Leaders around the world are preparing solutions to the problem of an expected global food shortage that may only get worse in the days ahead.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has significantly disrupted the international trade of a crop used in products from pasta to beer: wheat.
Ukraine is a major wheat producer, and its fight against Russian invaders has threatened to strangle a crucial export business that feeds millions of people worldwide.
WHERE ARE ALL THE UKRAINIAN REFUGEES GOING?
Known along with Russia as the “breadbasket of Europe,” Ukraine and its neighbor produce more than a quarter of the wheat supply for the entire world.
In normal times, Russia exports more wheat than any other country. Sanctions have complicated Russia’s ability to access global markets, however, and the conflict has threatened Ukraine’s ability to harvest its wheat fully this year.
Ukrainian officials have warned that they could lose as much as half their typical harvest if the war continues, with farmers struggling to access their land in places choked off by violence and agricultural workers leaving their jobs in droves to join the fight or flee the country.
Biden administration officials acknowledged that the conflict could cause famines and crises overseas.
White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Cecilia Rouse said Friday that famine is a “big concern” and that the United States has explored offering humanitarian aid to countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia that will likely suffer the most from continued food supply disruptions.
Some countries rely on Russia and Ukraine for the vast majority of their wheat supply. Egypt, for example, gets 85% of its grain from Ukraine, while Lebanon gets more than 80% of its grain from the war-torn country.
But a number of factors outside Ukraine have stoked fears of a coming food shortage in the U.S. and around the world.
The high price of fuel has made production and shipping far more costly for exporters or food producers shipping their wares domestically. Those costs are often passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
In the U.S., a worker shortage has hit the agricultural sector, as well as virtually every other industry.
And a global fertilizer shortage, fueled by inflation, has contributed to fears of empty grocery store shelves as farmers scale back production and brace for smaller yields from their harvests.
Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Cynthia Lummis wrote in a letter to the Biden administration last week that the Department of Agriculture should allow farmers to grow food on conserved land in order to ease the pressure of shortages and high prices.
“Before the war, Ukraine was one of the world’s highest-volume exporters of corn, wheat, sunflower seed oil, and other seed and grain products,” the senators wrote to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “However, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to fully prevent the sowing and harvest of Ukrainian grains from occurring this year.”
Rubio and Lummis noted that the Conservation Reserve Program includes roughly four million acres of “high quality farmland,” which remains out of commission for growing crops in 10- to 15-year windows under the program.
“Increasing American food output requires timely access to additional acreage,” the lawmakers said.
The Department of Agriculture established its farmland conservation program in 1985 to stop soil erosion and protect wildlife, according to the agency. Farmers participate voluntarily by signing up to receive annual payments from the government in exchange for stopping all production on the protected land and planting “species that will improve environmental health.”
Rubio and Lummis cited the rising price of corn as one reason why the Biden administration should free up farmers who previously enrolled in the program to use their conserved lands.
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With farmers paying 40% more per acre to harvest corn, the price and availability of other foods could shoot upwards as well. The lawmakers said the vast majority of livestock in the U.S. feed on corn.
Shipping unions have pleaded in recent weeks for the establishment of “blue corridors” that will allow vessels trapped in the waters near Ukraine and Russia to pass safely after hundreds became stuck last month amid the violence.
And the World Food Programme, which works to alleviate world hunger, has said its monthly operating budget has increased by $29 million as it scrambles to prepare for a year in which it says countries should prepare for the potential of “catastrophic hunger.”
