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EU Will Reap What US Sows: Who Benefits From Looming Global Food Crisis_我的网站

A |     Russian Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev weighed in on the issue of global food security on Friday, warning that a crisis of planetary proportions is taking shape.,“The situation in global markets is difficult, especially for wheat. This season, due to a number of factors, including drought in the US and Europe, floods in Australia and bad weather in India, the global supply of milling wheat will drop. Also, due to climate anomalies, a decrease in the quality of wheat in North America is expected, first and foremost in the United States. All of this, together with logistical restrictions, could lead to serious risks in terms of global food security in the current agricultural year,” Patrushev said, speaking to ministry officials in Bashkiria.,Patrushev updated officials on the state of Russia’s harvesting campaign, saying about 27 percent of the fields have been cultivated, with 55 million tons of grain collected – a good indicator, but far below yields shown a year ago, thanks to a cold spring, poor weather and problems with obtaining parts for foreign-made agricultural equipment.,“Altogether, this creates risks in terms of achieving [the planned] grain harvest of 130 million tons. Of course, we will fully provide for the domestic market, there will not be any problems with this. However, if the planned volumes are not reached, we will have to revise our export target of 50 million tons, and this may have a negative impact on the world grain market,” the minister warned.,Russian Agriculture Ministry Warns of Risks to Global Food Security in Current Crop Year 5 August, 09:08 GMT,Sanctions Food for Thought,The United States and Europe got a rude awakening in the spring when the nations of the Global South refused to join them in slapping sanctions on Russia after it kicked off its special military operation in Ukraine. While the US, Canada, the UK, the European Union, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand drafted thousands upon thousands of new restrictions against Moscow, not a single country in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, or non-US allied East Asia has joined them so far.,The developing world’s quest for food security, and Russia’s status as a major global exporter of both grains and fertilizers, is undoubtedly an important factor in calculations made by regional leaders when it comes to sanctions.,At the same time, the Global South has not been spared the consequences of the West’s secondary restrictions. African Union chief and Senegalese President Macky Sall outlined the scope of the problem in June, telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that sanctions had “aggravated the situation with the supply of grains and fertilizers to African countries,” and sparked “a serious threat to food security” for the continent.,AfricaAnti-Russia Sanctions Left Africa Without Access to Grain and Fertilisers, African Union Chief Says3 June, 11:13 GMT,Notwithstanding concerns about global food security going back to the COVID crisis of 2020 and 2021, which wreaked havoc on supply chains and aggravated economic pain across much of the developing world, the US and its allies unflinchingly and nearly instantaneously slapped agriculture- and fertilizer-related sanctions on Russia and its ally, Belarus, in February and March of 2022.,Oleg Kobiakov, director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Russian liaison office, recently revealed that his agency estimates that some 828 million people were suffering from hunger at the end of 2021, with their numbers increasing by some 150 million people compared to the pre-COVID year 2019. Amid the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis and Western sanctions, Kobiakov stressed the importance of the FAO-proposed international fund to support the export of food, fertilizers, and energy to assist developing countries, particularly in Africa.,Western Sanctions, Global Consequences,The sanctions slapped on Russia in the spring of 2022, which included direct restrictions on food and fertilizer exports, plus efforts to limit Russia’s trade in agricultural commodities with third countries via so-called secondary sanctions on cargo ships or insurance providers, have already had a noticeable impact on food security, not only in the Global South, but the very heart of the so-called "First World" as well.,Earlier this year, German media sounded the alarm after calculating that the country’s farmers stand to lose some three million tons of agricultural output thanks to sanctions. In June, Bild reported that nearly one in six Germans is forced to skip meals thanks to out-of-control hikes in food prices.,In neighboring Poland, local media reported this week that Ukrainian wheat supplies flooding into the country were causing a “catastrophic” dampening of prices for domestic producers. “If