Tenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

In examining the tangled question of the state’s responsibility to ensure food supply for the citizens, Egyptian upper and middle class attitudes changed along the interwar years from a static to a more active approach. Rather than seeing the state as an unwanted actor in the economic system, these writers, journalists, and state-clerks began demanding further intervention in food production, supply, and distribution. The paper points at three main causes for this change. Economically, the local crisis caused by the global depression revealed the necessity for governmental initiative in economic markets. Socially, the growing numbers of poor peasants (fellahin) posed a logistical problem of food supply, while at the same time their incorporation into the national discourse created new horizons for solving the nation’s food problems. Finally, and in accordance with global trends, the cultural place of “food” changed from a personal need to a national right. Revealing changes in Egyptian perceptions regarding food security is meaningful not only for the internal debate regarding the origins of the Egyptian welfare state but also for the global discussion about the interwar years and the place of the great depression and the liberal order in shaping today’s economic and social structures.