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Coronavirus Crop Destruction Recalls the Great Depression

https://time.com › History › COVID-19

28-May-2020 — In autumn 1933, Roosevelt provided $75 million to purchase agricultural products to
feed the needy, and the government set up the Federal ...

Russian forces destroy all food warehouses in Sievierodonetsk.

https://kyivindependent.com › uncategorized › luhansk...

21-Apr-2022 — Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Haidai said there are no surviving food depots left in
Sievierodonetsk and that residents are only able to ...

Why Farmers Are Destroying Millions Of Pounds Of Food

https://www.youtube.com › watch

The coronavirus has massively disrupted the food supply chain. Before the crisis, over half of
Americans' food dollars was spent outside the ...
YouTube · CNBC · 19-May-2020
9 key moments in this video

Is the government telling farmers to destroy their crops?

https://www.statesman.com › politics › 2021/09/10 › go...

10-Sept-2021 — Viral image: The U.S. government is trying to create food shortages by telling farmers
to destroy their crops. Our ruling: False.

Farmer had to destroy his crop amid food shortage fears - CNN
https://www.cnn.com › videos › 2020/04/14 › farmer-dest...

Florida farmer Sam Accursio explains why he has to destroy so much of his squash crop as fears of a
food shortage begin to grow during the ...
CNN · 14-Apr-2020

Greg Abbott's Border Blockade Cost $240 Million in Spoiled ...

https://www.eater.com › greg-abbott-truck-inspection-b...
18-Apr-2022 — Because the current economic situation was not already precarious enough, Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott decided to do his part to make the ...

Ukraine says Russia is stealing grain, which could worsen ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com › world › 2022/05/05

6 days ago — Nearly 19,000 tons of wheat and about 9,400 tons of sunflower product were destroyed,
he said. Earlier this week, the regional governor of ...

Videos of Ruined Wheat Fields in China Boost Food Security ...

https://www.bloomberg.com › news › articles › videos-...

1 day ago — The agriculture ministry is investigating to see if there's any illegal destruction of the wheat
crop, it said in a statement, citing reports ...

Guv Malik: Country heading towards destruction - Hindustan ...

https://www.hindustantimes.com › cities › lucknow-news

4 days ago — Malik urged both Hindus and Muslims to not fight over fake issues but for vital ones like
food and employment. Former MP Harendra Malik ...

Governors Help BPI Wash Ammoniated Beef of 'Pink Slime ...

https://www.foodsafetynews.com › 2012/03 › bpi-calls-...

30-Mar-2012 — Kansas Governor Sam Brownback called the national controversy over LFTB “an
unmerited and unwarranted food scare” and said it would lead to ...

Proceedings, Minnesota Governor's Conference on Food and ...

https://books.google.com.pk › books

1978 · Food
FOOD ADDITIVES : THE BASIC ISSUE , PART I Definition and functions of additives ... When a food is
banned , it is removed from the market and destroyed .

Can Haiti rebuild a food system broken by disaster, historical ...

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org › 2022/02/02 › ca...

02-Feb-2022 — As well as wiping out crops and damaging irrigation systems, the earthquakes and
storms destroyed markets, storage facilities, and food ...
Lysosome - National Human Genome Research Institute
https://www.genome.gov › genetics-glossary › Lysosome

They may be used to destroy invading viruses and bacteria. If the cell is damaged beyond repair,
lysosomes can help it to self-destruct in a process called ...

Types of Composting and Understanding the Process | US EPA

https://www.epa.gov › sustainable-management-food

“Green” organic material includes grass clippings, food scraps, ... Certain temperatures promote rapid
composting and destroy pathogens and weed seeds.

Rising concerns over agricultural production as COVID-19 ...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › articles › PMC7369589

by M Pu · 2020 · Cited by 124 — Since the outbreak of the pandemic, panic buying of food has
occurred in many ... COVID-19 is destroying
HomeBusiness News
NYC To Begin Tracking Food Purchases To Make Sure
Residents Don’t Consume “Too Much” Meat
By Ethan Huff // May 19, 2023

Just as he promised to do, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a left-wing Democrat, is going after
people's meat with new plans to save the world from "climate change" by forcing everyone to become a
"plant-based" vegetarian or vegan.

Along with representatives from the Mayor's Office of Food Policy and the Mayor's Office of Climate &
Environmental Justice, Adams has announced the launch of a new "carbon footprint" and household
food consumption tracking scheme that aims to reduce the Big Apple's "carbon emissions" by 33
percent by the year 2030.

In order to cut all that carbon, Adams and his allies are imposing new "caps on meat" that, as the name
suggests, will limit the amount of meat that New Yorkers are allowed to purchase and consume at public
institutions – and eventually within their own homes as well.

(Related: Last month, we warned you that Adams was planning to unleash a horrific new food policing
apparatus against New Yorkers, and now he has.)

Eric Adams wants all New Yorkers to become vegans

At a pre-Earth Day event held at a Brooklyn culinary center run by NYC Health + Hospitals, the city's
public health care system, Adams unveiled a chart depicting New York City's greenhouse gas inventory.
This inventory supposedly tracks the carbon footprint generated by household food consumption.

With the help of American Express, C40 Cities, and EcoData, Adams revealed carbon emissions data
about household food consumption, which was added to existing carbon emissions data on energy use,
transportation, and waste.

Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala from the NYC Department of Environmental Protection unveiled the
new household food consumption data. Aggarwala, by the way, also founded the Google smart city
subsidiary Sidewalk Labs, which collects data in order to forge "a new standard for what cities have to
do" as a novel way to shape policy.

While the inventory that Aggarwala presented will also now include greenhouse gas "pollution" from the
production and consumption of consumer goods like clothing, air travel, and health care, Adams
focused his efforts at the event specifically on the foods that New Yorkers consume – mainly meat and
dairy, which he personally opposes.
"Food is the third-biggest source of cities' emissions right after buildings and transportation, but all food
is not created equal," Adams unsubstantially stated. "The vast majority of food that is contributing to our
emission crisis lies in meat and dairy products."

"It is easy to talk about the emissions that's coming from buildings and how it impacts our environment,
but we now have to talk about beef. And I don't know if people are ready for this conversation."

Other than fish, Adams reportedly abides by a "plant-based" vegan diet, which he says helped him
overcome diabetes. He wrote a vegan cookbook to promote his personal dietary choices, which he now
wants all New Yorkers to follow in order to stop "global warming."

