15 Times in History That Foods Started a War

In the '30s, an overabundant emu population decimated crop yields in Western Australia. Farmers in the region were World War One veterans, granted land by the government in exchange for their service. Facing a potential PR disaster, the Australian government declared war on the flightless birds.

An army was convened near Perth, and marched out to meet the emus on the battlefield. As it turns out, giant, conniving birds don't stand around waiting to be shot. The emus scattered in the face of the guns, creating chaos and vanishing into the brush. In one instance, machine gunners killed only 10 to 12 birds from a flock of 1,000. The Australian press loved the pandemonium. Here's a choice quote:

"The emus have proved that they are not so stupid as they are usually considered to be. Each mob has its leader, always an enormous black-plumed bird standing fully six-feet high, who keeps watch while his fellows busy themselves with the wheat. At the first suspicious sign, he gives the signal, and dozens of heads stretch up out of the crop. A few birds will take fright, starting a headlong stampede for the scrub, the leader always remaining until his followers have reached safety."

In truth, the Pig War was fought over a pig and some potatoes. In the 1850s, an uneasy truce existed between American and British inhabitants of a group of islands caught between the coasts of Canada and Washington. The confused border between Canada and the US made it difficult to determine exactly who belonged where. 

Tensions boiled over in June, 1859, when British pig wandered onto an American farm and ate some potatoes. In a fit of rage, the farmer shot the pig. The pig owner had the farmer arrested. An American commander who hated Brits got wind of this and sent an infantry company to the island. The British responded by sending war ships. No one died and the military tension was soon diffused, but an arrangement on the division of territory was not reached until 1872.

The best bit of the whole war is the following exchange, between Cutlar, the American farmer, and Griffin, the British pig owner. 

Leave it to the French to take their pastry too seriously. Following Mexico's independence from Spain, the country was in a chaotic state. Widespread looting and rioting damaged many businesses, including that of French pastry chef Remontel, in 1838.

Remontel asked the Mexican government for compensation, and was basically laughed out the door. So he brought his case to the French government. France used Remontel as a stepping stone to demanding 600,000 pesos Mexico, which included 60,000 for the pastry shop, which was worth about 1,000 pesos. The Mexican government paid not one centavo. France blockaded Mexican ports with war ships and raided the city of Veracruz. Mexico declared war on France and conscripted an army. 

When your people are hungry because they don't have food, what's a ruler to do? If you're a Roman ruler, you go take food. In particular, you take it from someone who has a lot of it, namely, Egypt.

If you're going to arm a militia, you should probably give them ammunition they can use. Such was the problem that caused The Indian Rebellion of 1857, also known as the Indian Mutiny and the Sepoy Mutiny. There were several causes to the uprising, including the distribution of rifle cartridges that had to be bitten open to Muslim and Hindu soldiers under the employ of the British Empire.