Topic: Wheat War I is going to be World War III - page 17. (Read 6279 times)

It seems that you have a favorable bias towards Russia underlying your whole post, yet Russia is the one that started this global food crisis because of the totally unnecessary war with Ukraine - it began the biggest war that Europe has seen since WW2 simply because the free Ukrainian people were fed up of being controlled by one of Putin's useless puppets. Unfortunately it is all the poorest in the world who will be worst effected by this and the richest countries of the world will likely suffer the least. It seems that even India is restricting their exports and this sort of trade protectionism is bad for the world. The sooner the war in Ukraine stops, the sooner we can get back to normal peace and cheaper food.

It is like a double whammy. Russia is having a bumper crop, but they can't export some of it as a result of sanctions and embargoes. Ukraine is one of the top producers, and the less said about them, that better. And another major producer (India) has banned wheat exports for this year. Now at the receiving end we have the major wheat importers. On top we have Indonesia, and then there are countries such as China, Turkey, Egypt and Algeria. China and Indonesia may continue with imports from Russia, but the other countries are in a tricky position.

This is true because, regardless of anything, now there are very few farmers and sometimes out of it all just old people without any generation and indeed only a few people are tempted by agriculture.
in this case in my country in the past few years most of them were farmers but nowadays it is very rare especially for young people who still want other jobs that are more suitable and not dirty.

But if things like this continue then it is not impossible that this will become a split considering that food is getting more difficult and on the other hand the need for food is increasing.

Your post reminds me of the current situation in my country. Oil prices in hear spike 3X within a month. Other food prices also spike a little bit but it is not bad like a European country. It seems the impact of the war is spreading all over the world. Many economists in my country warn about a massive food crisis in the coming days.


Yes, i have heard the news too. Russia deployed the Iskander missile system on the border of Finland whose range is around 500KM. We know Putin's threat is not a child's words. His warning could treat as his course of action. I really hope the war will not break out in Finland though the chance is very high.

I am really confused as to how exactly this is going to lead to a wheat war? I really do not see wheat as the only food source available to humans and I am sure that all countries grow their own wheat in addition to buying wheat off other countries. In fact, the only reason we buy wheat from other countries is because it is more cost effective to buy from poorer countries rather than grow your own.

I think people should stop the panic because all this BS FUD is only serving one purpose, which is to spike the price of wheat artifically. Thus only benefiting the stock market traders.

People are such dumb sheep, its almost laughable if it wasn't so sad.

Food wars were common before advent of fertilizers. During world war 2 Britishers diverted the food grains produced in India to supply their troops in war. This led to famine in Bengal and death of three million people.  The cot of rice rose by 8 times and the response of winston churchill was summarized by his famous statement if famine is there “Why hasn’t Gandhi died yet?”.

When we are talking about the problems that the world is facing because of the war between Russia and Ukraine we can take a pause and examine the threats Russia made recently about Finland joining NATO in the future suggesting a nuclear war soon. The world will crumble if that happens and the only thing left would be good produce rightly which would only prevail in countries which are tropical and have extensive farming like India but that would be so sudden that most of them might not even have a chance to stop exports and focus internally and that is exactly why China is preparing for the worst.

There is no denying that world is effected by these two countries conflicts but still not this much as you prostrating it. Because there is always a conflict between different nation either they are from European side or from eastern countries the war always continues. The bitter thing is  that hypocritic media is overly covering it as a biggest conflict and creating a mess for everyone although there are bigger issue out there and many countries already loss millions of peoples but they didn't cover it like this.
you only pointed few countries and prostrating this matter as WORLD crisis is a fool act. The world has too many other problem yet to solve and this matter is not even close.

Please add 8 more points to the general list of problems - Russia is actively stealing grain from Ukrainian storage facilities located in the temporarily occupied territories. This will make the picture more complete.
It is also worth adding that Russia will most likely ... export this grain, passing it off as its own! In Russia, the domestic market still uses mostly low-quality grain, and usually mixed with feed grain. And the currency is paid for quality grain. It looks like it's time to impose an embargo on Russian grain as well. the scale of Russian theft from Ukraine is global! The southern regions of Ukraine have always been very fertile.

West Asia or Middle East as you call it is already having problem with scarcity, why do you think we tightened our borders, they were stealing flour and selling it over the border for a whopping 10x profit! That forced the government to increase the flour price by a lot then give people the cash difference in their bank accounts.

But the difference with Europe and the reason why I focused on it is because the countries in West Asia that are facing the problems (Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon,...) are all used to these problems. Their countries are already torn apart by decades long wars and food was already scarce. Europeans on the other hand have not experienced this and aren't expecting it.

I wouldn't say "fine" considering the inflation has been rising a lot in US ever since the conflict. Not to mention the money they are spending in Ukraine publicly and privately and through weapons donation has to come from somewhere.

I seriously doubt that. US strategy over the past ~50 years ever since Vietnam defeat was to not get involved in conflicts as much as possible and only fight by arming proxies, separatists and extremists, specially if they are facing an actual adversary.
On top of that with the deplorable living situations that US marines have on the seas that has led to numerous suicides I don't think they are even combat ready.

Of course, you're wrong!

The EU is one the world's biggest food, cereals, and wheat exporter in the world, and also in the top biggest producers of all three of them.
They actually produce that much even wannabe regional powers are importing food from Europe.


That's why there are food riots in Iran and price increases of 300% overnight while in Europe all the shelves are full.