"We already know that a plant-powered diet is better for your physical and mental health, and I am living
proof of that," Adams declared. "But the reality is that thanks to this new inventory, we're finding out it is
better for the planet."

The simplistic way in which Adams couched his argument against meat and dairy has already been
debunked by people who are actually educated in such things, including Melissa McKendree, PhD, an
agricultural economist at Michigan State University.

"Different meats have different kinds of greenhouse gas footprints," McKendree clarified about how
pasture-raised animals do not harm the environment like feedlot animals do. "All land is not created
equal."

Climate crusaders like Eric Adams will not stop until every last trace of meat is removed from people's
dinner plates. To learn more, visit GreenTyranny.news.

Sources for this article include:

ChildrensHealthDefense.org

NaturalNews.com
What’s in the Ukraine Grain Deal for Russia?
The easing in sanctions that Moscow obtained as an informal part of the Ukraine grain deal will
enable it to address some critical vulnerabilities in Russia’s own food security, as well as to take
advantage of the current high prices on the global market and ensure that agricultural holdings
with ties to the Kremlin expand their export revenues.

Following lengthy negotiations mediated by Turkey and the UN, Russia has agreed to unblock Ukrainian
ports to allow the export of grain. It’s expected that the deal will make it possible to export 22 million
tons of Ukrainian wheat, corn, and other cereals that have accumulated in the ports of Odesa,
Chornomorsk, and Yuzhne. More importantly still, the release of that volume of grain onto the market
should bring down global wheat prices, sparking a chain reaction and lowering other food prices too.
Sure enough, when news of the deal broke, the price of wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade tumbled
by 5 percent, back to prewar levels.

Under the agreement, Ukrainian naval vessels will escort the ships carrying the grain. Russia will not
attack the warships, or any port infrastructure. Turkey and the UN will inspect the cargo ships to make
sure they are not being used as a front to smuggle anything else, such as weapons. Kyiv says it will
need about ten days to get the ports ready and to clear the shipping corridors of mines that have been
laid since the start of the war. 

In previous years, Russia and Ukraine together accounted for almost a third of the world’s export of
wheat and barley. The deliveries went mainly to the Middle East and Africa, which now face a sharp
increase in the number of undernourished people. The return of Ukrainian grain to the global market and
the easing of restrictions on Russian agricultural exports should reduce the pressure on prices and
make them more predictable.

Kyiv’s reasons for signing the agreement are obvious: Ukraine will be able to earn some much-needed
foreign currency. Unblocking the ports will bring Kyiv “billions of dollars,” according to Ukrainian Prime
Minister Denys Shmyhal. The UN, for its part, has strengthened its authority by brokering the deal, as
well as drawing attention to the threat of famine in developing countries. Turkey has demonstrated that it
can be an effective mediator in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and will likely also make money by
processing Russian and Ukrainian grain before it is shipped to consumers in the Middle East.

Moscow’s motives need some more explanation. One major factor in Russia’s decision to sign the
agreement was Moscow’s partner states in the Middle East and North Africa. Since the beginning of
March, the leaders of countries as diverse as Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Israel have all
voiced their concern to Moscow—both formally and informally—over the blocking of grain exports via
the Black Sea. Problems with food supplies, they argued, could destabilize the region, just as they did
during the Arab Spring.

Another incentive for Moscow to sign the agreement was that unblocking Ukraine’s ports will also
remove obstacles to Russia’s own grain and fertilizer exports. Easing sanctions to facilitate Russian
agricultural exports wasn’t officially a part of the agreement, but was successfully negotiated in parallel
with the United States and European Union.

That made the deal well worth Russia’s while: in 2021, Russia earned $11 billion from exporting grain.
The easing in sanctions that Moscow was offered in exchange for signing the agreement will enable it to
take advantage of the current high prices on the global market and to make efficient use of its own
record harvest. 

There are also plenty of reasons for the Kremlin to want to ensure that the biggest Russian agricultural
holdings are able to retain their export revenues. Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev is the eldest son
of Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. The second biggest grain exporting company, Demetra
Holding, is part-owned by structures within the Marathon Group belonging to Alexander Vinokurov, son-
in-law of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The N. I. Tkachev Agrocomplex is owned by former
agriculture minister Alexander Tkachev. And the owners of the Miratorg meat producer, the Linnik
brothers, have been linked to former president Dmitry Medvedev’s wife.  

Several Russian banks also stand to gain from the deal, since their frozen assets could be partially
unfrozen by the EU in order to avoid delays in paying for agricultural produce. Those banks include
Bank Rossiya (owned by Putin’s friends Yury Kovalchuk and Nikolai Shamalov), and Promsvyazbank
(the main bank used by Russia’s defense sector).

It’s not just agricultural exports that are at stake for Moscow, but imports too, which will also be made
easier by the grain deal. Russian farmers are heavily dependent on imported seeds for almost
everything except wheat, for which the country is self-sufficient. Nearly 90 percent of potato seeds, for
example, are imported, along with about 70 percent of rape seeds, and from 30 to 90 percent of fruit
and berry crop seeds. Sanctions had also made it difficult for farmers to protect their crops from pests
and disease: about one-third of plant protection products are imported, mostly from China and the EU. 

In terms of livestock breeding, Russia meets 70–75 percent of its own needs, though much of the stud
stock is imported from abroad, particularly in poultry and pig farming. It would be practically impossible
to change that any time soon. Russian farmers are also dependent on imported veterinary products:
only 30 percent of the required volume is made in Russia.

Finally, the easing of sanctions in exchange for Russia signing the grain deal could make it easier for
Russia to import agricultural machinery and spare parts. In 2021, imports made up more than 75
percent of the Russian agricultural equipment market, coming largely from Germany and the
Netherlands.

This year’s harvest might pass without problems, but next year’s is far from guaranteed under the
current sanctions. If the sector is forced to go backwards and start using more primitive fertilizers,
pesticides, and harvesting machines, that will all reduce output. And without importing seeds, breeding
stock, and equipment, nothing less than Russia’s food security could be in jeopardy.

Even these significant advantages, however, are no guarantee that Moscow will abide by the deal, as
evidenced by Russia’s cruise missile strike against the port of Odesa less than twenty-four hours after
signing the deal. Russia claimed it was attacking military infrastructure. Technically, the agreement
signed in Istanbul has not been violated if no grain infrastructure is reported to have been damaged. It’s
likely that the Kremlin wants to show once again that compromises on individual issues do not mean
that Russia is prepared to soften its overall demands of Ukraine.

