Finally, as our tale draws closer to its conclusion, we find that the residents of the kingdom of Fairyland at Foggy Bottom have now become so fat and lazy that no one wants to work any more, even if there was a way to plant and harvest a crop.

FORBES: Barry's Fairyland at Foggy Bottom

The postcolonial history of Africa has shown that liberation parties harvest a potent crop of "struggle" legitimacy that generally neutralizes opposition for a generation or so.

WSJ: The Real Legacy of Nelson Mandela

We all need to eat after all and it takes quite some time, many months at least, to plant and harvest a new food crop.

FORBES: Commodity Speculation Kills People: So Says the World Development Movement

This meant she was unable to use the fertilizer, which led to a poor harvest of her maize crop, which meant less food for her children.

BBC: Women are central to feeding Africa

The recent surge in sugar prices comes after a bad harvest, that of corn after official warnings of a lower-than-expected crop.

ECONOMIST: The charge-sheet against commodity speculators is flimsy

Now they can harvest in February instead, leaving enough time for a full second crop before the September planting.

ECONOMIST: Brazilian agriculture

Like the pork and beef industries, in the early spring of 2012, the chicken industry believed this summer would yield a bumper corn harvest, and so it upped production levels to utilize this large crop.

FORBES: Chicken

The company's managing director in Spain and Italy, Jose Maria Collantes, estimates that the Spanish olive harvest will be around 50% of what it was last year - and last year was a bumper crop.

BBC: Spain's bumper olive years come to bitter end

The sugar harvest in 1998, beset by a series of weather disasters, was 3.2m tonnes: the smallest crop in 50 years.

ECONOMIST: What follows Fidel?