Looming food shortages is world's next 'slow-moving disaster'

Looming food shortages is world's next 'slow-moving disaster'  

Glenn H. Reynolds

• Record inflation is leading to food shortages on shelves across the US.
  

"...But a new problem is rearing its head, and government officials seem as likely to make it worse as to make it better.
That problem is shortages of food and fertilizer brought about by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions enacted by the West in response.

• Ukraine is a major wheat producer, but war is likely to ensure a poor spring planting and harvest. Russia is also a major grower, but sanctions and war will prevent it from exporting to most of the world.
• Russia is also a major manufacturer of fertilizer; in fact, it is the world’s largest. Second on the list is . . . China, a nation aligned with Russia and notably unfriendly to the United States and the West. (Canada is a distant third.) 

That has people worried.

... Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s response to concerns about fertilizer and food shortages: “Maybe sacrifices are necessary.” 

You can rest assured Vilsack won’t be the one making them...Read all!!