President Joe Biden and the other G-7 leaders are exploring ways to address growing global food shortages sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The sanctions placed on Russian exports by the United States and allies caused fertilizer prices to skyrocket, prompting serious concerns over Europe’s supply of wheat, corn, soy, rice, and other food products.
“It’s going to be real. The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia. It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well,” Biden told reporters when asked about the food shortages during a Thursday press conference in Belgium.
“Russia and Ukraine have been the breadbasket of Europe in terms of wheat, for example, just to give one example, but we had a long discussion in the G-7 with both the United States, which is the third-largest producer of wheat in the world, as well as Canada, which is also a major, major producer,” he said.
Biden said that the U.S. and Canada will continue discussions “about how we could increase and disseminate more rapidly foods.”
“In addition to that, we talked about urging all the European countries and everyone else to end trade restrictions on sending — limitations on sending food abroad,” he said. “So we are in the process of working out with our European friends what it would be, what it would take to help alleviate the concerns relative to food shortages.”
The U.S. is sending another $1 billion worth of humanitarian aid to Europe, and Biden pledged an additional $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
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You can watch Biden’s entire Thursday press conference below.