the situation doesn’t improve, there will be riots in the countryside!” a farmer in Plonsk told a Wyborcza correspondent.,In Italy, the National Institute of Statistics has reported a double-digit jump in prices for flour and pasta, with prices for the staple components of Italian cooking growing between 18 and 21.5 percent year-on-year in July, and the cost of cooking oil spiking by a whopping 66 percent.,RussiaLIVE UPDATES: First Bulker With Ukrainian Grain Reaches Istanbul2 August, 05:00 GMT,Food insecure regions of the planet have fared even worse. According to a recent estimate by international aid agency Mercy Corps, flour prices in Lebanon, which depends on Russia and Ukraine for over 80 percent of its wheat flower needs, have jumped over 200 percent since the escalation of the Ukraine crisis.,For many countries, the Ukrainian emergency has only served to exacerbate an array of already existing problems. In Morocco, for example, Agriculture Minister Mohammed Sadiki reported in the spring that the country expects to lose up to 53 percent of its grain harvest this year due to the worst drought of the decade. The Horn of Africa faces similar worries amid the worst regional drought in 40 years. In Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, over 18 million people face hunger, and British charitable group Oxfam International fears that as many as 350,000 children could die from malnutrition this year in Somalia alone.,Earlier this year, the UN’s Refugee Agency calculated that the numbers of people forced to flee their homes in search of a better life had reached its highest-ever recorded number, with food scarcity, inflation, and the climate crisis adding to existing hardships and stretching humanitarian resources to the breaking point. According to the World Food Program, the number of people suffering from hunger could increase by 30-50 million people, with the poorest countries of Africa including Somalia, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Congo expected to be hit hardest.,RussiaFighting Africa's Food Crisis: Russia Strengthening Ties and Stretching Helping Hand to Kenya3 August, 10:08 GMT,In June, the WFP warned that in Latin America too, food inflation is threatening to cause a migration wave of Biblical proportions amid calculations that some 14 million people across 13 countries are threatened with “extreme” food insecurity – up from 8.3 million in late 2021, if the current crisis continues.,“All of you are watching caravans, caravans of migrants moving, and before we used to talk about migration from the north of Central America, but now, unfortunately, we talk about migration being hemispheric. We have the whole continent on the move,” WEF Latin America and the Caribbean region coordinator Lola Castro told reporters.,Good for the Goose, But Not the Gander?,Last month, on the heels of the signing of the Russia-Ukraine-UN grain deal, the US Treasury reversed course on a number of food and fertilizer sanctions directives, “clarifying” in a fact sheet that it would no longer threaten secondary restrictions for the purchase or transport of Russian agricultural commodities. For the domestic market, Washington quietly eased restrictions on Russian agricultural products, including fertilizers, back in March, after the domestic farming lobby warned of out-of-control price hikes and possible food shortages.,Brussels, which joined Washington in slapping tough restrictions on Moscow in the spring, did not follow suit in easing them until late last month, after the damage to domestic and international markets had already been done.,WorldEU Reportedly Set to Unfreeze Some Russian Bank Funds for Food, Fertilizer Trade19 July, 10:26 GMT,Biden administration National Economic Council director Brian Deese raised eyebrows late last month when he boasted that compared to the rest of the world, the United States is in a better position to weather the global food security crisis.,“With respect to food, we’re a net exporter of agricultural commodities. Obviously the high prices are hitting Americans very hard, but in a way that is different from some places that are facing famine for example,” Deese said.,Biden economic advisor Brian Deese says the U.S. is doing better economically than other countries because we’re not in a “famine” pic.twitter.com/2JwO7YneOI— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 27, 2022,Biden’s detractors blasted the White House over Deese’s comments, suggesting it was absurd to lower the bar on the administration’s economic performance to the point where it was bragging that "at least the US isn’t facing famine." However, in the broader scheme of things, and amid the global food security crisis artificially exacerbated by Washington and its allies using sanctions, Deese isn’t wrong, with other countries, including many of the US’ allies, suffering much more.,Quo Vadis?,Serbia, home to the so-called “Balkan route” for migration during the 2015 European migrant crisis, has recently