So this is wheat production:

This is cereal production:
The EU produced 286.5 million tonnes of cereals in 2020., which puts Europe in fourth place but it completely outclases both India and China in per capita production.

And of course at the top when it comes to actual food exports,  with 6 of the biggest food exporters being from Europe. Just because in usual rankings pf production European countries don't make the top 5 is because the production is split between many of them with different crops for each one.

So now that we've covered wheat and cereals your other concerns, sunflower oil, again 5 countries from Europe in the biggest exporters,  and live stock feed, with 8 countries out of top 10 being again European.

Btw, speaking of crisis food riots, people getting shot in the streets, and the internet being closed down, why didn't you mention the 50 cents per day in food stamps the Iranian government is giving to the 80 million facing poverty and famine?
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-bread-costs-skyrocket-unrest/31838051.html


So no, Europe has no food problem whatsoever, the only things we might be concerned about are bananas and coffee so we might have to get a cafe latte instead of an expresso. But of course, Russian and Iranian propaganda will tell you everything is the opposite, they know better.

French President Macron suggested that Zelensky cede some part of his territories to Russia in this war in order to "save the face of Putin", who is clearly suffering a military defeat in Ukraine. To this, Zelensky replied that he was not even going to discuss the issues of ceding the territory of Ukraine and its sovereignty. The office of the President of Ukraine added that if Macron wants to make Putin a winner in the war, let him give up his territories.
 
With regard to food shortages, this issue is already being discussed at the highest levels. Russia is blocking shipping in the Black Sea and, first of all, the seaports of Ukraine. This does not allow Ukraine to export wheat and other agricultural products, which have already accumulated in the ports alone 4.5 million tons. The UN has already expressed fear of a famine that could begin in Africa. Therefore, they offered Russia to ease sanctions on the export of potash fertilizers in exchange for unblocking the ports of Ukraine. If Russia does not agree, then the US Sixth Fleet, which is now in the Mediterranean, is ready to enter the Black Sea to ensure the safety of navigation in this region. In this case, the likelihood of a Third World War increases, but no one is afraid of Russia anymore, since it has shown its military weakness and has already lost at least a third of its army in Ukraine.

I think this is a wakeup call to nations that have large and fertile lands for farming but yet depend on imports to feed their nations. Due to the discovery of oil and gas most countries abandoned agriculture and focused on the development of the oil and gas sector. Now most of them are suffering from inflation due to increase in the prices of food commodities. And this would become worst if there are no more grains to import. They are now adopting the fire brigade approach which include promoting agricultural education and investing in small and medium scale farming.

Although not attainable, it is also a lesson to the world that peaceful resolution of differences is the best instead of war. War has multidimensional and international negative consequences. No matter how far your country is from warring nations, it would definitely feel the negative impact of the war.

It makes sense, a bullet can kill a person by damaging less than 1% of their body, the rest of the body is still fine and yet there is nothing that can be done to save that person, so it makes sense that a country that may not seem to hold too much power economically could produce such effects as long what they produce is critical, also I would not be surprised if Russia is at the top of the countries with the most drinking water, which will be a point of contention during this century.

As an american I suspect europe's food sustainability mirrors their solar energy viability. Many have pointed out how solar power isn't the best option for europe due to lack of sunlight. This trend could apply as well to europe's agricultural industry, which could lack the sunlight necessary to produce good volumes of food per hectare.




One key thing to consider is bluefin tuna has been on the endangered species list for many consecutive years.

With overfishing, ocean pollution and acidification on the rise. There is a chance staple food products people rely on for survival could be hunted into extinction.

The amount of arable land (agriculture) in the world decreases every year. Along with worsening drought conditions and unstable weather patterns.

We could eventually face a perfect storm of worst case scenarios that is the stuff of nightmares.

The zombie apocalypse may be cancelled. The greatest threat to humanity may be our mismanagement of wildlife and resources.

India has its own problem. They're the 2nd largest population. Its only logical to save their own people from hunger than sending wheat somewhere. 

So little time left to grow crops before people will rally together out of hunger but maybe putting up an irrigation to the barren lands will work even for sweet potatoes just to survive this scarcity.  Wheat is just the most basic food for most countries.

This feels like going to WWIII if not stop immediately and world leaders should decide fast before it's too late for their people to suffer more in starvation not in war. I see where this is going if it will continue then neighboring countries whose solely relying on imported goods might get affected that much. It seems like a domino effect and soon will be felt by other countries and the answer to the solution is if world leaders would decide what to do to stop the crisis which is getting worse day by day.

Considering that we have large part of agricultural land, it means, we won't go hungry if there will be farmers that will cultivate it. You are right, a lot are now looking for like office job or other easier jobs. Because being a farmer, takes hard work all day long under the heat of the sun. We can't expect new generations to follow this kind of lifestyle. But I do agree, the more machines in the farm, much better not only for the yield but less tedious jobs for the farmers. And it may possibly encourage them to stay in the farming business.

The issue of food scarcity is solely because in this era farmers are few. Every one wants a clean job only a few are willing to go dirty for their cents. If mechanised farming gets high sponsorship by government agricultural banks I think many might consider farming as an occupation. Also If nations close down their boarders on importation of food may be the famine that smells close might be alleviated

India can be understood, now it is the most numerous country in the world and it should first of all think about its own food security. It is unlikely that this decision was dictated by foreign policy motives; rather, it was influenced by the abnormal heat in March. In France, the situation with the climate is also unfavorable, there has been no rain for two months.