The Inconvenient Truth That Could Prevent Global Famine
Hunger caused by the Ukraine war is one more uncomfortable symptom of the world’s refusal to adopt more sustainable agriculture policies and plant-based diets.
Grain in Lebanon now, but very likely not later.
Photographer: Hasan Shaaban/Bloomberg
Global agricultural policies have averted hunger, but have also enhanced illness, environmental degradation and climate change while wasting natural resources and undermining biodiversity. The need to rethink those policies has been clear for decades, yet little has changed. Just as it would be a shame to waste the Ukraine crisis by failing to rethink energy policies, it would be equally disheartening if we fail to use this war as an opportunity to rethink our agricultural policies.
Famine in countries around the world, most markedly in Africa, is said to be inevitable. It stems from the presumed loss of Russian and Ukrainian wheat output, about 100 million tons a year or a quarter of the world’s total, and Russia’s exports of nitrogen fertilizer, about 7 million tons annually pre-invasion, or 7% of global use. For April, the food price index published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization was up 30% from a year ago. Global fertilizer prices were up 125% in January from a year before, and rose another 17% from the beginning of the year to March.