Is Famine Coming?
Putin’s barbarism has made an already bad situation worldwide so much worse worldwide.
by John Jiang
June 12, 2022, 11:22 PM
The past two years as recorded by the news media have felt like something out of the book of Revelation. First came the pale rider in early 2020, mounted on jetliners and sleeper trains, as coronavirus became a pandemic. His fellow horsemen, red and white, arrived this February when Russian tanks scythed across the length and width of Ukraine.
Time dubbed Putin’s invasion “The Return of History.” And indeed for many in Europe, the moment was a sudden end to the Long Peace that had endured since 1945. The tribulations of yesteryear seemed to be returning.
There is now yet another disaster brewing on the horizon. It is slow-moving and may be weatherable if preparations are made. But action must be taken, and quickly, if the worst is to be averted — for of the Biblical tetrarchy, none have killed as many innocents or toppled as many monarchs as the black horseman, famine.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, in addition to precipitating the greatest humanitarian disaster in Europe since the 1990s, has also destroyed a huge portion of the world’s agricultural exports in one fell swoop.
As for Russia, Western policymakers could weigh sanctions relief in return for a resumption of food exports, but ultimately anyone outside of the Kremlin has a very limited say on whether anything leaves Ukraine.
Ukraine has long been nicknamed the “breadbasket of Europe.” Together with Russia, it supplies the global food market with a third of its wheat exports, a fifth of its corn, and a whopping 80 percent of its sunflower oil. Ukraine dedicates 57 percent of its land to crops, compared to 17 percent for the U.S.
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https://spectator.org/is-famine-coming/