reported a major uptick in immigration amid the global food crisis.,On July 20, Serbian Commissioner for Refugees and Migration Vladimir Cucic indicated that the number of migrants traveling through Serbia had jumped 55 percent in 2022, with the number of people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East using the country as a transit state reaching 68,000, and expected to hit 100,000 before the end of the year. Cucic is confident that the global food crisis is directly responsible for the migration uptick, which he said has hit Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, parts of India and other Asian nations hardest.,“Hunger is forcing more and more people to move on out. You’re not going to wait and see how your children die from hunger, you will give them everything you have and tell them "get out of here!’” the official stressed.,UK Home Office Fails to Handle Increased Flow of Migrants Via English Channel21 July, 18:30 GMT,Food scarcity has been a factor driving revolutions, coups, wars, and civil unrest throughout human history, and has been used expertly by foreign manipulators to spark crises and institute regime change throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. Food insecurity was a critical factor in the so-called "Arab Spring" unrest which swept across the Middle East and North Africa in early 2010. That crisis, together with the US and NATO military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, helped spark the 2015 European migrant wave, which saw more than 1.3 million people making their way to the continent, sparking mass unrest and a host of other social ills and problems in the countries that were made to accept the newcomers.,Observers fear that the second time around, the situation could prove far more explosive.,“Europe is not prepared morally, technically, or politically to accept additional refugees. They already overstrained themselves with the Syrian crisis,” Elena Suponina, an advisor to the director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies and expert at the Russian International Affairs Council think tank, told Sputnik in an interview.,The West, Suponina believes, is not ready to “save” people from Africa and Asia in the event of a global food crisis which she says has been manufactured by the United States.,“The United States has always been interested in limiting the strength of the European economies. Besides being partners, they are also competitors. The US has always kept in mind that Europe is first and foremost a competitor,” the expert stressed.,Tiberio Graziani, chairman of Vision & Global Trends - an Italy-based international affairs think tank, echoed Suponina's concerns, suggesting that Europe is "by no means ready to handle new potential waves of migrants," and still reeling from the consequences of the 2015 crisis. At the same time, he said, hunger has been a "recurring theme" in a world dominated by the West and its political and economic systems of governance.,"The food crisis is mainly due to the predatory policies carried out - in recent decades - by the so-called Western system in the different corners of the world. The hyper-liberal-democratic policies of the West have favoured the large globalist interest groups which, similarly to the colonial past of the nineteenth century, have deconstructed the various economic-productive fabrics of many areas of the planet, producing misery and dependence. The sophisticated technology that could help the fate of millions of people, since in the hands of large producers, often tied to financial interests, has instead, paradoxically, exacerbated the problem. Non-state organizations such as the UN, beyond good speeches, have failed to find adequate solutions to the problem. The world as a whole could find solutions - to this challenge, as well as to others - only if world power were more evenly distributed. Only a new multipolar system that adopts - in both economic and political international issues - a solidarity and cooperative practice, antithetical to current hyperliberism, could save us. It can be noted that some initiatives taken by the BRICS countries are moving in this direction," Graziani stressed.,The academic also agreed with Suponina's analysis of Washington's interest in the current crisis.,"The interest of the United States is to maintain global hegemony. This can also involve the sacrifice of nations such as Ukraine or the Old Continent: in the context of the North American strategy, these would be 'side effects'. The internal situation of the EU would worsen further: Europe as a whole would become even weaker and more dependent on the US than it currently is," Graziani concluded.。    AI摘要      罗源西洋村推动花卉产业转型，从“卖苗木”转向“卖风景”，打造四季杜鹃谷发展乡村旅游。通过完善设施、丰富业态，实现农文旅融合，带动村民增收，促进乡村振兴。         东南网8月19日报道（福建日报记者 陈欢欢 通讯员 高坤颖 刘其燚）立秋已过，暑热未消。罗源县碧里乡西洋村四季杜鹃谷被一片紫红花海覆盖。“虽然还没到杜鹃花的花期，但谷里的紫薇花也很漂亮，怎么拍都能出片！”来自福州的游客张敏与朋友驱车来此，直叹不虚此行。    过去，人们来西洋村不为赏花，而是买花苗。村里拥有悠久的花卉种植历史，全村约60%的村民从事花卉种植，培育的杜鹃花、茶花等花苗远销浙江、江西等地。

