World food prices hit a record high in January – the highest since the FAO began monitoring in 1990. Some experts are saying that the popular protests across the middle east are in part due to these rising food prices. A drought in China that has damaged the winter wheat crop, and flooding in Australia has caused food prices to spike are partly to blame.

Rising food prices were to blame for riots across the globe in 2008. With a rising global population that demands more meat and dairy, a loss of fertile topsoil, and increasing climate extremes due to climate change, expect to see food prices rise further, accompanied by more popular unrest.