Many people in the Middle East and North Africa are finding themselves in the unenviable predicament of having to choose between feeding an ever expanding population and preserving an ever dwindling water supply. The population of the region as quadrupled since 1950, and is expected to reach 600 million in the next 40 years. Previously, it has been far more practical to import food rather than produce it given the high cost of food production in the dry, desert climate. But now with 90% mark-ups of some food staples, many countries are rethinking their strategy.
The countries of the region are caught between the hammer of rising food prices and the anvil of steadily declining water availability per capita, Alan R. Richards, a professor of economics and environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said via e-mail. There is no simple solution.
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Egyptian Blogger Karim el-Beheiri was freed from an Egyptian jail Sunday after weeks of imprisonment. El-Beheiri was locked for protesting price hikes and salary cuts at a factory in the industrial city of 