Famine

Iowa Corn Fields - Bonfire Photography

An excerpt from To Avoid Wartime Famine, Suspend Corn Ethanol Production by Brad Patty:

The war in Ukraine means that fields are not getting planted, and Ukraine supplies much of the world’s grains. According to Eric Hansotia, the CEO of Agco, approximately 13% of the world’s total calories —  not just grains — are offline this year because of the war. That raises the specter of famine.

We are able to take steps to buffer global food supplies against this risk, most notably suspending corn-based ethanol production. These steps need to be taken now, so that the crops being planted are secured to global food supplies instead of energy production. The amount of corn that we devote to ethanol production is huge: up to 25% of American corn cropland produces crops for ethanol use. By shifting that corn to food production instead, we could reduce the amount of starvation that is likely to occur from the war. In addition to saving many lives, this policy would also reduce Russia’s capacity to use the stoppage of food production in Ukraine as a lever for obtaining its will.

I have no faith that the kakistocracy that is supposed to be running this country will do anything about this.

From Security Studies Group

Via My Daily Kona