Just as we learn that inflation slowed to 3% in June, those darn Russians are looking to drive food prices back up by shooting at Ukrainian grain ships again:
Russia halted a breakthrough wartime deal on Monday that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative until its demands to get its own food and fertilizer to the world are met. While Russia has complained that restrictions on shipping and insurance have hampered its agricultural exports, it has shipped record amounts of wheat.
“When the part of the Black Sea deal related to Russia is implemented, Russia will immediately return to the implementation of the deal,” Peskov said.
The suspension marks the end of an accord that the U.N. and Turkey brokered last summer to allow food to leave the Black Sea region after Russia’s invasion of its neighbor worsened a global food crisis. The initiative is credited with helping lower soaring prices of wheat, vegetable oil and other food commodities [Courtney Bonnell, “Russia Has Halted a Wartime Deal Allowing Ukraine to Ship Grain. It’s a Blow to Global Food Security,” AP, 2023.07.17].
Even if negotiators can get Russia to put down their torpedoes, the Russian invasion could cut Ukrainian grain production this year to half of its pre-war level.
Food prices are on the way up again. Add the effects of the heat wave to the severe crimp in global grain supplies from the Russian invasion and occupation of 17% of Ukraine and we have the ingredients for increased global hunger. Even Georgia, the Peach State, is out of peaches due to errant weather: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/15/business/georgia-peach-shortage/index.html
This is just more bluster from pootie. China is one of the main buyers of grain from Ukraine. Also, Turkey gets a cut for all the grain going through those straits. Grain shortages are a marketing tool. If we were all so concerned about food shortages, we would demand this pipeline be shutdown and for ethanol to be discontinued.
Eat a Peach by the Allman Brothers, was the best peach that ever came out of Georgia.
Stopping the Keystone XL pipeline gave Vlad the Impaler the petrodollars he needed to invade Ukraine. Ash and soot from wildfires in the Siberian taiga are accelerating the loss of Arctic sea ice driving more frequent and deeper polar vortexes.
But the conversion of American crop land from wheat to corn burned for automobile fuel is a huge part of what’s wrong with socialized agriculture not to mention driving Anthropogenic global warming.
Wetlands are being destroyed for cropland, livestock demands on water supplies dwarf the needs of cities, global biodiversity is threatened, Arctic ice packs are disappearing, humans are breeding less nutritious food and pesticides are killing native pollinators because capitalism.
Water is bountiful in Arizona, just ask the Saudi’s as they grow alfalfa by the thousands of tons with plenty of water. Then they cut it and fly it all back home to feed their cows. Boy, we Americans are some of the smartest dummies on the planet. All for the almighty dollar.
Turkey has been saying that they will supply shadow protection ships to protect the Ukraine grain. Turkey is kinda tough and has a lot of Black Sea shoreline…and also control over who comes and goes in the Black Sea. pootie better watch out or they make make his frigates submarines if he gets all frisky.
Jerry–Ertogan of Turkey walks on both sides of the street. He’s probably our most unreliable NATO ally. Turkey, long range, is focused on reestablishing the Ottoman Empire, really has grandiose ambition. The Turks would like to cross the Caucuses and incorporate the Muslims living in Russia. Young Turks, and it is a young country demographically, love personal freedom and are skeptical about Ertogan. Like young people around the world, they want their MTV and are interested in free markets and consumerism. The world is changing and the next generation, everywhere, is very encouraging.
Indeed Mr. Blundt, he is a well centered politico. He got his F-16’s and could care about MTV. The Ottoman Empire is like the Mongol Empire, strong for it’s day, but now in the dust bin. I hope that young Russians will eventually come back to Russia and rebuild it in a free market world with no more empire building. They won’t get that until there are a whole lot more body bags full of dead Russian soldiers along with their leader. Back to the 1991 agreed upon border and it will be over.
ok so you believe conservative talk news stations who preach that the election was stolen from donald trump. you believe that over 11 million ballots of ineligible or fake voters were stuffed into remote ballot boxes by “radical left democrats”.
but wait a minute…didn’t honest election workers verify the name and eligibility of each and every submitted ballot? and didn’t another set of mostly republican-chosen election workers re-certify and re-count each and every ballot in contested states?? and didn’t mostly trump-appointed judges rule that the election ballots and count were correct and not a hoax???
so then you tell me that biden has ruined the economy…even though unemployment is at an al-time low! and wages are at record highs! the too-high price of fuel, food, lumber, clothes, and rent are all stabilizing or returning to normal or even lower!!!
so then you criticize joe for supporting ukraine even though a majority of republicans and democrats agree we need to help defend ukraine against putin. you say ukraine is just a corrupt, pi**-ant economy.
actually ukraine is (was) the bread basket for numerous countries in africa, asia, and europe that are now facing famine without comedies.
how can you side with donald’s friend putin as he destroys the homes and cities everywhere in ukraine and leaves infants and children dead under blown-up apartments, shelters, schools, and even hospitals???
A good analysis of the impacts of ending the Ukraine and Russian exports of grains and fertilizers. Recall that using rail exports is a huge problem because the Soviets (Russians and their once proxies in Ukraine), use wider gauge rails than does the EU requiring major rail fixes or trans-loading.
(And read into the analysis – the implication of why its in the west’s and world’s best interest to have the US 6th Fleet police the Black Sea . . .)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPg7AdXSrbE
DS, who are you directing your comment to?
we all have friends, relatives, co-workers, and/or acquaintances that espouse donald trump lies. We need to do what we can least he win another election or even successfully circumvent a loss by insurrection.