8 Key terms ‘Food protest’ A food protest here refers to any public gathering of people expressing discontent to the government about rising prices or shortages of food items. Food protests take place when the prices of staples spike because of poor harvests, supply chain disruption or cuts in food subsidies by governments trying to balance the books. The media sometimes use the term‘food riot’, and the food protests that make it into the headlines tend to be the ones that are violent and disruptive. But protests about food are often peaceful, within the law, and recognised by wider society as legitimate. Rather than being lawless and chaotic, many‘food rioters’ seek to demonstrate what they see as fairer ways of managing food markets, by setting prices and preventing food exports from areas facing shortages(for a global and historical view, see Bohstedt 2016). ‘Energy protest’ Energy protests in this paper refer to public gatherings of people expressing discontent to government about rising prices or shortages of any kind of energy: fuel, gas(including cooking gas), petrol or electricity. Other kinds of protests about energy, such as those against fossil fuels or energy infrastructural development(which also occurred in large numbers in 2022), are not included here. While food protesters are usually protesting about the problems posed by higher prices or shortages for domestic consumption, energy protesters may be protesting because of the higher costs incurred in their work lives or for domestic consumption. Protests often occur after governments have cut subsidies or raised taxes (McCulloch et al. 2022). Shortages may mean energy is unavailable or is rationed, as is the case with electricity ‘loadshedding’. ‘Events’ and‘episodes’ The ACLED data used here treats an‘event’ as a public gathering that occurs in a single location on a single day. That is, if protests were to continue for a week, they would constitute seven events. If protests spread from one area to three distinct locales on a single day, they would count as three events. Here we use the term‘episode’ to denote a series of events that are linked and sequential in time, and which spread across locations. Episodes of food or energy tend to occur when people are dissatisfied with the response to their initial protests; if the security forces repress or harm protesters; if the discontent spreads across locations as people learn about protests in other areas; or if the object of the protest escalates from food or energy prices or availability to encompass other issues, including corruption, political leadership, and accountability. Methodology Research questions and approach The research aims to update recent analysis of global protests(Ortiz et al. 2022). As world food and energy prices increased after the pandemic and were also under pressure as a result of anticipated shortages as a result of