UN Food Chief Says 'Hell on Earth' Looms From Hunger Crisis Triggered by Ukraine War
With the world "marching towards starvation," said David Beasley, "the best thing we can do right now is end that damn war in Russia and Ukraine and get the port open" in Odesa.
As food prices and hunger surge worldwide, hundreds of millions of people around the globe are "marching towards starvation"—increasing the likelihood of preventable deaths, civil unrest, and political violence in the months ahead—the United Nations food chief warned Thursday.
"We thought it couldn't get any worse, but this war has been devastating."
Speaking from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, World Food Program (WFP) Director David Beasley said that "frightening" shortages of key food staples put tens of millions of lives in jeopardy and risk destabilizing countries that are heavily reliant on imports.
"Even before the Ukraine crisis, we were facing an unprecedented global food crisis because of Covid and fuel price increases," said Beasley. "Then, we thought it couldn't get any worse, but this war has been devastating."
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February and imposed a blockade on its Black Sea ports, agricultural exports from Ukraine—responsible for 9% of the world's wheat, 16% of its maize, and 42% of its sunflower oil—have declined substantially, leaving millions of tons of stored grain on the cusp of rotting.
The war also disrupted this year's planting season, raising fears that this summer's harvest, assuming sufficient labor power and storage space can be found, will be a third lower than in 2021.
Consequently, food prices have soared to record highs—surpassing levels last seen during the global crisis of 2007-08, when a spike in the cost of bread helped contribute to the Arab Spring uprisings—and put tens of millions of people at increased risk of extreme hunger.
Citing the increased costs of shipping, fertilizer, and fuel associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and the Ukraine war, Beasley said that the number of people suffering from "chronic hunger" has grown from 650 million to 810 million over the past five years.
Meanwhile, the number of people suffering from "shock hunger," which Beasley defined as not knowing "where your next meal is coming from," has ballooned from 80 million to 325 million over the same time period.
Russia's war on Ukraine isn't the only factor driving global hunger, which hit an all-time high in 2021 and has only grown worse since then.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/17/un-food-chief-says-hell-earth-looms-hunger-crisis-triggered-ukraine-war
Looks like they'll try and use food shortages to backdoor the UN into countries