Putin Starts A War, And At The Same Time Increases World Hunger!

Hi, I’m Rick Barron, your host, and welcome to That’s Life, I Swear

On Feb. 24th of this year, Russia started its special operations war with Ukraine. I love that word ‘special’, as it covers all manner of sin. As the war unfolded, Putin soon learned he had miscalculated the strong resistance of the Ukraine people. Another miscalculation was what the war was amplifying even more. Due to his misguided land grab, and wanting to be Peter the Great, Rev 2, the current global food crisis has gone from worse to a pending nightmare for many. It is a food crisis moving towards starvation and eventually, mass famine in many countries far away from the battlefield. 

Let’s jump into this 

As the war continued war, countries worldwide came to the aid of Ukraine, by imposing international sanctions on Russia. At first blush, we thought the sanctions would make life tough for the Russian people, and in time it will. While the intention of the sanctions was good, the end result has pushed prices for up for such items as food and fuel through the roof worldwide. 

The inflation of goods has hit worldwide, but that pain is only part of the story of what this war is causing.

To put a finer point on what was and now in jeopardy, before the war; Russia and Ukraine produce 30% of the world's wheat supply. Ukraine was seen as the world's bread basket as they were exporting almost 4.5 million tons of agricultural produce per month through its ports such as Odesa. 

Additionally, Russia and Ukraine produce 20% of the world’s supply of maize, 75% of sunflower oil for cooking. 

One does the math here, and you can see how one individual’s demented thinking of rewriting history, has caused a worsening of people facing shortages of food.

The UN fired a flare into the air recently, calling out that the war could lead to a global food crisis. The crisis would be one not short-lived, but could last for years.

Our world is dealing with the impact of COVID-19, supply chain issues, global warming temperature changes, and now a senseless war started by an individual who had nothing else to do. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres shared his thoughts about how the war has caused food security in poorer countries and the ongoing price hike for food and farming material. 

He stated that some countries could face long-term famines if Ukraine's exports can’t be restored to pre-war levels. 

Global food security is under severe threat with the food supply chain fractured by the war. While researching this topic, I came across various data points that described the pending food shortage and even famine in some countries. Looking at which areas would be hit the hardest due to the war, what struck me the most was the collective size of the populations.

For me a picture speaks a though words. The food crisis is intensifying, and will only get worse for approximately twelve countries within the middle east and Africa. Of those twelve, nine or 75% are in Africa. We’re taking about countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, the Congo, Tanzania and Somalia, Benin, Senegal, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan. 

So, about that picture speaking a thousand words. If you took the total populations of those twelve countries, they would add up to about 470,000,000 million people. So, what does that look like?

Try this on for size. Take the entire population of Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Venezuela, and that would match approximately 470,000,000 million people that represents those twelve countries. 

Pull out a map of the world, and step back and you’ll grasp what that looks like not only in terms of land mass but the volume of starving people residing within those twelve countries. 

When I looked at world map, I could only shake my head and ask, why does this need to happen? The International Rescue Committee says that more than 14 million people just in the Horn of Africa alone, are now on the brink of starvation!

Many of the countries caught up in this web of starvation are already living on the edge. Many of them live hand to mouth, and so now are facing with nothing to put in their mouths. For the countries that rely on Ukraine for a large percentage of their food supplies, the calculus for the damage that will be inflicted on them has already been done. 

To cut to the chase, a lot of people are going to die unnecessarily, it’s too late to save them!

History has shown that when food prices go up in countries that are not well off, people will get agitated and destabilization will occur. Many of those in disparate situations will think of ways to survive, which may lead to their only option, leave the country and migrate, perhaps to Europe. 

Europe has experienced migrations before, including the one they’re experiencing with the Ukraine war. This potential migration wave this time, on the other hand, could add up to millions and millions of people. Of course, we know what that will entail, but that’s another story.

The World Food Programme’s organization provides a startling statement on its website. It states, Quote:

Conflict, COVID, the climate crisis, and rising costs have combined in 2022 to create jeopardy for the world’s 811 million hungry people.

