Posted on 04/30/2022 2:13:17 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
Ukraine has limited exports of sunflower oil, wheat, oats and cattle in an attempt to protect its war-torn economy. Russia has banned sales of fertilizer, sugar and grains to other nations.
Indonesia, which produces more than half the world’s palm oil, has halted outgoing shipments. Turkey has stopped exports of butter, beef, lamb, goats, maize and vegetable oils.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has unleashed a new wave of protectionism as governments, desperate to secure food and other commodities for their citizens amid shortages and rising prices, erect new barriers to stop exports at their borders.
Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times
The measures are often well intended. But like the panic-buying that stripped grocery store shelves at various moments of the pandemic, the current wave of protectionism will only compound the problems that governments are trying to mitigate, trade experts warn.
Export restrictions are making grains, oils, meat and fertilizer — already at record prices — more expensive and even harder to come by. That is placing an even greater burden on the world’s poor, who are paying an ever-larger share of their income for food, increasing the risk of social unrest in poorer countries struggling with food insecurity.
Since the beginning of the year, countries have imposed a total of 47 export curbs on food and fertilizers — with 43 of those put in place since the invasion of Ukraine in late February, according to tracking by Simon Evenett, a professor of international trade and economic development at the University of St. Gallen.
“Before the invasion, there’s a very small number of attempts to try and restrict exports of food and fertilizers,” Evenett said. “After the invasion you see a huge uptick.”
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Wow, the NY Times sounds almost libertarian in this one.
I’m steering at a palette of 50lb bags of flour at Costco for $18.49, regular price. Don’t know what those were a year ago but that seems cheap.
Governments would rather it rots than be eaten
Erdogan, a fly in the ointment...
“I’m steering at a palette of 50lb bags of flour at Costco for $18.49, regular price. Don’t know what those were a year ago but that seems cheap.”
The US is not dependent on imports for any foodstuffs or fertilizers. Other countries like Egypt and the Middle East will starve without them. Egypt moved away from grains to oranges which sell for a lot more, but can’t be a staple. The last time Russia, the world’s number one grain exporter clamped down because of drought, locusts and fires, it caused the price in the Middle East to triple and resulted in “the Arab Spring.” (Food riots, not anything to do with liberalization.) Ukraine, where the Russians are bombing grain silos, was the number five exporter. As for fertilizer Russia was number one and I think Ukraine was around tenth. Their cheap fertilizer caused the poor soils in Africa and Sri Lanka to increase by five fold. They will now decrease by five fold. None of this will recover for probably a decade. We’re looking at five hundred million people starving. Globalization caused the world’s population to expand more in seventy years than it has in hundreds of years. Now it will contract. The problem is, the one lifeboat everybody knows about is the US, which has a completely open southern border. We could look like a Star Wars city in just a year or two.
Ping
It is a five year event where a billion and a half humans are facing chronic Starvation.
A direct result of the war on Energy. 70% of crop inputs are fossil fuel products.
I hope all those post those “people will starve in America” posts would read your post.
The government is purposely creating food shortages.
All of this mess is planned. Not debatable. No regime is this incompetent.
This mess is fixable.
This mess needs to be fixed ASAP, or we will be in the hurt locker for a long time.
5.56mm
Not a great comfort considering food is 150% higher and fertilizer is 300% and headed for 4-500% higher. Food will be at 200% or more my the last quarter compared to a couple of years ago.
I imagine when those 3rd world countries are at famine levels, our fedgov will send them any extra we might have just like we're sending weapons to Ukraine. The US is being slowly looted.
I’m getting hungry just reading this.
Are these Governments the ones that want the New World Order ?
“I imagine when those 3rd world countries are at famine levels, our fedgov will send them any extra we might have just like we’re sending weapons to Ukraine. The US is being slowly looted.”
We in the US will bitch and moan about high food prices. But no one here will starve to death. Our poor will continue to die from obesity related causes. The rest of the world, including China...a nuclear power, will start seeing WWII levels of famine and death. That has the potential to drag the US citizens into more death than we would ever see from starvation. The wars that start as nations thrash around like drowning victims has lots of potential to cause death here even if no bombs fall in California. Fallout WILL. Therefore, I’m in favor of sending as much as we can wherever it is needed, regardless of what it does to the prices here. Also, we have technology that simply can’t be used because of liberals and their “pure” food fetishes. Let’s face it there are NO foods that we eat today that have not been genetically modified in some way. If you ever get the chance to even see what oranges originally came from you won’t recognize them, let alone eat them.
This war started because our president looked weak and confused. Wars only start when you lose deterrence and when Biden stumbles the world’s heart pauses and the West holds its breath. But because the world had become so interconnected and globalized, something at some time was bound to interrupt the clockwork functions that allowed us to order a phone that had parts built in a dozen countries and was assembled in China and then arrived at our door in just five days...for a very reasonable price. As long as we had a tough acting president everyone (secretly) respected that interruption was not going to be a war started by Russia. But, here are. Now, we’re going to suffer high fuel and food prices. That’s the price we pay for whatever it is that happened in the 2020 election.
It’s been a couple years since I bought any but it was about $14 maybe $15.
If you use bulk goods like that it’s a good deal. I’ll get the 25 pound bags of sugar split those up and compare the price on a 5 pound bag that’s way better than the big one.
“Slowly being looted ...”
Gee. I’m so glad it isn’t being looted FAST, because that would be terrible, or something.
I must be on a different survival planning path-buying bulk dried beans and lentils is a good thing-source of protein if there is no meat available-likewise dried seaweed, other dehydrated veggies and fruit-sugar and flour are certainly not going to keep you healthy or from nutritional starvation-a cup of sugar has no vitamins or other nutrients-just 774 calories and nearly 200g carbs per cup-flour isn’t much better-455 calories, 95g carb, and only 12g protein-a cardboard cereal box has more nutrition...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.