Liberia: Food Security and National Security

It has been forty-five years since the rice riot of April 14, 1979. A proposed increase in the price of rice, the nation’s staple, led to a demonstration that escalated into a full-scale riot, dubbed the infamous 1979 rice riot. The nation was shut down, and a commission was set up to investigate and report to then-President William R. Tolbert, Jr.

Forty-five years later, the nation is still grappling with the rice crisis: regular shortages, price hikes, and an inability to scale local production….