We hear a lot about food shortage but it should be borne in mind that there is not an actual shortage of food in the world. There is a distribution problem.
The news is full of how Ukraine's food supply is not being exported and that this is causing world hunger. Really? Ukraine is still exporting minerals, manufactured goods and has freedom of movement across a large border. Weapons and supplies are going into the country. Why do we believe that food is not being exported from Ukraine?
Russia's food exports of around
14,290 million USD per year are being stifled by sanctions voluntarily placed upon them by the countries now demanding food, oil and gas from them. Obviously, Russia wants to export all it can: countries have to balance their trade and sell to the rest of the world. Very little of their food went to Africa.
Ukraine's food exports of around
1,304 million USD per year, like Russia's far greater amount, also mostly goes to Europe and Asia, with only a little going to Africa.
If Africa is running low on food, it is because food they would have been buying is instead being bought up by countries who are refusing to buy from Russia. Most of these countries are likely to be European but I have not looked into that.
The countries who helped push Russia into a corner, by laughing at them when Russia wanted to join NATO and the EU, are now the ones also applying sanctions to Russia while demanding food, oil and gas from them. Obviously, Russia wants to export all it can: countries have to balance their trade and sell to the rest of the world. But they have to trade on a reasonable basis. Trading in a currency that they are then being denied to use, is not trade, it would be giving it away.
Meanwhile, the behaviour at the United Nations is as bad as—if not worse than—that in the League of Nations in the 1930s (often blamed for the reason WW2 got underway). Such an organisation should be the place to discuss, negotiate and try to understand one another. Instead, the global warmongers and haters are making the situation worse. Any school teacher knows that you don't diffuse a situation by slinging insults and petulantly refusing to talk; yet many in the UN are doing just that, heaping extra problems upon Russia on top of the forced isolation of keeping them out of security and trade groups. The food distribution problems, which could be sorted out by the UN, are being made worse.
Edited by
Douglas
on Sun 05/22/22 04:23 AM