Opinion by David Beasley: The Ukraine war could leave hundreds of millions hungry around the world
Very soon, surviving Ukrainian farmers will be trying to seed their spring fields in some of the world’s richest earth, from where the World Food Programme had hitherto drawn more than half our wheat. Our organization purchases about 400 metric tons of food globally every hour and moves that around the world by ship, plane and truck.
, WFP is already paying 30 percent more for food than it was in 2019, amounting to an additional $50 million every month. If the Black Sea transport corridors are disrupted further by this burgeoning war, transport prices will spike in lockstep, doubling or even tripling.Quickly, the most fragile nations would be rendered even more exposed by this war.
Between 2019 and today, the number of people at the brink of famine has risen from 27 million to 44 million. An additional 232 million people are just one step behind that category. WFP helped about 128 million of these individuals last year with cash and food assistance. These numbers are fanned by conflict, climate change, covid-19 and now, increasingly, cost. The sparks of this hunger are falling everywhere, from the dry corridor of Central America to the drought-stricken sands of Somalia.
It wasn’t all gloom just a few weeks ago. There were early glimmers that economies were beginning to recover from the pandemic. But Russia’s invasion has reminded us that the root cause of hunger around the world is human folly and reckless disregard for human life. The impact of a Ukraine gutted by the firestorm of war will be felt globally for years to come.
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