Moscow may decide at any moment to withdraw unilaterally from the agreement, despite all the benefits
for Russian farmers and the economy. During the past five months, President Vladimir Putin has made it
clear time and time again that economic logic is of little use in trying to predict his actions.

By: Alexandra Prokopenko

End of document

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are
those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

Black Sea Grain Initiative

Joint Coordination Centre

Secretary-General António Guterres (left) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the signing ceremony
of Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul, Türkiye. Photo:UNIC Ankara/Levent Kulu

Beacon on the Black Sea

An “unprecedented agreement” on the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea amid the
ongoing war is “a beacon of hope” in a world that desperately needs it, UN Secretary-General António
Guterres said at the signing ceremony on 27 July in Istanbul, Türkiye.

The UN plan, which also paves the way for Russian food and fertilizer to reach global markets, will help
to stabilize spiralling food prices worldwide and stave off famine, affecting millions.
The initiative specifically allows for significant volumes of commercial food exports from three key
Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea – Odesa, Chornomorsk, Yuzhny.

The Secretary-General also announced the establishment of a Joint Coordination Centre to monitor
implementation. It will be hosted in Istanbul and will include representatives from Ukraine, Russia and
Türkiye.

Ukrainian vessels will guide the cargo ships into international waters of the Black Sea, avoiding mined
areas. The vessels will then proceed towards the Bosphorus Strait along an agreed corridor.

Ships heading to and from the Ukrainian ports will be inspected by teams organised by the Joint
Coordination Centre.

In April, the Secretary-General met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and with Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy to propose a plan.

Two UN Task Forces were established in parallel on the talks - one focused on the shipment of
Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, which was led by UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths,
and the other on facilitating exports of Russian food and fertilizers, headed by Rebeca Grynspan,
Secretary-General of the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD.

Russia Not To Blame For Global Food Crisis – Putin

3 Jun, 2022

Moscow is ready to aid in transporting Ukrainian grain, but Western sanctions make it
impossible, the Russian president has said

The restrictions imposed by the US and its allies against Russia and Belarus will only exacerbate the
looming global food crisis by affecting the fertilizer trade and sending food prices even higher, Russian
President Vladimir Putin has said.

In a special TV interview on Friday evening following a meeting with African Union head Macky Sall in
Sochi, Putin accused Western leaders of trying "to shift the responsibility for what is happening in the
world food market."

The root causes of the crisis lie with US financial policies during the Covid-19 pandemic and Western
Europe's over-reliance on renewables and short-term gas contracts, which have led to price hikes and
rising inflation, Putin has said.

The unfavorable situation on the world's food market did not begin to take shape yesterday, or
even from the moment Russia launched the special military operation in the Donbass and
Ukraine.
"It began to take shape as early as February 2020 in the process of combating the consequences of the
coronavirus pandemic," he added.

High gas prices, which came as a result of under-investment in the traditional energy sector,
have forced many fertilizer producers to shut down their businesses because of unprofitability, the
Russian president argued. Such developments have shrunk the fertilizer supply, which, in turn, has
pushed food prices higher, he added.

Yet, instead of taking any real steps to remedy the situation, Western nations just pin the blame on
Moscow, Putin has said. The Russian president has dismissed all claims that Moscow is preventing
Ukrainian grain from being exported to other nations as a “bluff.” He also said that Russia was ready to
increase its own grain export up to 50 million tons.

Putin pointed to the fact that there are several ways to safely transport the grain from Ukrainian territory,
including through Poland and Hungary. He also said that Russian forces are about to finish demining
the areas of the Black Sea it controls in order to facilitate the safe passage of goods through the Azov
and Black Seas.

We are not preventing Ukrainian grain from being exported. It can be moved through the ports
controlled by Ukraine. We are not the ones who mined these ports. Ukraine did. I have said many
times: let them demine and let the ships with grain leave. We guarantee their passage with no
problems.

The Russian leader has also called the Belarus transport route “the cheapest way” of getting Ukrainian
grain to customers around the world. However, using it would require that Western nations lift the
sanctions they imposed against Minsk, he added.

Earlier on Friday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told UN Secretary-General Antonio

Guterres that Belarus is ready to transport Ukrainian grain to European ports by rail, but that this would
require those ports being able to accept goods from Belarus, which is currently impossible because of
sanctions.

“To create the conditions for the transit of Ukrainian grain, the ports that would serve as shipping points
should be able to load and unload Belarusian goods,” Lukashenko said.

Guterres, in turn, has said that he would discuss the issue with the leaders of the relevant nations in the
coming days.

World Has Only 10 Weeks Of Wheat Supply Left, Expert

Warns
25 May, 2022 15:56
Widespread fertilizer shortages, supply-chain issues and record droughts are the major reasons
behind the crisis

Global food insecurity has reached levels not seen since the financial crisis of 2008, according to Sara
Menker, CEO of Gro Intelligence, a global company that uses artificial intelligence and public and
private data to predict food supply trends. She told the UN that the world has about 10 weeks’ worth of
wheat on hand.

While addressing a special meeting of the Security Council on Saturday, she said that the Russia-
Ukraine conflict was not the cause of the food security crisis but “simply added fuel to a fire that was
long burning.”

The expert pointed to widespread fertilizer shortages, supply-chain issues and record droughts as the
major reasons behind the crisis.

“This isn’t cyclical. This is seismic,” Menker said, noting that “even if the war were to end tomorrow, our
food security problem isn’t going away anytime soon without concerted action.”

She stressed that “without aggressive global actions, we stand the risk of an extraordinary amount of
human suffering and economic damage.”

The grain crisis is being felt across the globe as wheat prices have surged to record highs over the past
two months. Major producers such as Russia, Kazakhstan and India have scrapped exports to protect
their domestic markets, while Ukraine’s supplies are in danger due to the ongoing conflict. This has
sparked fears of food insecurity and hunger around the world.

The executive director for the UN's World Food Programme, David Beasley, had earlier said that 49
million people in 43 countries are already “knocking on famine’s door.”

Destruction of Food Begins in Shanghai with Fences

Installed to Keep People Locked Down
April 24, 2022 by Brian Shilhavy Editor, Health Impact News

While China works hard to

suppress what is currently
happening in Shanghai and other
places in China that have strict
lockdowns by deleting social media
posts as quickly as possible, some
videos and images are being
captured and preserved that show
how life has become pure hell in Shanghai, with citizens starving to death and being locked down in
cages like animals.

