THE threat of a food crisis continues to haunt Indonesia and the world at large. The Food and Agriculture Organization recently issued a fluctuating price index for 2011—which rocketed beyond 2008 prices. Elisha Kartini Samon, 28, a researcher with the Strategic Studies Department of the Indonesian National Farmers Union (SPI), noted that the beginning of the year alone, the price of rice had risen by 30 percent.

This graduate of La Sapienza U