Language becomes a tool of fools when it simplifies complex systems and developments into slogans such as democracy and revolution. One blatant case of language confusion that today dogs many discussions of food security in a worldwide context, is the depiction of hunger as a sudden global crisis that needs to be tackled with grand politics and tools of international diplomacy. The alarmist use of terms like the “global wheat crisis” and “international food crisis” runs afoul of the contradictory evidence of previous complacency over food wastage, and threats of food insecurity around the world. Moreover, the sensationalist and political grandstanding seen in the past few months contains the danger of chasing quick fixes for politically useful food insecurity. Fixes that remove artificial barriers to exports by warring parties and throw money at balance of trade disruptions can address the moment, but will in all likelihood fade in the next