Deliberate destruction of food is reportedly happening on a large scale, blaming “COVID” for
contaminating the food as they use cotton swab PCR tests to test animals like chickens and fish, while
reportedly destroying many tons of fresh produce.

This week fencing appeared overnight in many places to lockdown people in their homes and
apartments, and this even made the corporate news cycle this weekend, with the BBC and the
Associated Press covering the story.

When you read the corporate news accounts, however, they will give some justification for these actions
by reporting on the alleged increase in COVID cases, paving the way for similar measures to happen in
the U.S. and other places where maybe the measures will not be quite as harsh as what China is doing,
as this is simply a continuation of the massive propaganda media hyping fear over a “virus” that
continues to be used to justify medical tyranny and the suspension of all appearances of law and order
in the name of the “pandemic.”

Here in the U.S. people like Anthony Fauci and Dr. Oz, who is now aligned with Donald Trump, have
publicly stated that the measures China are taking to lockdown their populations are “working” to stop
the spread of COVID, which should be a wake-up call to everyone about what we are probably facing in
the near future here in the U.S. and around the world.

Here is our video report. This is on our Bitchute Channel, and will also be on our Odysee Channel and
Telegram Channel.

Alleged Fiscal Conservative Greg Abbott’s Border

Blockade Cost $240 Million in Spoiled Goods
by Amy McCarthy Apr 18, 2022

The Texas governor’s pointless truck-inspection policy resulted in rotten food and delayed
deliveries

Because the current economic situation was not already precarious enough, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott
decided to do his part to make the country’s rising food costs and supply chain shortages worse.

Last week, Abbott issued an executive order requiring border crossing agents to conduct “enhanced
safety inspections” of trucks entering the United States. As CNN reported over the weekend, these
lengthier inspections, allegedly intended to minimize drug smuggling and human trafficking, caused
massive backlog at the Texas-Mexico border, resulting in trucks sitting at the border for upwards of 30
hours as the fresh avocados, tomatoes, and other perishable goods they transported rotted in the heat.
Experts estimate that the move resulted in losses of more than $240 million dollars across multiple
industries, a stunningly ironic show of the kind of fiscal conservatism that Abbott prides himself on.
It seems wild that the decisions of one man could have such a massive ripple effect on the economy
more broadly, but more than $9 billion in produce crosses the Texas-Mexico border each year. Most of
the country’s fresh food imports come from Mexico, and any interruption in that relationship is inevitably
going to have an impact on consumers via food shortages and, of course, ever-higher prices. And
considering that food prices in this country are already rising at an unprecedented rate, this isn’t exactly
the time for Abbott to throw yet another wrench into the works.

In this completely pointless flex of his own power to enforce xenophobic immigration policies, Abbott
also managed to harm businesses like restaurants, grocery stores, and farms. Deliveries to food service
businesses were delayed over the holiday weekend, which meant shortages at some supermarkets, and
countless pounds of produce had to be destroyed — or sold at a deeply discounted cost. One produce
grower and distributor told the Texas Tribune that every day of fewer trucks than expected has a trickle-
down effect: “Every day that goes by that we haven’t been able to receive these loads, those are sales
dollars that we will not get back. Those are dollars that are not going to be returned to our employees’
paychecks, because they didn’t work.” For a guy who prides himself on being eminently pro-business,
Abbott doesn’t seem to care much about the impact of his political power plays on the businesses who
rely on the importation of produce and other essentials from Mexico.

Facing reelection later this year, Abbott has really been On One about immigration lately. He has loudly
criticized President Biden’s plans to eliminate a Trump-era policy that sends asylum seekers back to
their home country, and his administration has cruelly sent at least two busloads of undocumented
asylum-seekers to Washington D.C. so that politicians there would “have to respond and deal with” the
“border crisis.” Just like this weekend’s border backlog, though, that crisis has also been manufactured
by Abbott.

There is no real border crisis in Texas, but there is one in the food supply chain. Even Texas agriculture
commissioner Sid Miller, a man who once described a group of immigrants as venomous “rattlesnakes,”
among other deeply offensive and ignorant views, condemned Abbott’s decision as “political theatre.”
“This is not solving the border problem, it is increasing the cost of food and adding to supply chain
shortages,” Miller said in a statement. “Such a misguided program is going to quickly lead to $2 lemons,
$5 avocados and worse.” Prices of pretty much every grocery staple are up across the board, and those
high costs are expected to continue for at least the next several months. The last thing we need right
now is Greg Abbott making the entire country’s grocery bill even higher than it was before just to score a
few measly political points.

Devex Dish: A Grim New Forecast On The State Of The

World’s Food Crises
By Rumbi Chakamba, Teresa Welsh // 04 May 2022
The 2022 Global Report on Food Crises — released today — paints a grim picture of deteriorating food
crises that are expected to be compounded by the war in Ukraine.

According to the report, which was compiled by the Global Network Against Food Crises —  an
international alliance which includes the EU, FAO, and WFP — levels of hunger surpassed all
previous records in 2021, with close to 193 million people acutely food insecure and in need of urgent
assistance across 53 countries and territories. This represents an increase of nearly 40 million people
compared to 2020.

In addition, over half a million people — four times more than in 2020 —  were facing what’s classified
as IPC Phase 5/Catastrophe, or to put it more bluntly, starvation and death, across Ethiopia, South
Sudan, southern Madagascar, and Yemen.

And it’s not going to get better anytime soon. The report found that the outlook for global acute food
insecurity is expected to deteriorate further due to the war in Ukraine and its repercussions on global
food, energy, and fertilizer prices and supplies. Though the effects of the conflict have not yet been
factored into the country projections included in the report, as many as 181 million people are already
forecast to be in crisis or worse in 41 out of the 53 countries and territories surveyed.

“What we are seeing is a perfect storm around the world,” David Beasley, WFP’s executive director,
says. “If we don't get ahead of this thing, we will have not just famine in multiple countries around the
world … but you will have destabilization of some nations and you will have mass migration by necessity
— and no one wants that.”

We will be publishing more details from the report — as well as recommendations from its official launch
— later today.

ICYMI: Teresa reported on how global food insecurity will only rise further if land degradation isn't
immediately addressed. 

Feed the world

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Global Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment
Act, a bill that would authorize USAID to increase targeted interventions to prevent and treat
malnutrition, with a focus on multisectoral nutrition programs. It also includes provisions for monitoring
to ensure effective use of taxpayer dollars.

