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Food security policy has little room to manoeuvre in Egypt, where the per-person endowment of cropland is one of the smallest in the world. Virtually all 82 million Egyptians, along with almost all agricultural lands, are squeezed into just five per cent of the nation's total land area: A strip running eight to 15 kilometres wide along the Nile River and fanning out through the Delta. It's as if the entire population of the United States and all of our agriculture were clustered within 60 kilometres of the Mississippi.

There have long been laws against building on agricultural land in Egypt, but enforcement has always been lax. During the past year, with the government otherwise occupied, there was virtually no enforcement at all. Powerful economic interests have jumped into that vacuum, and land-grabbing and construction on cropland have accelerated. Economically stressed farmers have a hard time resisting offers of big money from aggressive developers.

it will not be easy to restructure a system that for decades fit comfortably into a thoroughly corrupt economy. For one thing, it will be necessary to deal with resistance from the food industries, interest groups, tycoons, and politicians who benefit from the current way of doing things.

"I'm not afraid. Millions of Egyptians are not afraid. I have a good job. I'm here for other people, the ones who aren't as lucky as me. If they kill me, I asked my brother to take my place,"

Nevine Immam, a mother of three, is one of the people gathering rocks. "All the past demonstrations had been peaceful. We had no weapons. Then they started with guns, horses, and camels. The last thing we had to defend ourselves with were stones," she says. Nevine is eager to throw some herself, but she thinks there won't be room for her to aim. "I will pass the rocks on, but if I find space to throw a rock, I will," she vows and smiles.

"It's like a utopia here. We're really organized. We have a self-sustaining city. At 6 a.m. there is a fuul cart, [fuul is a popular Egyptian dish], a kiosk selling cigarettes, people are passing out food and water, [there's] a night watch,"

Some also say that police are back to forcefully collecting bribes. For example, a Cairo-based food shop owner, who prefers to remain anonymous, describes their situation. “Before the revolution the police working at the station and undercover agents used to take bribes in the form of free breakfasts. When I refused they used to detain my employees on their way home, claiming it was for investigation purposes, as allowed under the emergency law. The detention can go on for up to several days. Right after the revolution they stopped asking for such bribes - but now such demands are back.”

One of the main demands of the revolution was to lift the state of emergency, but such a demand, four months after the start of the revolution, has yet to be granted by the current interim government.

they do not seem to be taking serious steps to change the policy orientation. For example; no one is working on cases of torture and police violations before 25 January, the violations which took place during the 18-day uprising are the only ones discussed, while the previous 30 years are ignored. Violations are also still ongoing