What grain? What famine?

I’ve been listening to the growing intensity of the Western media’s lament about the impending famine for at least two weeks. Its cause is, of course, a well-known devil who has devised his latest cruel scheme: starving the human race. People capable of even the most basic rational thought have already learned to dismiss such nonsense with a pity sigh, as I have. However, I am troubled by the question regarding the motivation for presenting the public with a truth that is so readily accepted.

It is worth asking whether the Russian Federation’s authorities, even if they truly plotted against humanity, are capable of carrying out such an undertaking. In fact, even a cursory search in the Western media reveals that it is not only not possible or considered, but quite the opposite. On June 6, the Bloomberg portal published a text in which it is clear that Russia and Turkey attempted to enter into talks with Kiev authorities in order to secure special transport corridors so that Ukraine could export grain safely. However, this proposal was rejected, and the Ukrainian side’s argument that Turkish and Russian guarantees cannot be taken seriously can only be viewed as an impediment.

I continue to read the media with heightened focus. I’d like to know what’s causing this hunger that Western media employees (who I’m not going to call journalists) are announcing with increasing vigor. I am not an expert on agricultural issues, so I am searching in the dark; however, aside from bombastic assurances that Satan will bring famine to all of us, I do not see any arguments.

Every media outlet I’ve seen maintains, in a truly hysterical tone, that 20 million tons of grain should be immediately exported from Ukraine to the rest of the world, and that if this does not happen — bam, we’ll all starve. So I’m looking for information on where this figure came from. I can’t seem to find it. Western media employees simply write that there is so much grain in Ukraine right now. I also don’t understand why it’s suddenly necessary to export these 20 million tons of grain when Ukrainian grain exports haven’t exceeded 15 million tons on average over the last decade. Why is the West suddenly claiming ownership of all of Ukraine’s grain? Perhaps the Ukrainians should be given something as well? Or is the “to the last Ukrainian” strategy to be implemented more quickly? That is, first and foremost.

Secondly. Someone should probably inform Western media employees that these several million tons were not exported all at once, but rather over the course of the year. As a result, about 1.5 million tons were exported per month on average. Ukraine exported just under 700,000 tonnes in April, and the same was true in previous months, so the total does not equal 20 million tonnes. By the end of the year, there could be a global shortage of five to seven million tonnes of Ukrainian grain at this rate. This does not appear to be a sign of impending famine.

Thirdly. Why is it that no one tells the public that last year was one of the most fertile years in human history? Nearly one billion tons of grain were harvested, with nearly 135 million tons harvested in the People’s Republic of China, where a planned economy is in place. Ukraine harvested 26 million tons, while Russia harvested 85 million. Even if we assume the devil blocked 10 million tons of grain in Ukraine, it only affected 1% of the grain resources produced last season. How is a global famine supposed to result from this?

Fourthly. Ukraine is the fifth-largest grain exporter, while Russia is the largest, selling over 30 million tons of grain abroad. Western countries — USA, Canada, France, Australia, and Germany — are ranked second, third, and fourth, as well as fifth and sixth, in that order. These countries appear to be able to protect themselves from famine by limiting grain exports. So, what’s the big deal? How can seven or ten million tons of grain cause famine in this situation?

Of course, it cannot. But it’s possible, and it’s highly likely, that severe food shortages will occur in countries in the so-called global South, rather than in the West. Which, by the way, the UN had forewarned about since well before the war. Furthermore, we know from previous observations that during pandemics in Western countries, including those so emblematic of legendary capitalist prosperity as the United States and Switzerland, there were food aid queues so massive that even the People’s Republic of Poland’s queues combined would not be able to overcome them quantitatively. Perhaps the issue isn’t so much a persistent export deficit in one country as it is a system of inequity, lack of redistribution, constant concentration of goods, and pathological overconsumption and waste.

I reiterate that I am not an agronomist; however, if someone can show that I am logically incorrect or that I lack sufficient knowledge of the current state of the global agricultural economy, I declare that I will gladly listen to such arguments.

Nevertheless, it appears that the devil from the East is not to blame for the looming threat of famine in the West, or even the entire world. The culprit is the system where approximately 75% of the world’s food is consumed by the so-called ‘West,’ and whose rulers do not consider, even in a crisis situation (as the pandemic has demonstrated), even slightly tempering the sucking of resources from the poor — so that the rich can drink even more expensive whiskey.