“Support for these low-cost and effective interventions means an investment in the health, development,
and productivity of the next generation of children around the world,” Rep. Michael McCaul — a
Republican from Texas and one of the bill’s sponsors in the House — said in a statement. A companion
bill is under consideration in the Senate.

Number munching

229 million
That’s the number of people reached by infant formula companies’ daily social media posts, according
to a new report from the World Health Organization. In its second report from a series about the
industry, WHO finds that formula companies pay for access to parents and pregnant people, targeting
them “with personalized social media content that is often not recognizable as advertising.”

WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and wants the baby food
industry to end “exploitative formula milk marketing.”

ICYMI: WHO sounds alarm on 'unethical,' 'aggressive' formula milk marketing

Out of reach

Kenya’s status as a lower-middle-income country has restricted international donor funds for nutrition,
including treatment for severe acute malnutrition in the form of Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Foods, or
RUTFs.

As part of the International Center for Journalists’ Global Nutrition and Food Security Reporting
Fellowship, Teresa worked with journalists Leon Lidigu and Justine Muboka on a monthslong
investigative piece examining the malnutrition crisis in Kenya — where 3.5 million people are
expected to be food-insecure by next month if the rainy season is lackluster — and how RUTFs are
not reaching those who need them.

The piece, published by Africa’s Nation media outlet, is a deep dive into all the complicating factors
restricting access to malnutrition treatment in Kenya amid one of the worst droughts in decades. Our
reporting found that RUTFs are often sold on the street as snacks, with people in refugee camps selling
theirs off to traders who then peddle them to non-malnourished people who have developed a taste for
them.

Fishing lines

“Technology is a key part of the jigsaw, but really it’s just a part. It has to be integrated with a lot of other
considerations.”

— Peter Horn, project director for the international fisheries program, The Pew Charitable Trusts

Launched in 2016, Global Fishing Watch aimed to drive transparency and accountability in the
notoriously opaque fisheries sector by providing location data from boats and ships. But six years on,
the platform has seen mixed results, and it’s unclear if illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing
is any less of a problem.

Chew on this

It’s nearly impossible to twist an Oreo and be left with equal amounts of filling on each cookie, a
scientific study finds. [Physics of Fluids]
“Policymakers should as much as possible use direct transfers to protect the most vulnerable
households” in Africa against food and fuel price shocks. [IMFBlog]

Financing remains a constraint to providing free school meals to all children, despite evidence that
they improve nutritional and educational outcomes. [Center for Global Development]

Heifer International is investing $1 million in pay-as-you-go financing for tractors on booking

platform Hello Tractor. [Heifer International]

China’s COVID-19 Lockdown Is Inflaming The World’s

Supply Chain Backlog, With 1 In 5 Container Ships Stuck
Outside Congested Ports
By Eamon Barrett April 21, 2022

Never miss a story: Follow your favorite topics and authors to get a personalized email with the
journalism that matters most to you.

After the pandemic, and the chip crisis, and the war in Ukraine, “disrupted” seems to be the default state
of global supply chains. But the pandemic isn’t over yet, and a COVID outbreak in China is only making
supply constraints worse.

According to shipping analytics firm Windward, 20% of the world’s roughly 9,000 active container ships
are currently sitting in traffic jams outside congested ports. Close to 30% of that backlog alone is in
China—double the domestic congestion rate in February—where a virulent Omicron wave is snarling
supply lines.

Ships have been piling up outside Shanghai, the world’s largest port, and other container docks across
China as authorities have forced multiple cities into lockdown to counter the country’s worst COVID
outbreak since the pandemic began.

Shanghai has been under lockdown for close to four weeks, having recorded over 35,000 COVID cases
since March. Residents in the city of 25 million have struggled to secure food and access to health care
as authorities prohibit them from leaving their homes.

Windward says the lockdowns in China, which began in mid-March, have nearly doubled the number of
container ships loitering off the country’s coast. As of April 19, Windward recorded 506 vessels awaiting
berthing space at Chinese docks, up 195% from the 260 halted offshore in February.

Before the lockdowns started, congestion at China’s ports accounted for only 14.8% of the global
container backlog, versus roughly one-third now, Windward says.
Shanghai port authorities claim that the port is operating normally and has suffered zero delays thanks
to a closed loop system keeping staff on-site, despite numerous shipping analytics firms providing data
to the contrary.

Beyond the port of Shanghai, restrictions on cross-border trucking and movement throughout the city
have prevented workers from off-loading and on-boarding shipping containers, creating delays.

Food Shortages In Six Months – The Globalists Are

Telling Us What Happens Next
April 29, 2022 Comments by Brian Shilhavy Editor, Health Impact News

Brandon Smith of Alt-Market has written an

excellent commentary about what the
Globalists are warning us about coming food
shortages.

While I don’t agree with everything Brandon

writes about (I don’t believe that COVID-19 is
a real virus, for example, but simply the
annual flu “virus” rebranded), it really does
not matter within the wider scope of
understanding just how dangerous the world
is right now, and the future of food security.
And we may not even really have 6 months
left before we feel the effects of this.

Again, I want to encourage everyone who

has not read the article I published last year on who these globalists are, and how easy it is for them
control the world’s food supplies, please consider this MUST READING!

Then please read Brandon’s commentary below, which gives an excellent summary of where we are
today, and what appears to be impending disaster in terms of food affordability and availability in the
near future.

Food Shortages In Six Months – The Globalists Are Telling Us What Happens Next

by Brandon Smith Alt-Market.us

In mid 2007 the Bank for International Settlements (The central bank of central banks) released a
statement predicting an impending “Great Depression” caused by a credit market implosion. That same
year the International Monetary Fund also published warnings of “subprime woes” leading to wider
economic strife.
I started writing alternative economic analysis only a year earlier in 2006 and I immediately thought it
was strange that these massive globalist institutions with far reaching influence on the financial world
were suddenly starting to sound a lot like those of us in the liberty movement.

This was 16 years ago, so many people reading this might not even remember, but in 2007 the
alternative media had already been warning about an impending deflationary crash in US markets and
housing for some time. And, not surprisingly, the mainstream media was always there to deny all of our
concerns as “doom mongering” and “conspiracy theory.” Less than a year later the first companies
awash in derivatives began to announce they were on the verge of bankruptcy and everything tanked.

