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TOKYO -- The global wheat market has been hit by Chinese buyers canceling major shipments, seemingly in an attempt to secure better prices and bolster the country's food security. Benchmark Chicago wheat futures are trading at about $5.50 per bushel, up slightly from a three-and-a-half-year low marked in mid-March but down about 10% from the beginning of the year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture last month said 504,000 tonnes of wheat sales to China had been canceled. The figure is equivalent to about half the total U.S. wheat shipments to China in 2022 and the largest cancellation on record going...

'Congress alone has the authority' to breach federal dams, lawmakers write in letter to White House.. The Biden administration is quietly discussing a potentially far-reaching settlement with environmental groups that advocate for tearing down four hydroelectric dams in Washington... ... In the filings, jointly submitted by the federal government and eco groups... However, the filing failed to detail exactly what conditions were included in the secretive package .... We find it necessary to remind you Congress alone has the authority not only to order the breach of the Lower Snake River Dams, but also exclusive authority to direct the study...

INTERNATIONAL HAPPY GOSE DAY Every year on November 17th beer lovers gather together to celebrate International Happy Gose Day. Instead of rhyming with rose, Gose (ɡōzə) rhymes with Rosa. #InternationalHappyGoseDay Gose is a fermented sour wheat beer that originated during the sixteenth century in Goslar, located in Northern Germany. In later years, Gose became more associated with the city of Leipzig. The beer became so popular that it gained exemption for the country’s purity law called Reinheitsgebot. This law stated that German beer could only contain water, barley, yeast, and hops. But Gose is also made with malted wheat and...

While others in her Zimbabwean village agonize over a maize crop seemingly headed for failure, Jestina Nyamukunguvengu picks up a hoe and slices through the soil of her fields that are lush green with a pearl millet crop in the African country’s arid Rushinga district. “These crops don’t get affected by drought, they are quick to flower, and that’s the only way we can beat the drought,” the 59-year old said, smiling broadly. Millets, including sorghum, now take up over two hectares of her land — a patch where maize was once the crop of choice. Farmers like Nyamukunguvengu in...

In a normal year, America’s heartland would be brimming with lush, green wheat crops – but this is not a normal year. According to reports, western Kansas is a wasteland of parched, dead fields. Wheat crops have been decimated, which means the American food supply will suffer yet another major blow. “There’s nothing out there,” says Vance Ehmke, a wheat farmer from Lane County. “It’s dead. It’s just ankle-high straw.” Ehmke’s farm is one of many that, after being planted several months ago, now looks like a dust bowl. Rows of brown, shriveled plants nest in hardened dirt that is...

Food insecurity is rising globally because of the war in Ukraine, according to experts, with Africa expected to be hit the hardest. The world’s superpowers, China and the U.S., say they are trying to mitigate the fallout but at the same time are accusing each other of exacerbating the crisis. A state newspaper, The China Daily, placed blame for the situation partially on Washington, saying: “Food prices have reached an all-time high, as Russian and Ukrainian grain exports are hindered by port disruptions and Western sanctions.” The U.S., for its part, has accused China of hoarding, after President Xi Jinping...

The so-called “deadlock” over resolving the global food crisis is just as artificially manufactured as its origins since Kiev has now officially declared that it won’t resume wheat exports by sea to the Global South unless it receives anti-ship missiles first. Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar officially demanded weapons in exchange for resuming wheat exports by sea in what amounts to the blatant blackmailing of the Global South in the midst of the artificially manufactured food crisis. He said that “Effective security guarantees are required for maritime shipments to resume. These guarantees must be provided through the supply of...

The world has about 10 weeks of wheat supplies stored as Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth month, a food insecurity expert told the UN. Sara Menker, the CEO of agriculture analytics firm Gro Intelligence, told the UN Security Council that the Russia-Ukraine war was not the cause of a food security crisis but "simply added fuel to a fire that was long burning." Ukraine is considered the world's "breadbasket" and Russia and Ukraine combined account for almost a third of the world's wheat exports.

After being accused of using the food supply as blackmail and a bargaining chip, Russia said Wednesday its military will open up protected sea corridors for international shipping to pass through from seven Ukrainian ports that have thus far been blockaded. According to a defense ministry statement reported by Bloomberg late in the day, “Humanitarian maritime corridors from ports on the Black Sea and Azov Sea, including Odesa, will operate from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.” Black Sea port of Constanta, Romania recently had a drifting mine nearby. Image: AlamyThe announcement comes two days after the head of the...

