Russia’s war against Ukraine “not only generates thousands of deaths of innocent civilians and Ukrainian soldiers, but Moscow with this insane act is playing with the planet’s food security, worsening hunger and poverty,” Jorge Bedoya, president of the Colombian Farmers Society, told Diálogo on January 18.
The Kremlin continues to block most grain and cereal shipments from seven of the 13 ports used by Ukraine by hindering operations and delaying ship inspections, The New York Times reported on January 3.
By preventing Ukrainian grain exports, Russia causes wheat-based products, such as bread and pasta, to become increasingly expensive, British broadcaster BBC Mundo reported. Russia has also been attacking Ukraine’s energy grid and infrastructure to disrupt food flows.
“An enduring global food crisis has become one of the farthest-reaching consequences of Russia’s war, contributing to widespread starvation, poverty, and premature deaths,” The New York Times reported.
“We are now dealing with a massive food insecurity crisis,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said at a summit in Washington in December.
Paying the price
“That invasion generates food shortages and high prices in the Americas. In Colombia it caused a rise in fertilizers [vital for agriculture and animal protein production globally], which had not been seen in many years,” Bedoya said. “We do not see a de-escalation or a possibility of an agreement for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.”
“Those who are paying the price are the farmers, the producers, and obviously the consumers worldwide,” Bedoya added. “The invasion of Ukraine has also caused farmers around the world to stop buying or using raw materials and inputs. This scenario has generated more hunger and more poverty in the planet.”
More hunger
“You’re looking at price increases of everything from 60 percent in the U.S. to 1,900 percent in Sudan,” Sara Menker, chief executive of Gro Intelligence, a platform for climate and agriculture data, told The New York Times.
Rising prices globally, due to Russian hostility, increased the difficulty for some 130 million Latin Americans to have a healthy diet, the United Nations’ (U.N.) report Food and Nutrition Security Outlook 2022 indicated.
“Food insecurity will continue to increase due to the food and fuel price crisis caused by the conflict in Ukraine […],” Lola Castro, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the U.N. World Food Program, said during the presentation of the report. “The outlook is not encouraging.”
Organizing efforts
Faced with Russia’s intentional disruption of global food supplies, the U.S. and its allies are fighting to reduce the damage by organizing efforts to help Ukrainian farmers move food out of their country through rail and road networks, The New York Times reported. The U.S. government has also provided more than $11 billion to address the food crisis.
Although more than half of the U.N. World Food Program’s wheat supply comes from Ukraine, the European Union (EU) continues to support vulnerable populations, the European Commission indicated. In addition, the EU and U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia do not target the agricultural sector.
Colombia is coping with the impacts of the global food crisis due to the Russian invasion in several ways. One is by guaranteeing inputs with traditional suppliers — the United States and Eastern Europe — and with new suppliers, Bedoya said.
Another is to apply a 0 percent tariff on wheat imports until July 2024, Latin American food industry news site Goula indicated. “All countries must reject any kind of aggression that makes people gamble with other people’s food,” Bedoya said.
The world must first focus its efforts on how to end the invasion. “Then compensate the damages that Russia has brought upon Ukraine, and that this serves as a lesson to all countries about the importance of food security […], which can be used as a weapon of war,” Bedoya concluded.