The first question is, is the agricultural system shifting to a new equilibrium ? Their analysis of food price goes back much longer than a few decades ; rather, back from around the beginning of the 19th century. Prices spikes have happened regularly since that time, last in the 70's. Is the current crisis similar or more long term ?

The proponents of the Washington consensus are already using the crisis to ask for more liberalisation - yet the countries suffering right now are those that liberalized too much, whereas those that built a buffer between the global market and the consumer have no problems.

Economic regulations would not, in the proposed system, eliminate shipments between regional areas ; they'd be replaced by food aid (with stamps and all that). Restarting liberalization now would spell disaster once prices go back down.

The food riots are as much a wider economic problem - wage kept down to give good margins to the entrepreneurs, compensated by subsidies on food. Food prices rising can be solved by more food liberalization - how much of it is possible ? - or by raising wages...

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères