Global Food Shortage?

There DOES appear to be a global food shortage currently and it may get worse in the months ahead. The pace at which things are changing around the globe right now is concerning and most people assume that life will just continue to carry on as it normally does.?Unfortunately, this could evolve into major world challenge.

Below is some information about the emerging global food shortage:

1. President Biden recently admitted that food shortages are "going to be real" and the Biden administration is worried Russia's invasion of Ukraine will cause famine in parts of the world.

#2 It is being reported that food prices at German supermarkets will soon go up between 20 and 50 percent. Just days after Germany reported the highest inflation in generation (with February headline CPI soaring at a 7.6% annual pace and blowing away all expectations). This was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine broke what few supply chains remained and sent prices even higher into the stratosphere. The German Retail Association (HDE) reported consumers should prepare for another wave of price hikes for everyday goods and groceries with Reuters reporting that prices at German retail chains will explode between 20 and 50%.

3. One of France's most important government officials is telling us that we should brace ourselves for an "extremely serious" global food crisis. France's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the EU must get to grips with the prospect that the war in Ukraine could prompt an "extremely serious" global food crisis.

4. Rationing has already begun in Spain, the country started experiencing sporadic shortages of different products like eggs, milk and other dairy products almost immediately following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. In early March, major supermarkets like Mercadona and Makro began rationing sunflower oil.

5. Rationing has also already started in Greece. At least four national supermarket chains have started rationing food products like flour and sunflower oil due to critically low supplies caused by the crippled supply chains coming out of Russia and Ukraine.

6. Many farmers in Africa will not be able to afford fertilizer at all this year, and it is being projected that this will reduce agricultural production by an amount capable of feeding "100 million people". With prices tripling over the past 18 months, many farmers are considering whether to forgo purchases of fertilizers this year. That leaves a market long touted for its growth potential set to shrink by almost a third, according to Sebastian Nduva, program manager at researcher group AfricaFertilizer.Org. This could potentially curb cereals output by 30 million tons, enough to feed 100 million people.

7. Since this time last year, some fertilizer prices have gone up by as much as 300 percent.

8. Russia is normally one of the biggest global exporters of fertilizer. Russia is a key global player in natural gas, a major input to fertilizer production. Higher gas prices, and supply cuts, will further drive fertilizer prices higher. Russia is one of the biggest exporters of the three major groups of fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). Physical supply cuts could further inflate fertilizer prices.

9. In a typical year, Russia and Ukraine collectively account for approximately 30 percent of all global wheat exports.

10. Half of Africa's wheat imports usually come from either Russia or Ukraine.

11. Other nations rely on wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine even than Africa. Armenia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Eritrea have imported virtually all of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine and must find new sources. But they are competing against much larger buyers, including Turkey, Egypt, Bangladesh and Iran, which have obtained more than 60 percent of their wheat from the two warring countries.

12. China's agricultural minister has announced that the winter wheat harvest in China could be "the worst in history".

13. One Russian official is warning that his nation may soon only export food to "friendly nations". A Russian government official has threatened that Russia will limit its vital food exports to only nations it considers "friendly". Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Russian security official who previously served as the nation's president, has threatened that Russia may soon cut off the West from food exports.

14. It was recently announced that another 5 million egg-laying chickens in Iowa would have to be put down because of the bird flu.

15. The death toll from the bird flu in Iowa alone will be pushed beyond 13 million as a result of this latest incident.

16. Overall, this is what the total national death toll from the bird flu currently looks like: "22 million egg-laying chickens, 1.8 million broiler chickens, 1.9 million pullet and other commercial chickens, and 1.9 million turkeys".

17. We are being warned that the winter wheat harvest in the United States will be "disastrous" due to severe drought.

18. During a recent interview, one prominent U.S. farmer stated that most Americans won't like it when "your grocery bill is up $1,000.00 a month".

19. The head of the UN World Food program says that what the planet is now facing is unlike anything that we have seen since World War II. "Ukraine has only compounded a catastrophe on top of a catastrophe," said David M. Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program, the United Nations agency that feeds 125 million people a day. "There is no precedent even close to this since World War II."

20. The head of BlackRock is warning that this will be the very first time this generation "is going to go into a store and not be able to get what they want". BlackRock Inc. President Rob Kapito recently told an audience in Austin, Texas, hosted by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, that an entire younger generation is quickly finding out what it means to suffer from shortages, according to Bloomberg. "For the first time, this generation is going to go into a store and not be able to get what they want," Kapito said. "And we have a very entitled generation that has never had to sacrifice."

I grew up on a farm and I have spent the vast majority of my career in Agribusiness. To this point, I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime and conditions appear to be getting worse with each passing day.