The media response? They made two very bizarre claims simultaneously: “No one could have seen it
coming” and “We saw this coming a mile away.” Mainstream journalists scrambled to position
themselves as the soothsayers of the day as if they said all along that the crash was imminent, yet,
there were only a handful of people who actually did call it and none of them were in the MSM. Also
ignored was the fact that the BIS and IMF had published their own “predictions” well before the crash;
the media pretended as if they did not exist.

In the alternative media we watch the statements and open admissions of the globalists VERY carefully
because they are not in the business of threat analysis; rather, they are in the business of threat
synthesis. That is to say, if something goes very wrong in the world economically, central bankers and
money elites with aspirations of a single centralized economic authority for the world are ALWAYS
found to have a hand in that disaster.

For some reason, they like to tell us what they are about to do before they do it.

The idea that globalists artificially create economic collapse events will of course be criticized as
“conspiracy theory,” but it is a FACT. For more information on the reality of deliberate financial sabotage
and the “order out of chaos” ideology of globalists please read my articles ‘Fed One Meeting Away From
Creating A Doomsday Sinkhole’ and ‘What Is The Great Reset And What Do The Globalists Actually
Want?’

The Great Reset agenda proposed by WEF head Klaus Schwab is just one example of the many
discussions hidden in plain sight by globalists concerning their plans to use economic and social decline
as an “opportunity” to quickly establish a new one world system based on socialism and technocracy.

The primary problem with discerning what the globalists are planning is not in uncovering secret
agendas – They tend to openly discuss their agendas if you know where to look. No, the problem is in
separating the admissions from the disinformation, the lies from the truth. This requires matching up
globalist white papers and statements to the facts and evidence at hand in the real world. Let’s look
specifically at the food shortage problem in detail…

Food Shortages In Six Months

A week ago there was a torrent of press releases from global institutions all mentioning the same exact
same concern: Food shortages within the next 3 to 6 months. These statements line up very closely with
my own estimates, as I have been warning regularly about impending dangers of inflation leading to
food rationing and supply chain disruptions.

The IMF, the BIS, World Bank, The UN, the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Economic Forum, Bank
of America and even Biden himself are all predicting a major food crisis in the near term, and it is not a
coincidence that the policies of these very institutions and the actions of puppet politicians that work with
them are causing the crisis they are now predicting. That is to say, it’s easy to predict a disaster when
you created the disaster.

The claim is that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the primary cause, but this is a distraction from the real
issue. Yes, sanctions against Russia will eventually lead to less food supply, but the globalists and the
media are purposely ignoring the bigger threat, which is currency devaluation and price inflation created
by central banks pumping out tens of trillions of dollars in stimulus packages to prop up “too big to fail”
corporate partners.

In 2020 alone, the Fed created over $6 trillion from nothing and air dropped it into the economy through
covid welfare programs. Add that to the many trillions of dollars that the Fed has printed since the credit
crash in 2008 – It has been a nonstop dollar destruction party and now the public is starting to feel the
consequences. Lucky for the central bankers that covid struck and Russia invaded Ukraine, because
now they can deflect all the blame for the inflationary calamity they have engineered onto the pandemic
and onto Putin.

Inflation hit 40 year highs in the US well before Russia invaded Ukraine, but let’s consider the
ramifications of that war and how it affects the food supply.

The Russian invasion certainly disrupts Ukrainian grain production, which makes up around 11% of the
total world wheat market. Russia also maintains a 17% share and together these two nations feed a
large swath of third world nations and parts of Europe with 30% of wheat and barley exports, 19% of
corn exports, 23% of canola exports, and 78% of sunflower exports.

It is the sanctions on Russia that are a problem well beyond Ukraine, however, as Russia also produces
around 20% of global ammonia and 20% of global potash supplies. These are key ingredients to
fertilizers used in large scale industrial farming. Farmers are estimating an overall price spike of around
10% in food markets, but I believe this is very conservative. I am already seeing overall price increases
of at least 20% from six months ago, and I expect there to be another 30% in price hikes before this
year is over. In other words, we are looking at 50% in average increases in 2022.

It is the sanctions on Russia that are a problem well beyond Ukraine, however, as Russia also produces
around 20% of global ammonia and 20% of global potash supplies. These are key ingredients to
fertilizers used in large scale industrial farming. Farmers are estimating an overall price spike of around
10% in food markets, but I believe this is very conservative. I am already seeing overall price increases
of at least 20% from six months ago, and I expect there to be another 30% in price hikes before this
year is over. In other words, we are looking at 50% in average increases in 2022.

Official government inflation data and CPI cannot be trusted. Double whatever numbers they give and
you will be much closer to the truth. The inflation rate used by Shadowstats.com, calculated using
methods once applied by the US government in the 1980s before they “adjusted” their models to hide
the data, supports my position so far.

The expectation among US agricultural experts is that China will fill the void where Russian supplies
disappear, but it’s a mistake to make this assumption.

Something Weird Is Going On In China

China’s crackdown on covid infections has reached levels so bizarre I have to ask the question: Are
their lockdowns really about covid, or are they hiding something else?

The death rate of covid in China is impossible to calculate accurately because they have never released
proper data that can be confirmed. However, almost everywhere else in the world we see a median
infection fatality rate of 0.27% for covid; meaning, over 99.7% of people in the world on average have
nothing to fear in terms of dying from the virus. But in China, the CCP is acting as if they are dealing
with the Black Plague. Why?

Lockdowns have resulted in food shortages across the country as supply chains become strained and
manufacturing remains shut in many cases. The story many westerners are not hearing much about,
though, is the fact that Chinese exports have essentially been frozen. This is very important so I think it
needs emphasis – Over 1 IN 5 container ships IN THE WORLD are now backed up in Chinese ports
due to their covid lockdowns. This is incredible.

Why would China do this over a virus we all know is not dangerous to the vast majority of people? Why
institute the worst lockdown in the country so far and starve their own people when the majority of
Western governments have now given up on their pandemic fear mongering and the forced vaccination
agenda?

I would suggest the possibility that China might already be engaging in an economic war that many
Americans and Europeans don’t even realize is going on. This may be a beta test for a shut down of
exports to the US and Europe, or it is an incremental shutdown that is meant to become permanent. The
bottleneck on trade may also be a precursor to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Taiwan is actually more dependent and intertwined with China’s economy than many people know.
China is the biggest buyer of Taiwan’s exports and those exports account for 10% of Taiwan’s GDP.
Taiwan has hundreds of thousands of workers and businessmen that travel regularly to China to work,
another economic factor that is now strained by lockdowns. Furthermore, Taiwan has multiple
corporations that operate their factories on mainland China, all of which could be closed due to covid
lockdowns.

