Complex systems theorists say that a combination of deregulated markets, commodity speculation, and food-to-fuel ethanol policies are the direct cause of the spike in food prices that led to the Arab Spring and the civil war in Syria.
A new paper, published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, concludes that the “two sharp peaks in 2007/2008 and 2010/2011 are specifically due to investor speculation, whereas an underlying upward trend is due to increasing demand from ethanol conversion.” In the new research, NECSI says it has, for the first time, “quantitatively determined that speculation caused these sharp rises in …read more
Source: Iranian.com
