Cairo Restaurant Meat Strike

If you think celebrity chefs have clout because they can endorse products or producers and get customers to try new foods or buy new pots and pans, then think again. There is plenty more chefs, cooks and restaurateurs can do to effect change.

Consider the recent Egyptian restaurant meat strike. When prices jumped 10% in four weeks, 1,300 restaurants in Cairo took meat off their menus for a one-day protest, according to the BBC. Many people have stopped eating meat altogether, while the poor are lucky if they get meat more than once a week, writes Christian Fraser from Cairo.

The price rise is a result of more expensive fodder and:

Imports, which make up 40% of Egypt’s meat market, have also jumped in price with shipments now costing hundreds of dollars more than last year.

Imagine what would happen in the US if restaurants held similar strikes or flexed their combined muscle for real change?

That would impress even Jamie Oliver.

Of course, the Egyptian national dish is foul medames, broad beans, that are far better (in Super Chef‘s opinion) then most American alternatives to meat.

(Photo courtesy of Thomas Ziegler)

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