{"id":1083,"date":"2011-10-12T13:18:05","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T10:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/?p=1083"},"modified":"2026-03-11T15:04:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T12:04:22","slug":"princeton-university-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/princeton-university-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Running out of food in the Middle East? Food Security and the Challenges of the Arab Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Princeton University Speech<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em>Date: 27 September 2011<br \/>\nTime: 4:30 PM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-1083 gallery-columns-1 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton005-100x100.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton005-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton005-400x400.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton001-100x100.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton001-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton001-400x400.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton002-100x100.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton002-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton002-400x400.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton003-100x100.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton003-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton003-400x400.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton004-100x100.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton004-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-content\/uploads\/princeton004-400x400.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Opening remarks: <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">First of all I wish to express my gratitude for being invited to give this talk to you today, which is entitled \u201cRunning out of food in the Middle East? Food Security and the Challenges of the Arab Spring\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Thank you professor Eckart Woertz for organizing the talk and also, professor Bernard Haykel, Director of the Transregional Institute at the Department of Near Eastern Studies for his support.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">It is an honor for me to be here with all of you this afternoon. I have graduated as an agriculture engineer and have since in tandem with my role as Chairman of Golden Grass, Inc., strongly pursued the issue of the role of agriculture to enhance security, alleviate poverty and promote economic growth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Before I give the PowerPoint presentation which I have prepared, I would like to preface it with these observations:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Food shortages in the Asia-Pacific Region have contributed to soaring food prices.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"> Saudi Arabia has raised questions about the long-term prospects for food security.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"> The Arab world imports 50 to 90 percent of the food calories they consume. They are the largest net importers of cereal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Arab countries are more exposed than other countries to food prices\u2019 volatility. Their vulnerability will worsen in coming years due to ballooning population growth, low agricultural producti<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">vity, and the dependence on a global commodities market. (The World Bank, 2009)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"> Discussion of \u201csecurity\u201d, globally and locally, has dominated the news.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Security has been linked to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, regime change, failed states, religion, the world petroleum industries, and a host of other domestic and international issues. Astonishingly, \u201cfood security\u201d has been only infrequently mentioned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Poverty and unemployment are the main motivating factors for mass demonstrations, overthrown governments or descent into civil war, e.g., Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, Syria and Bahrain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Before the protests that ended his 30-year-rule, the fiercest unrest to challenge Egypt\u2019s Hosni Mubarak was caused by lack of bread, and was not a direct response to his regime\u2019s policies.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"> In Tunisia, in 2010, Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old fruit vendor protested against police abuses by setting himself on fire. His death, and the subsequent uprising which followed, can also be blamed on lack of food and employment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The importance of food security must be remembered. Unrest in Egypt and Tunisia stretching through Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain is a good reminder.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Access to food is still perceived by many as a privilege, rather than a basic human right, and thousands of people around the world die each day from hunger.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Way as to remove the fear that there will not be enough to eat. In particular, food security A country and its people are food secure when the food system operates in such a will be achieved when the poor and vulnerable, particularly women and children and those living in marginal areas, have secure access to more food than they want (Maxwell 1988).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The presentation you will now see details and addresses these challenges, and gives some possible solutions. I hope you will enjoy it \u2013 and I will be taking questions at the end.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Princeton University Speech Date: 27 September 2011 Time: 4:30 PM Opening remarks: First of all I wish to express my gratitude for being invited to give this talk to you today, which is entitled \u201cRunning out of food in the Middle East? Food Security and the Challenges of the Arab Spring\u201d. Thank you professor Eckart [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7883,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions\/7883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tfrasheed.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}