidden Donuts

  11. The Monster's Lawyer says:

    I’m so hungry I could burn a police car. Who’s with me?

    • msbpodcast says:

      Only if I can bring the pop corn; and the burning enforcers are going to be the meal afterwards. (Hey, food’s food.)

      Leg of New York’s finest has got to be good. Its even so fat its self basting.

    • Dallas says:

      Put me down for wednesdays


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