Along with the Aswan Dam and new industry, President Nasser's ten-year development plan has given Egyptians a bigger appetite. Since the plan was started in 1960, it has added 1,000,000 workers to the country's payrolls, increased both total national income and production by about 30%. It has thus given millions of Egyptians the wherewithal to improve their meager diets, and that fact has created a problem that the planners did not anticipate: an acute food shortage.
Egyptians can now afford to eat more than their farmers can produce. Demand for food has been twice as great as expected, and consumption...