A food insecurity expert said the world has only about 10 weeks of wheat supplies left in storage amid the conflict in Ukraine and as India has moved to bar exports of wheat in recent weeks. Sara Menker, the CEO of agriculture analytics firm Gro Intelligence, told the United Nations Security Council that the Russia–Ukraine war “simply added fuel to a fire that was long burning,” saying that it is not the primary cause of the wheat shortage. Ukraine and Russia both produce close to about a third of the world’s wheat. “I want to start by explicitly saying that...

Droughts, flooding, heatwaves, and even war threaten wheat production worldwide, pushing up the price of bread, pizza crust, pastries, and noodles. Just about every major producer is facing some issue, and the latest is in the US, where ‘crop scouts’ have begun to scour arid fields across the Midwestern US. Bloomberg reports crop scouts from the wheat industry have begun to examine plants in farm fields in Kansas to Oklahoma to Nebraska. Harvest is just a few weeks away, and there are concerns devastating droughts have caused damage in US wheat country. Some farmers already are writing off losses from...

Explains the coming wheat crop failure as a result of the drought in the high plains.

Not only does the US want to fight China to the last Indian, but now it’s implied that it wants countless Indians to potentially starve to death in order to feed America’s vassal states across the Global South whose governments it hopes to uphold for political reasons. Put another way, the US would prefer for Indians to die than for American-aligned governments in the Global South to fall in the face of famine-driven protests. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield is aghast that India announced that it’s restricting wheat exports. In her words, “We are encouraging countries not to...

India, the world’s second largest producer of wheat, has banned all exports with immediate effect after a heatwave affected the crop. A notice in the government gazette by the directorate of foreign trade, dated Friday, said a rise in global prices for wheat was threatening the food security of India and neighboring and vulnerable countries. A key aim is to control rising domestic prices. Global wheat prices have increased by more than 40% since the beginning of the year. Before the war, Ukraine and Russia accounted for a third of global wheat and barley exports. Since Russia’s 24 February invasion,...

In April India said it was hoping to expand its wheat exports from 7 million tons to 10 million. However, as precarious winter wheat harvests reflect lower outputs, they are reversing position and will now block any wheat exports in order to ensure their own supply.INDIA – […] The announcement drew sharp criticism from the Group of Seven industrialized nations’ agriculture ministers meeting in Germany, who said that such measures “would worsen the crisis” of rising commodity prices.“If everyone starts to impose export restrictions or to close markets, that would worsen the crisis,” German Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir said at...

India this morning has banned all wheat exports for 2022. India is a large producer of wheat but not a large exporter of wheat, according to this article with the war in Ukraine and the global price of wheat exploding, India was looking to export a large amount of wheat to capitalize on the price increase, all that stopped today. I don't want to read too much into this issue, if you look at Sri Lanka, they are in near civil war over food security, we don't have baby formula, it will be interesting to what happens on the summer...

Across the world, top wheat-producing regions are experiencing adverse weather conditions that could threaten production. In places like Ukraine, a military invasion by Russia has slashed production significantly. All of this suggests the world is on the cusp of a food crisis. Droughts, floods, and heatwaves have plagued farmland in the U.S., Europe, India, and China. As for Ukraine, the world’s largest wheat producer, the war could slash production by upwards of a third. There’s one exception: Russia, which is expected to have a bumper crop as wheat prices soar. “If there was ever a year where we needed to...

As Russia’s invasion chokes off Ukrainian wheat exports, pushing up bread and noodle prices, the global harvest faces an added test: extreme weather. Droughts, flooding and heatwaves threaten output from the U.S. to France and India, compounding shrinking production in Ukraine. Just about every major producing region is facing one threat or another. The one notable exception is Russia, which is shaping up for a bumper crop and stands to benefit from the rising prices and limited supply elsewhere. Wheat is hardy and its vast geographical spread typically means shortages in one place can be filled from elsewhere. But the...

As global food prices remain at record highs and war wages in Europe between two of the world’s largest grain suppliers, troubling videos from China show farmers slashing winter wheat production ahead of harvest times, adding even more uncertainty about food security. Bloomberg reports China’s agriculture ministry is very concerned about the matter. The ministry is investigating if there’s illegal destruction of wheat crops. The ministry said this comes three weeks before harvests, adding the crop was subjected to devastating floods late last year. There’s also concern that soggy field conditions in southern China due to abnormal rainfall could affect...

Only 32 percent of the winter wheat crop in the United States received a “good” or “excellent” rating from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), new reports show. While this represents a slight increase of two points compared to a week ago, the figure is far behind 2021’s 53 percent rating, illustrating just how bad America’s wheat crop is due to persistent drought conditions in many areas. “Winter wheat rated as fair was 32 percent and winter wheat rated poor to very poor was 36 percent,” reported the Longview News-Journal. “Winter wheat headed was 5 percent, 1 point less than...