"Food shortage... it's gonna be real."
Wars cause starvation and Warmongers want widespread famine
Today President Joe Biden addressed the nation, stating that there will be food shortages globally because of the Russo-Ukraine War. I wrote twice about this situation (see below). This issue is complicated, dealing with global supply chains in a way that wasn’t precisely felt during the Coronavirus global lockdowns. Here, instead of a condition created by governments to restrict the movement of nonessential persons, we have a situation where material goods cannot move from production to the consumers.
Food prices will rise in the Western and Developed worlds. Markets govern prices and commodities trade globally. Despite not functioning exactly like equities (because of the complicated ways that trade works in real life), supply disruptions like the Russo-Ukraine War affect prices elsewhere.
In the example of the United States, critics of the Agricultural Industry rightfully notice the mighty lobbies that keep subsidies to that industry. While true, the United States subsidizes and takes great pains to maintain its food sovereignty because from time to time, there are emergencies to which the United States responds. This food shortage will likely be one of those. There’s the “Arsenal of Democracy,” but also its granary.
It is also worth understanding the food shortage regarding its human consequences. To have a foreign policy is to have a proposed solution to happenstances that affect one’s nation. There’s a cacophony of voices calling for the ending of hostilities with Ukraine’s capitulation or the expansion of the conflict by NATO’s direct intervention (aggression). Stuck in the middle are the reasonable, rational people understanding that Ukraine won’t capitulate easily, as the Russians discovered, and know that an expansion would further the global catastrophe.
Wars cause famines. Currently, two of the world's largest grains exporters are at war, with battles on the best, most fertile farmland. This fact is why I think Western decision-makers are overly generous about the rate at which the world is hurtling towards this disaster. Given worldwide purchases of commodities in the first half of 2022 and worldwide fertilizer shortages, we could see this food crisis occurring by the end of this year. See Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, and others for examples.
Currently, Russia has taken measures to restrict food exports globally. This act is in Russia’s strategic interest. Yes, for one, to leverage its status as a food exporter to compel other countries to support its war in Ukraine. Secondly, the restriction gives Russia the ability to respond to food shortages later as they occur, to gain influence in the medium term, and also benefit financially from high prices. And finally, it’s a form of rationing. When food is scarce, expect rationing to occur.
Expansion of the conflict will involve more global exporters of grains and foodstuffs. These nations would be limited to responding to both the global food crisis and the actual combat on the ground; thus, one or the other gives way. We saw this in every major war. I will unpack the geopolitical causes and consequences of the World Wars later. However, as we saw in World War 2, the major powers of Great Britain, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union were powerless to manage all functions in their territories. There were famines in the British Empire, Continental Europe, and the Soviet Union.
The gun of famine is directly pointed at the world’s head – and the warmongers want to pull the trigger. Nuclear bombs aren’t needed to kill millions. Starvation and smallpox were among the most prolific killers in the 20th century – both of which have been aggressively combated since the Second World War. It is not humanitarian to trigger more mass starvations in response to a border war.
A quick speculative note - the reason for a Winter War and the early blitz-blunders by the Russian military was to quickly end the conflict. Vladimir Putin and his military commanders probably assumed that Ukraine was weak enough and that a swift military strike would end the war quickly, with minimal disruptions to global commodities. While Russia’s mainstay export prices, which drives her economy, are high, the collapse in access to markets is creating uncertainty. How does Russia manages this massive problem is going to be interesting.
This coming food shortage has as much to do with war as the government's pandemic restrictions on civil liberties and human rights has to do with a virus.
USA Today, February 4, 2022
Where's the tuna melt? Worker shortages mean smaller menus, limited choices and fewer shows
Simplicity may mean better jobs
"A slimmed-down strategy also allows businesses to be more productive while attracting workers with more straightforward jobs that come with fewer headaches and shorter hours, says Sarah Kalloch, executive director of the Good Jobs Institute, which helps companies create good jobs.
Some consumers may be irked that their favorite entrée or potato chip brand may not be available. But many others appreciate a less dizzying array of choices, Kalloch says.
A few years ago, Sam’s Club shaved the number of items it carried by 20%. Simpler offerings meant less training, Kalloch of Good Jobs says. Restocking shelves was faster and workers became more productive and made fewer mistakes, leading to higher wages. Shifts were more predictable, allowing for consistent schedules and lower employee turnover.
“We have to make operations less complex,” Kalloch says. “Everybody’s better able to execute; there’s cost savings.”
But Kalloch disagrees, saying consumers are fatigued by too much variety."
https://www.msn.com/en-US/news/companies/where-s-the-tuna-melt-worker-shortages-mean-smaller-menus-limited-choices-and-fewer-shows/ar-AATsEkf
What is Good Jobs Institute? A leftist business model association run by Marxists who've never run a business, hired a worker, but who've been schooled at the finest, elite institutions in how to direct the ignorant worker class beneath them to do their assigned tasks more efficiently. Often educated in the social sciences, behavioral sciences, psychological manipulation to change the "choice architecture" available to the ignorant masses. These are the people telling Costco, Quest Diagnostics, Toyota, Reuters, etc how to run their businesses and manage their employees. Do they inspire you with confidence that they are looking out for your best interests?
https://goodjobsinstitute.org/the-team/
Does the President, Sarah Kalloch, who tells you that people want less choice and are fatigued by too much variety inspire you with confidence that she's looking out for your best interests?
https://www.wellesley.edu/albright/albright/careereducation/about/faculty/sarah-kalloch
Nothing like a little food shortage crisis to remove those "dizzying array of choices" for consumers.
Deloitte Insights
June 24, 2019
Using Choice Architecture for Good
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/public-sector/government-trends/2020/government-nudge-thinking.html
When all of the world events, from pandemic to war to supply and food chain shortages all seem to result in moving society towards what the World Economic Forum calls The Great Reset and the United Nations calls Agenda 2030, a restructuring of society where you will "own nothing and be happy", where we'll "eat bugs" (and be happy) as free speech is constrained to public-private government-corporate approved topics and barriers and the "best science" we're being told we must follow is social and behavioral science advancing collectivist authoritarian agendas you might look at things like the war in Ukraine and Russia and coming food shortages, the pandemic and resulting intrusions on the rights and liberties of free people and free commerce and body autonomy, freedom of movement and association, etc as actually being just a means to an end. Maybe focusing on who and what agenda is behind these continuous crises destroying the fabric of our free and democratic society and civilization would be a good idea. Like hunting down and stopping the arsonists in the act instead of just putting out the fires they light.