All bakers are terrorists at least, that is the prevailing orthodoxy in Sri Lanka, where the government has effectively waged war on bread. Exorbitant tax rises on wheat have followed an order not to serve bread at state hospitals, prisons and schools, as bureaucrats insist that eating rice is healthier than consuming bread and wheat-based goods.

"The government has intensified a campaign against bread," association president N K Jayawardena is quoted as saying in local reports. "One minister has equated eating bread to ’terrorism’. This is absurd."

Is it a coincidence that this public health guidance comes at a time when global wheat prices are high, while there is a surplus of home-grown Sri Lankan rice? It’s not for Stop the Week to speculate.