"A very alarming global food shortage has already begun, and it is only going to get worse in the months ahead.
... The following are 20 facts about the emerging global food shortage that should chill you to the core…
#1 ... France’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the EU must get to grips with the prospect that the war in Ukraine could prompt an “extremely serious” global food crisis.
#2 ... The Biden administration is worried Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will cause famine in parts of the world, White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse told CNBC on Friday.
#3 ... days after Germany reported the highest inflation in generation (with February headline CPI soaring at a 7.6% annual pace and blowing away all expectations), giving locals a distinctly unpleasant deja vu feeling even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine broke what few supply chains remained and sent prices even higher into the stratosphere…
… on Monday, Germany will take one step toward a return of the dreaded Weimar hyperinflation, when according to the German Retail Association (HDE), consumers should prepare for another wave of price hikes for everyday goods and groceries with Reuters reporting that prices at German retail chains will explode between 20 and 50% (Hard to believe -- maybe an error translating? Ye Editor)
#4 ... Spain ... started experiencing sporadic shortages of different products like eggs, milk and other dairy products almost immediately following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. In early March, major supermarkets like Mercadona and Makro began rationing sunflower oil.
#5 ... In Greece, at least four national supermarket chains have started rationing food products like flour and sunflower oil due to critically low supplies caused by the crippled supply chains coming out of Russia and Ukraine.
#6 ... BlackRock Inc. President Rob Kapito told an audience in Austin, Texas, hosted by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, that an entire younger generation is quickly finding out what it means to suffer from shortages, according to Bloomberg. (happened to us at the supermarket every week since Fall 2021. Ye Editor)
“For the first time, this generation is going to go into a store and not be able to get what they want,” Kapito said. “And we have a very entitled generation that has never had to sacrifice.”
#7 Since this time last year, some fertilizer prices have gone up by as much as 300 percent.
#8 ... With fertilizer prices tripling over the past 18 months, many farmers are considering whether to forgo purchases of fertilizers this year. That leaves a market long touted for its growth potential set to shrink by almost a third, according to Sebastian Nduva, program manager at researcher group AfricaFertilizer.Org. That could potentially curb cereals output by 30 million tons, enough to feed 100 million people, he said. (seems like a wild guess. Ye Editor)
#9 ... Russia is a key global player in natural gas, a major input to fertilizer production. Higher gas prices, and supply cuts, will further drive fertilizer prices higher. Russia is one of the biggest exporters of the three major groups of fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). Physical supply cuts could further inflate fertilizer prices.
#10 In a typical year, Russia and Ukraine collectively account for approximately 30 percent of all global wheat exports.
#11 Half of Africa’s wheat imports usually come from either Russia or Ukraine.
#12 ... Armenia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Eritrea have imported virtually all of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine and must find new sources. But they are competing against much larger buyers, including Turkey, Egypt, Bangladesh and Iran, which have obtained more than 60 percent of their wheat from the two warring countries.
#13 Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Russian security official who previously served as the nation’s president, has threatened that Russia may soon cut off the West from food exports.
#14 :asy Friday, it was announced that another 5 million egg-laying chickens in Iowa would have to be put down because of the bird flu.
#15 The death toll from the bird flu in Iowa alone will be pushed beyond 13 million as a result of this latest incident.
#16 ... total US death toll from the bird flu: “22 million egg-laying chickens, 1.8 million broiler chickens, 1.9 million pullet and other commercial chickens, and 1.9 million turkeys”.
#17 China’s agricultural minister has announced that the winter wheat harvest in China could be “the worst in history”.
#18 We are being warned that the winter wheat harvest in the United States will be “disastrous” due to severe drought.
#19 During a recent interview, one prominent U.S. farmer stated that most Americans won’t like it when “your grocery bill is up $1,000.00 a month”.
#20 The head of the UN World Food program says that what the planet is now facing is unlike anything that we have seen since World War II…
“Ukraine has only compounded a catastrophe on top of a catastrophe,” said David M. Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program, the United Nations agency that feeds 125 million people a day. “There is no precedent even close to this since World War II.”
... In my entire lifetime, I have never seen anything like this, and conditions are getting worse with each passing day. ...
Related points
from another article
by the same author:
The "Doomsday Preppers" Were Right
... Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has threatened the supply of critical commodities in Europe and thrown global supply chains, which were already struggling amid COVID-19, into complete chaos.
... UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned urgently of the global consequences of the war as early as mid-March. The breadbasket is being bombed and a “hurricane of hunger” is threatening, he stated. Given Ukraine’s great importance as a food exporter, the invasion was “also an attack on the world’s most vulnerable people and countries.”
... There are 45 different nations that normally get
“at least one-third of their wheat from Ukraine or Russia”…
The world’s 45 least developed countries import at least one-third of their wheat from Ukraine or Russia, and 18 countries among them import more than 50 percent.
These include Egypt, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. These are all countries that are already dependent on humanitarian aid and food supplies because millions of people are currently suffering from massive hunger.
How are all of those countries supposed
to feed their people without that wheat?
... Lebanon, which obtains 75 percent of its wheat from Russia and especially Ukraine, is also desperately seeking other wheat exporters, but so far without success. The government turned to the international community with a call for help. There are now fears of rationing and sharp price increases, which will hit the already hard-pressed population hard.
Meanwhile, the global bird flu plague just continues to intensify.
Here in the United States, the total death toll is now just short of 28 million…
The new cases mean that across the nation, farmers have had to kill about 22 million egg-laying chickens, 1.8 million broiler chickens, 1.9 million pullet and other commercial chickens, and 1.9 million turkeys.
It has taken less than two months to go from the first confirmed case in the U.S. to nearly 28 million dead. So what will the death toll look like six months from now?
... Egg prices are skyrocketing as a bird-flu outbreak ravages commercial chicken flocks in the U.S., with the price of a dozen large eggs spiking more than 52% in just under two months."
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