All I’m saying is, if I was China planning on invading Taiwan in the near future, I might consider using
covid as a cover for damaging their economy first and disrupting their export model. Communists see
the population as a utility that can be sacrificed if necessary, and China is perfectly willing to cause short
term suffering to their people if it means long term gains for the party. Beyond that, if I was going to
engage in economic warfare with the west covertly, what better way than to tie up 20% of the world’s
cargo ships and disrupt supply chains in the name of protecting the country form a “pandemic?”
The bottom line? Don’t rely on China to fill export needs for fertilizer ingredients or anything else as
sanctions on Russia continue.

Inflation vs. Supply vs. Control

It’s not just globalist organizations talking about incoming food shortages; the CEO of international food
corporation Goya has also recently warned we are on the precipice of a food crisis. As I have noted in
the past, inflation leads to government price controls, price controls lead to lack of production incentives
(profits), lack of profits leads to loss of production, loss of production leads to shortages, and shortages
lead to government rationing (control over all large food sources).

As we have seen with almost every authoritarian regime in modern history, control over the food supply
is key to controlling the population. It is only surpassed as a strategic concern by control over energy
(which we will also see shortages of soon as Europe sanctions Russian oil and gas and starts eating up
supplies from other exporters). The food issue hits closest to home because we can see the effects
immediately on our wallets and on our families. There is nothing worse for many parents than the
prospect of their children going hungry.

The mainstream media is once again ignoring any potential economic threat, specifically they are
denying the notion of food shortages as something to be worried about. I say, why listen to a group of
people that are always wrong on these types of events? If anything, I would at least take the words of
the globalists seriously when it comes to economic collapse; they benefit the most from such disasters
after all, and they also have the most influence when it comes to triggering crisis.

Preparedness today costs nothing tomorrow. Lack of preparedness today costs EVERYTHING
tomorrow. The choice for anyone with a brain is simple – Get prepared for the end of affordable and
easily available food before this year is out.

Read the full article at Alt-Market.us.

Rockefeller Foundation President Starts Countdown Until

All Hell Breaks Loose
by Tyler Durden Saturday, Apr 23, 2022

Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah told Bloomberg Television's David Westin a "massive,

immediate food crisis" is on the horizon. 

Shah provides what could be a timeline for the

next global food crisis that could begin "in the
next six months." 
He said global fertilizer supply disruptions caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine would have an
"even worse" impact on the crisis, slashing crop yields worldwide. 

Shah said debt relief and emergency aid for emerging market countries are needed to mitigate the
effects of the food crisis. 

Shah's appearance on Bloomberg is interesting because of the foundation's repetitive talk about the
need for the global food supply to be reset to a more sustainable one. The foundation has closely
aligned views with the World Economic Forum (WEF), advocating for a 'global reset'. 

WEF founder Klaus Schwab famously said in early 2020,

months after the virus pandemic began, "The pandemic
represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to
reflect, reimagine, and reset our world to create a healthier,
more equitable, and more prosperous future." 

While Schwab and other global elites have been calling for
a global reset, Rockefeller Foundation's managing director
of Food Initiative Sara Farley has echoed the same
message. 

Farley's note published on WEF's website titled "How to

reimagine our food systems for a post-COVID world" outlined the need to "redesign supply chains with
nutrition and human health in mind." 

Rockefeller Foundation's senior vice president of Food Initiative Roy Steiner recently said, "the world is
spending far too much on foods that are bad for people and bad for the planet." 

And what could Steiner likely be referring to? Ah yes, possibly cattle farming and how it uses massive
amounts of natural resources, such as water and feed, to produce meat. WEF has advocated the need
for the global food supply to inject insects into human diets. 

Shah's timeline for the next food crisis is an ominous warning that elites will use the events as a perfect
opportunity to implement their plan to begin the transformation of the food supply system. Meat
becomes a delicacy for the rich while the working-poor are stuck eating insects and berries. The great
reset is well underway. 

Watch the interview here (fwd to 34:30). 

FBI Warns of Targeted Cyber Attacks On Food Plants

After Mysterious Rash Of Fires
by Tyler Durden Sunday, Apr 24, 2022
The FBI's Cyber Division published a notice this past week warning about increased cyber-attack
threats on agricultural cooperatives, which comes at a time when a curious string of fires and explosions
damage major food processing plants across the country. 

"Ransomware actors may be more likely to attack agricultural cooperatives during critical planting and
harvest seasons, disrupting operations, causing financial loss, and negatively impacting the food supply
chain," the notice read, adding 2021 and early 2022 ransomware attacks on farming co-ops could affect
the current planting season "by disrupting the supply of seeds and fertilizer."

The agency warned, "A significant disruption of grain production could impact the entire food chain,
since grain is not only consumed by humans but also used for animal feed ... In addition, a significant
disruption of grain and corn production could impact commodities trading and stocks. "

The FBI's warning comes as "nearly two dozen food processing facilities across Canada and the US"
have experienced a "string of fires, plane crashes and explosions," according to The Western Standard. 

The most recent incidents were fires at two Oregon-based food processing plants. The first, on Monday
night, a fire destroyed Azure Standard's joint headquarters and warehouse facilities. The second was an
explosion on Tuesday at a Shearer's Foods plant. 

Internet sleuths pieced together a compilation of headlines showing a spate of fires at food processing
plants across the country in the last year or so. 
 O
ne sleuth highlights recent warehouse fires affecting food supply chains in a series of tweets. 
This is all happening as the Ukraine-Russian
conflict has disrupted the global food supply chain.
Food prices are at record highs, and the Rockefeller
Foundation just released their timeframe of when a
"massive, immediate food crisis" may begin -- they
say, "in the next six months."
Are You Prepared For Food Shortages? FBI Issues
Warning
April 23, 2022 by Brian Shilhavy Editor, Health Impact News

I have been warning the public for many years now about how fragile our food system is, where just a
handful of companies control most of our nation’s food, as well as most of the world’s food.

Last year I published an article that identified who these globalists are, written by Sam Parker of Behind
the News Network, who wrote: “Genocide is an intent of this system, not a side-effect.” See:
https://healthimpactnews.com/2021/unmasking-the-global-food-cartel-is-massive-starvation-and-
population-reduction-their-next-move/

There are many indications that food shortages will soon start, from the war in Ukraine to the lockdowns
in Shanghai and China, that are putting tremendous pressure on supply chains that will most certainly
impact food security across the globe.

