March 30, 2022
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Biden is right. The Ukraine war could cause food shortages, but high fuel prices could make it difficult to increase production.
By Robert Romano
“With regard to food shortage, yes, we did talk about food shortages. And — and it’s going to be real. The price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, it’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well. And — because both Russia and Ukraine have been the breadbasket of Europe in terms of wheat…”
That was President Joe Biden on March 24 at the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, noting that because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Ukraine and Russia combined account for about one-third of global wheat exports, disruptions to distributing that food would cause food shortages all over the world.
In 2021, global wheat production was about 772 million tons, 75 million of that came from Russia and another 33 million tons came from Ukraine. Any disruption of agriculture on that level could impact millions of people.
According to Oleg Nivievskyi, vice president of economic education at Kyiv School of Economics, speaking to LancasterFarming.com, wheat and corn production in Ukraine to decrease by 35 million pounds this year in Ukraine, and exports of wheat in Ukraine and Russia combined will decrease by 60 million pounds in 2022, adding, “low income countries in Africa that depend on the grain will be severely impacted.”
Making matters worse, a lot of the farms are in eastern Ukraine where some of the fighting has been the heaviest, while the situation at Ukraine’s Black Sea ports in the south could mean even if the crops are not damaged because of the war, getting the exports out to sea could be problematic.
So far, the winter wheat crop is okay, but that could change. According to LancasterFarming.com: “The current crop looks good, Nivievskyi said, but that’s where the optimism ends. Right now, he said, is the time of year when farmers are usually in their fields applying fertilizer and getting the land ready to plant. It’s a crucial step for every spring crop — not just wheat — yet in much of the country it may not be possible.”
Besides the risk of mines and other dangers on the roads and the fields, there are also massive fuel shortages that could make operating the tractors necessary for the harvest impossible.
High fuel costs, particularly of diesel, could make ramping up production in the U.S. and elsewhere more difficult. According to a report by the Associated Press’ Aya Batrawy, Steve Karnowski, and Rob Gillies: “Any increased production is running up against surging costs for supplies. The price of fuel has skyrocketed, and the cost of fertilizer was already high because of a crunch in natural gas acutely felt in Europe.”
But it gets worse. About half of the wheat the World Food Program (WFP) purchases to help feed about 125 million people around the world comes from Ukraine, with WFP Executive Director David Beasely told the Associated Press: “It will impact millions and millions of people, particularly in the poorest countries of the world.”
Meaning, if inflation remains high and the war in Ukraine continues, global food production could take such a hit that millions of people end of starving. So, what to do?
One area that could help farmers speed up production would be to lower artificial fuel costs. For example, the federal diesel tax is $0.2440 per gallon and states charge on average $0.3266 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. If those were temporarily suspended, it could speed along production.
It’s one of those things where time is essential. The winter wheat was planted last year. The spring wheat gets planted in March, April and May in the northern hemisphere. If not enough seeds are planted this year to offset the war in Ukraine then President Biden is right, there are going to be food shortages.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
Video: Biden's War on Energy Continues
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmmHHgJ764I
ALG Editor’s Note: In the following featured column from Fox News, David Marcus asks the disquieting question of, if not President Joe Biden deciding whether regime change in Russia is U.S. policy, then who is really in charge?:
David Marcus: Biden's alarming Ukraine gaffes beg the question: Who is running our country?
By David Marcus
Who is leading the country? That is not a question that Americans should ever have to ask themselves, and yet today, with war raging in Europe, inflation emptying pocketbooks, and a southern border we can’t control, we have to ask it. Who is actually running the country? Because it sure doesn’t seem like it’s President Joe Biden.
This past weekend in Poland, Biden gave a speech that the White House itself touted as one of the most important of his presidency.
In a final and forceful moment he paused and then, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said, "For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power."
It should have been like JFK proclaiming he was a "Berliner," or Reagan demanding that the wall which once divided that city come down. Instead, it was immediately walked back. By whom? On what authority?
For better or worse the American people elected Joe Biden as president. They didn’t elect his communications team, or his Secretary of State, they didn’t elect whatever person or people it is who get angry at him if he takes too many questions. What this debacle in Warsaw made painfully clear is that Biden is not in charge. And that’s not just a problem, it's a threat to our democracy.
On Monday Biden said he did not regret what he said, but seemed to indicate it was his personal opinion, not the policy of the United States. What does that even mean? Why would Biden's personal opinion be any different than American policy? Who is he answering to?
The American people overwhelmingly support Ukraine in the current conflict, their opinion of Putin is that he is a dangerous authoritarian dictator. So why on earth can’t the President of the United States say this "butcher," his own word from earlier that day, should not be in power? Is this really such an off the wall idea? Or was our president actually articulating the wishes and beliefs of the people?
What this debacle in Warsaw made painfully clear is that Biden is not in charge. And that’s not just a problem, it's a threat to our democracy.
Somewhere in some musty back room in Washington, D.C., there must be some chart of things the president is and isn’t allowed to say, options he is and isn’t allowed to put on the table, questions he is or isn’t allowed to answer. Nobody voted on these rules, they just seem to exist. And by the way, what the hell is the point of these rules?
The argument against Biden’s direct call for regime change in Russia, and let's be clear, that's exactly what it was, is that Putin will use it as propaganda to sway the Russian people to his side. But so what? Putin is already exercising a level of censorship in his country that blocks any truth from getting through.
This is the same kind of thinking from Biden’s unknown controllers that escalated this mess in the first place. For a month now their mantra has been that they won’t have our president do anything that could invite conflict from Putin. But Putin is already bombing civilians on the sovereign territory of an American ally despite all of our diplomatic restraint. Who exactly are we trying to impress here?
The presidency of the United States is a unique political position in all of human history. There is a reason the president is called the leader of the free world, and the most powerful person on earth. Beginning with George Washington, Americans have chosen to give one person all of this power specifically so that nameless unaccountable bureaucrats do not control our lives.
For whatever reason, Joe Biden ran for president and won. He does not now get to slip back into the basement with an ice cream and tell Jen Psaki, Antony Blinken, or anyone else to figure it all out.
The president doesn’t need better advisers, though his advisers are terrible, he doesn’t need a more active Congress, what he needs is to stand up and be his own man.
For one brief moment in Poland it looked like he was doing that, being his own man, leading our country and the world. Then within minutes it was all walked back. By whom? Who knows?
The president doesn’t need better advisers, though his advisers are terrible, he doesn’t need a more active Congress, what he needs is to stand up and be his own man.
We need a president, and at the moment it does not feel like we have one. President Biden, for God’s sake, lead us.
To view online: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-ukraine-gaffes-country-david-marcus