The world is facing a long list of troubles often isolated to certain regions, but one issue that experts warn is just on the horizon is a global food shortage that is likely to threaten every single country.
Farmers everywhere are already noting that there is a shortage of the fertilizers needed to keep crop yields at their highest levels to feed the nearly 8 billion people of the world.
Last year, for instance, Bob Ununue, CEO of Goya Foods, warned that the world is in store for a “global food crisis.”
“We are on the precipice of a global food crisis,” the CEO told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.
.@GoyaFoods CEO: "We are on the precipice of a global food crisis."@MariaBartiromo @FoxBusiness pic.twitter.com/knIekz8sYO
— Mornings with Maria (@MorningsMaria) April 26, 2022
Unanue pointed out that Russia is “cutting off the Ukraine to the sea” and that means Ukraine cannot export or plant as the war rages on.
“They’ve [the Russians] attacked irrigation systems, they’ve attacked train systems and they’ve sent millions of women and children into exile,” Unanue said, arguing that the U.S. has “provoked, in a way, this war by showing an incredible weakness.”
Unanue said the U.S. will likely dodge the early part of any such food shortages because “we have abundance” and “are the biggest consumers in the world.”
But countries in Europe and Africa won’t be so lucky.
The U.S., he said, will be the last impacted, however, we will feel it and will “have to tighten our belt and consume less.”
Already, costs are rising so high that many Americans are skipping meals because they can’t afford enough food.
Recently, Fortune magazine noted that with shortage of fertilizer already being felt, and prices for the same soaring, things are just about to get really bad.
If fertilizer is in short supply or prices remain unaffordable to many countries, farmers may be unable to keep their soil fertile enough for crops.
Concerns over fertilizer have taken center stage in recent weeks in Africa, which is heavily reliant on Russian food imports, and where agricultural production has taken a blow in recent years due to drought in many countries. The eastern Horn of Africa—including Somalia, Sudan, and Kenya—has been particularly hard-hit, as it is likely on the verge of a sixth straight failed rainy season, the worst drought conditions in 70 years of recorded data.
Securing additional sources of fertilizer was the cornerstone of a $2.5 billion U.S. food assistance package to Africa signed last month, while Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen noted the importance of stabilizing fertilizer supply in Africa multiple times during a visit to Zambia this week.
“Now we’re in 2023, it’s tragic and shouldn’t be like that,” Holsether told the FT about the state of global hunger. “That should be a very strong reminder of the need to have a more robust food system—from a climate perspective, from a logistics perspective, but also from a political perspective.”
The world is coming to a major crisis.
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