B | 2023年，福州市区城市绿化、景观盆栽等用途的花卉苗木，80%以上来自西洋村。    然而，随着花卉苗木市场行情走低，传统花卉种植产业面临发展瓶颈。就在这时，转机出现了。“经常有游客专门来村里，就为欣赏杜鹃花。”西洋村党支部书记林贤维说，意识到花朵能引流后，村里开始琢磨发展乡村旅游。

C |     2022年，在村党支部牵头下，西洋村盘活村口附近撂荒的茶园，正式启动杜鹃谷建设项目。在乡党委、政府和村“两委”的重视下，总投资数百万元的杜鹃谷项目初具雏形。    在此过程中，在外乡贤成为杜鹃谷建设的主力军。

D | “我是土生土长的西洋村人，有能力为家乡做点事，义不容辞。”2024年春节回乡过年时，在外经商的村民尤惠得知杜鹃谷建设面临资金短缺，毅然返乡出资加入杜鹃谷建设。

E |     可是，困难很快接踵而至。

F | “由于初期规划不足，花株间隔较远，景观效果并不好。”尤惠说，2025年下半年，他带领村民补植了4万株杜鹃，还种植了100株樱花，丰富杜鹃谷的景观层次。如今，占地面积300亩的杜鹃谷，种有6万多株杜鹃，品种超百种。    “杜鹃只能在春、秋、冬三季开花，为了填补夏季花期空白，我们栽种了10多亩紫薇。”杜鹃谷管理负责人陈晃介绍，有了“能开百日”的紫薇，杜鹃谷实现了“四季有花看、四季有景赏”，让花季所带来的乡村文旅热得以长期“保温”。    从“卖苗木”到“卖风景”，西洋村将传统农产品做成了景观资源。“乡村不能只停留在‘卖原料’的传统路径上，而要立足原有资源禀赋，顺应消费趋势和市场变化，向‘卖体验、卖品牌’延伸。”福建农林大学林学院副研究员方亮说。    为让游客拥有更好的文旅体验，西洋村持续完善杜鹃谷建设。今年，谷内土路翻修成步道，新增了6部房车、3间太空舱、288平方米的露天舞台与儿童游乐设施，亲水露营营位、餐饮场所、游客服务中心正紧锣密鼓地修建。“希望为游客带来能停留、能体验、能住下、能回味的别样体验。”陈晃说。    兴旺的人气，也为村民提供了家门口的就业岗位。“我负责花木养护、场地清理等工作，每天工资150元，还能照顾家人。”村民尤庆城笑着说，许多游客在赏花之余，会购买他培育的花苗回家栽种，他的日子越过越有奔头。

G |     以花为媒，“花经济”日益壮大。杜鹃谷的育苗棚里，村民郑庆雄穿梭其中。“你看这一盆，到了花期能同时开出三四种颜色的杜鹃花，很受欢迎。”他自豪地介绍。    目前，西洋村聘请了4名专业园艺师，投入近300万元修建标准化展示棚，计划用于盆景展示和电商直播。

H | “我们想让西洋村的杜鹃盆景走出大山、走向全国。”林贤维信心满满。未来，他还计划引入专业运营管理团队，提升杜鹃谷服务质量。    在方亮看来，西洋村的转型还有一个借鉴价值——通过农文旅融合，实现产业链增值和发展方式转变。“乡村振兴的关键，是把原有特色产业做深做透，叠加出复合效益，形成生态可观赏、产业可增值、农民可增收的良性循环。”     罗源拥有的，不只西洋村的花卉。当地还依托菌菇、茶叶等农产品，打造“直销+观光+采摘体验+农耕研学”四位一体模式，拓宽农产品出村进城路径，实现“以农促旅、以旅强农”的产业联动效益。

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