Ukraine Invasion Could Lead to 'Human Catastrophe' of Hunger
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David Malpass, the president of the World Bank, said in an interview Wednesday that the record increase in food prices due to the Ukraine invasion was pushing hundreds of millions around the world into poverty.
Malpass told the BBC food prices could increase 37 percent around the globe and lead to a “human catastrophe.”
“But then it also becomes a political challenge for governments who can't do anything about it - they didn't cause it and they see the prices going up,” he told the outlet.
PUTIN ONCE WANTED TO JOIN NATO
Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, told the annual International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meeting on Tuesday that the war is contributing to a growing crisis over food insecurity and skyrocketing food prices.
“Price and supply shocks are already materializing, adding to global inflationary pressures, creating risks to external balances, and undermining the recovery from the pandemic. I want to be clear: Russia’s actions are responsible for this,” she said.
From Reuters: Even before the war, over 800 million people - or 10% of the global population - were suffering from chronic food insecurity, Yellen said, and estimates showed higher food prices alone could push at least 10 million more people into poverty.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO’s) food price index averaged 159.3 last month, a “giant leap” of 12.6-percent gain from February’s level, which itself was the highest since the index was created in 1990, the FAO said.
The index rose at the fastest monthly rate since 2008, the FAO said.
Grain prices shot up 17.1 percent, largely because Ukraine and Russia together make up 30 percent of the world’s wheat exports and 20 percent of corn shipments.
About 50 countries depend on Russia and Ukraine for at least 30 percent of the wheat they import, according to the Financial Times.
Last year, 36 of the 55 countries dealing with food crises relied on Russia and Ukraine for at least 10 percent of their wheat imports, the FT said.
If food shortages persist, another 13 million people could face malnutrition, the FAO calculated, with most in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by sub-Saharan Africa, the near East, and north Africa.
TREND FORECAST: The Trends Journal has pointed out that early in the war, President Biden bragged that his sanctions mean “Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at U.S. ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine.”
What he failed to mention is that these very sanctions were dealing a devastating blow to the American people and people around the world —with nothing to do with the war.
Again, as we continue to note, the general public is only getting a one-sided view of the sanctions and mandates imposed against Russia, which we forecast will do nothing to alter Moscow’s military posture, but will cause great hardship for the people of the world.
Yellen, who has been an outspoken proponent of these sanctions, said the COVID-19 outbreak also contributed to the food scarcity.
In January, world food prices rose to levels not seen since 2011, according to a 3 February report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Food prices shot up 6.85 percent in December, year over year, the International Monetary Fund said, the highest since the agency began tracking the rate in 2014.
From April 2020 through last December, corn and wheat prices leaped up 80 percent, soybean prices zoomed 52 percent, and frost and droughts in Brazil sent coffee prices up 70 percent.
Prices climbed across the range of staples, including cereals, coffee, dairy, grains, meats, and pasta.
TREND FORECAST: As we have forecast when the COVID War was launched in 2020, the move to shut down the global economy in order to deal with the virus would create a global famine on a scale never seen before.
David Beasley, head of the World Food Program, in addressing the United Nations Security Council in April 2020, stated the economic shutdown “could soon double hunger, causing famines of ‘biblical proportions’ around the world by the end of the year.” He added, “Millions of civilians living in conflict-scarred nations face being pushed to the brink of starvation.”
Nothing points to the incompetent and immoral actions of political leaders and their health “experts” more than this issue of mass starvation, a direct result of the unprecedented global shutdown.
While billions of dollars are easily raised to finance the rush to a vaccine, which may never be effective, and while drones fly around searching for citizens not social distancing and police threaten fines and jail time for those not wearing masks, the UN World Food Program has to beg for money to keep hundreds of millions of people from starving.
And, again, virtually nothing about this global tragedy is mentioned in the mainstream news.