Up to 811 million people go to bed hungry every night, the number of those facing acute food insecurity has more than doubled - from 135 million to 276 million - since 2019. A total of 48.9 million people is facing emergency levels of hunger.

Unquote

Here’s another way to see this. The 811 million people who go to bed hungry every night, is approximately two and a half times the size of the United States. Are you getting the picture?

With many countries already facing food insecurity, Putin has made life for many already facing starvation, a nightmare. We have a grain war and a global food crisis that is already starting. This was a war of choice and not a necessity. 

Options to solve shipping Ukraine’s grain are many, but each brings its own set of problems.

To match the scale of shipping Ukraine’s grain from their shipping ports via train would require approximately 400,000 train wagons. Try this for a visual. Those 400,000 train wagons would stretch from San Francisco to New York and back to Las Vegas. A worthy attempt but hardly in the cards. 

Wheat harvest happens in Ukraine in June, but many farmers will not be there as they will be on the battlefield. Those who can tend to their farms have to start from scratch to rebuild their wheat fields due to the constant Russian bombing. It can take almost five months to see the fruits of their labor, given you have good weather, not to mention not being shelled by Russia.

To get grain out of Ukraine, before in rots in their silos, another idea was perhaps sending barges down the Danube River, or by truck and train through ports in Poland and Romania, all of which come with considerable challenges. Hardest of all would be reopening the Black Sea port of Odesa, currently mined by Ukraine against invasion and blockaded by Russia.

With so many options, it’s difficult at best to see anything that could put an end to this war. When looking at all the possible options on the table, I see three that could bring relief to help address the food shortage from getting out of hand.

1.     Russia needs to allow Ukraine to pull their grain from their silos and start shipping, but Russia insists they will want to inspect all shipments for weapons, thus Ukraine refuses this option

2.     Ukraine has to de-mine the area around the Odesa port, but are afraid that to do so as Ukraine says it would then enable Russia to attack the coast.

3.     Lift some or all of the Russian sanctions, so Ukraine can ship their grain, but the world doesn’t want to take that step as Russia has proven they cannot be trusted. 

Another idea, yes, that makes four, is for Putin to end this war immediately.

As the world awaits the outcome of this war, we sit in a hopeless state of mind watching this blame game that Russia, Ukraine, and the world are throwing back and forth. As the arguments continue as to what to do, thousands if not millions of people are facing a different game, it’s the hunger games for them. 

As all of this is happening, we now hear that as the war has been unfolding, Russian troops are confiscating grain from various locations within Ukraine. What are they doing with this grain? They’re selling it on the open market as if they grew it. 

I feel for Ukraine, but somehow, we can’t play games here for those people who had no say in this war, and are hitting starvation, and in some cases, the beginning of famine. Russia will soon feel the impact of the world sanctions imposed on them, and they will start getting a taste of what the world is feeling. Perhaps that may give them pause to reconsider this ‘special operations’ war as it was presented to the world, and work with Ukraine to come to a resolution.

If the famine continues, more people will suffer from hunger and malnutrition — and the most vulnerable among them will die of starvation. 

Not taking these steps could soon make the war between Ukraine and Russia insignificant, as the screams of hunger or famine, will tell us that the war has now become the least of our worries. 

If you look at what the effects of the war in Ukraine are causing through an economic lens, the continuing and enhancing of global hunger is bad for business. It inhibits productivity, slows economic growth, and places unnecessary burdens on all countries, not just a few.

That said, if one thinks world hunger is only impacting small parts of the world, think again.

Time is fast running out. The winter wheat is ripe, about 25 million tons of grain, according to United Nations estimates, just sitting in the silos getting close, if not already, rotting away. 

There is a familiar phrase we keep hearing when a crisis is deemed critical. That phrase, ‘we have to act now’. ‘Now’, is the utmost word of our times, if ever there was one.

Well, there you go. That’s life, I swear.

For further information regarding the material covered in this episode, I invite you to visit my website that you can find on either Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts, for show notes calling out key pieces of content mentioned, and the episode transcript.

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