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Russia and the Hunger War: How can the international community take countermeasures?

2022-07-09T16:48:45.957Z


Russia is preventing grain exports from Ukraine, which is why people are starving elsewhere. International politics wants to take countermeasures in the short term. But can the food crisis be contained at all?


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Russia's attack on Ukraine is also an attack on the world's breadbasket: near Chernihiv, craters line a field.

A number of farms, granaries and entire farming villages in the country have been destroyed by bombs.

Near Mykolaiv, farmers collect remains of Russian mines and bombs from their fields.

Volodymyr Onyshuk, farmer:

'We collected these from the fields on March 29 when we drove out.

The deminers had surveyed the area and the tractor drivers didn't want to work until the mines, bombs and other things found were collected.

So we did it ourselves.

We keep them as memories.«

Despite Russia's attack on agricultural infrastructure, many farmers have managed to continue cultivating their fields.

They have to collect, process and store 22.5 million tons of winter wheat in a timely manner.

However, there is no room in the country's storehouses that have not yet been destroyed.

There are still about 25 million tons of grain stored there - the previous harvest - which could not be taken out of the country because of the war.

Wheat, sunflower oil, corn and rapeseed: Ukrainian agricultural products feed millions of people worldwide.

But hardly any food has left Ukraine for months.

Before the war began, 90 percent of Ukraine's wheat was shipped through the major Black Sea ports.

From there, the grain reached the countries of the Global South, mainly in Africa and the Middle East.

But since February 24, ship deliveries have effectively come to a standstill.

Sea mines laid by both warring parties make many coastal waters impassable.

Russia also controls access to the sea with warships and submarines and blocks all grain deliveries by sea - with fatal consequences: According to the World Food Program, up to 11.2 million people could also suffer from malnutrition if the conflict drags on.

Even before the war, around 800 million people were suffering from hunger, that is 10 percent of the world's population, as here in Somalia.

Hasan Habiba Mohammed Nur, refugee:

“I fled Islamists and the drought that hit our village.

We lost our cattle.

I didn't get any help there and my child is very sick and malnourished.

It has diarrhea and a fever, so I brought it here for treatment.”

The situation in the world's least developed countries is now bringing aid organizations to their knees.

Rania Dagash, Deputy Regional Director Unicef:

»The basic problem here in Somalia and in the Horn of Africa is currently the drought caused by climate change.

But the war in Ukraine also has repercussions: the prices of food, fuel and other things have risen so much that we need more and more money to get the same amount of relief supplies as before.

We need a lot more.«

UNICEF fears that aid prices could rise by 16 percent in the next six months.

Food inflation in many countries of the Global South has been rising sharply for months.

Matin Qaim, agricultural economist:

»The problem is that when food gets more expensive and people are poor, they still try to have something in their stomachs.

And that means they're still trying to get their calories and their grains, breads and stuff, but they often crowd out more expensive foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes.

Also some animal products, but they are important carriers of vitamins and micronutrients.

And many more people worldwide suffer from micronutrient deficiencies than from calorie deficiencies.

And that quickly falls under the table.«

However, the focus of aid organizations and politicians is still on the calories that feed the world and thus on the millions of tons of grain that are stuck in Russia and Ukraine.

The EU therefore wants to bring the food out of the country via so-called “solidarity corridors”.

Additional trains are to transport grain overland, for example via Poland, to the EU and from there for export overseas.

The valuable goods are to reach the Black Sea again on barges and trucks and be transhipped in Bulgarian and Romanian ports outside the war zone.

But circumventing the grain blockade is complex, lengthy and expensive, and there is no sign of Russia giving in.

Vladimir Putin uses hunger as a weapon of war.

On the one hand, he is increasing the pressure on Western countries and underpinning his demand for an end to sanctions against Russia.

Second, his country also benefits directly: Russia, itself one of the world's largest wheat suppliers, is reportedly stealing Ukrainian grain and selling it for a profit to countries like Turkey and Syria.

The war in Ukraine acts like a magnifying glass for existing crises and fuels hunger in the world.

The complex global food system, in which many importing countries are dependent on a few large exporting countries, is currently reaching its limits.

According to agricultural expert Matin Qaim, it will therefore become increasingly important in the future for people to eat differently.

Matin Qaim, agricultural economist:

»And that means, on the one hand, that we reduce losses and waste, which are significant worldwide.

But that also means that we consume less meat and animal products because they simply have very, very large environmental and climate footprints and a lot of grain flows into the feeding trough, which would feed a lot more people if it happened directly would.

(...) Environmentally and climate-friendly with high yields, that will only work if we also develop and implement clever new technologies.

And that also includes things like genetic engineering.«

But until the world is fed more sustainably, the Global South will not be able to do without grain from Ukraine.

And time is pressing: only if Ukraine, with the help of neighboring countries, manages to get the stored grain out of the country in the course of July will there be room in the silos for the new harvest.

Otherwise it will spoil.

And then the farmers would have put their lives in danger in vain in the face of the occupation, the many mines and rocket attacks on their fields.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-07-09

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