In addition, it has been widely reported this week in both the corporate and alternative media that there
have been a rash of food processing plants catching on fire all of a sudden.

But perhaps the biggest indicator that food shortages are on the horizon in the not-too-distant future,
was a published FBI warning regarding potential “Ransomware Attacks on Agricultural Cooperatives.”

Summary

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is informing Food and Agriculture (FA) sector partners that
ransomware actors  may be more likely to attack agricultural cooperatives during critical planting and
harvest seasons, disrupting operations,  causing financial loss, and negatively impacting the food supply
chain. The FBI noted ransomware attacks during these  seasons against six grain cooperatives during
the fall 2021 harvest and two attacks in early 2022 that could impact the  planting season by disrupting
the supply of seeds and fertilizer. Cyber actors may perceive cooperatives as lucrative targets with a
willingness to pay due to the timesensitive role they play in agricultural production. Although
ransomware attacks  against the entire farm-to-table spectrum of the FA sector occur on a regular basis,
the number of cyber attacks against  agricultural cooperatives during key seasons is notable.

According to a February 2022 Joint Cybersecurity Advisory authored by cybersecurity authorities in the
United States,  Australia, and the United Kingdom, ransomware tactics and techniques continued to
evolve in 2021. Sophisticated, high-impact ransomware incidents against critical infrastructure
organizations increased globally. The FBI, the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the National Security Agency (NSA) observed incidents
involving ransomware  against 14 of the 16 U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including FA, the Defense
Industrial Base, Emergency Services,  Government Facilities, and Information Technology Sectors.

Threat
Since 2021, multiple agricultural cooperatives have been impacted by a variety of ransomware variants.
Initial intrusion  vectors included known but unpatched common vulnerabilities and exploits, as well as
secondary infections from the  exploitation of shared network resources or compromise of managed
services. Production was impacted for some of the  targeted entities, resulting in slower processing due
to manual operations, while other targeted entities lost access to  administrative functions such as
websites and email but did not have production impacted.

A significant disruption of grain production could impact the entire food chain, since grain is not only
consumed by humans  but also used for animal feed. In addition, a significant disruption of grain and
corn production could impact commodities  trading and stocks. An attack that disrupts processing at a
protein or dairy facility can quickly result in spoiled products and  have cascading effects down to the
farm level as animals cannot be processed.

Image source: Healthy Traditions.

Are You Prepared for Food Shortages? Whole

Grains Can be Stored Indefinitely

If you are looking for a food that can be stored indefinitely

and provide security against food shortages, you need to be
looking into storing whole grains, such as wheat berries.

Whole grains have historically been the best defense against

food shortages, because in their unmilled stated, they can be
stored indefinitely if stored properly, and then either cooked directly as a cereal like rice, or ground into
flour for baked goods.

They can also be sprouted for fresh sprouts, or even grown into grass and juiced as “wheatgrass juice,”
providing a powerhouse of nutrition just from simple grains.

Grains and wheat in particular have obtained a bad reputation in recent times as being linked to gluten-
intolerant diseases and obesity, but this is due to the contamination of our nation’s grain supply with the
herbicide glyphosate, as well as the over-processing of wheat products that render them unhealthy. For
more information on this topic, see:

How Glyphosate Herbicide Has Destroyed America’s Wheat Common Weedkiller Used in Modern
Agriculture Could be Main Factor in Gluten Intolerance
Gluten Intolerance and the Herbicide Glyphosate: A National Epidemic
Is the Gluten Intolerance “Epidemic” as Bad as Claimed or a Clever Marketing Tool?
Is This Enzyme in Processed Food Responsible for Gluten-Sensitive Diseases? Gluten May Not Be the
Problem

If you can obtain whole grains (often referred to as “wheat berries”) that are not contaminated with
glyphosate and grind them yourself to bake wheat products, you are working with one of nature’s most
nutritious foods created by God.
There is a reason why Jesus referred to himself as the “bread of life” (John 6:35) and instructed his
disciples to pray for their “daily bread.”

There are some who believe that a return to grinding whole grains for flour from uncontaminated wheat
supplies could bring about tremendous healing for many, and that many of our modern diseases today
can be traced to the over-processing of our grains.

Of all the foods God has given us, bread, or food made from grain, is the most altered by man. The
grocery shelves are filled with denatured, processed grain products. Real bread, however, is bread
made from freshly milled whole grains. Without making your own bread and grain foods it will be difficult
to obtain real bread or the remarkable health benefits it will bring.

For our ancestors of 100 years ago, whole grains and real bread were the staples of their diet. They did
not suffer the cancer, heart disease, or diabetes as we do today. In fact, in 1900 America was the
healthiest of 93 countries surveyed. By 1920 it had dropped to 2nd and thereafter America’s health
continued to rapidly decline. Today, America is the world leader in chronic sickness and disease as well
as obesity. What happened to cause such drastic changes in America’s health?

Prior to the 1900’s most bread baked in this country was done so at home. Grain was milled at the local
miller or homes had mills of their own so that flour could be milled as needed and used before it spoiled.
The bran and germ portions of the whole grain contain many vital nutrients to good health that oxidize
quickly once the flour is milled and the germ portion contains oils that go rancid as well. In the late
1800’s steel rolling mills were invented that sifted the bran and germ portions away, leaving white flour
that would not spoil. Thinking this a wonderful discovery, steel rolling mills soon replaced the local
millers and by 1910 white flour and white bread became food for the common man.

Three diseases became epidemic immediately and health officials traced the problem to the new white
flour that had taken over the market. They urged the millers to put the bran and germ portions back into
the flour but the millers refused, choosing instead to enrich the white flour. For the 25-30 nutrients lost
by removing the bran and germ, only 4 were replaced. Unfortunately, the synthetic vitamins and
minerals used to “enrich” or “fortify” foods are often forms that our bodies cannot readily absorb.

This is a significant turning point in America’s health history. You see, white flour and white bread have
always been around, however, its consumption was reserved for the wealthy or royalty. Royalty could
afford servants, who would sift out the bran and germ portion to make white flour “dainties and
delicacies” as mentioned in Proverbs 23:3. Proverbs 23:1-2 warns us that this is deceitful food and that
we should even “put a knife to our throats lest we be given to gluttony”.

The invention of the steel rolling mills made white flour available to the common people, rich and poor
alike. By 1920, bread and bread products had drastically changed and America’s health has been
declining ever since. Today, most of what we eat has been so altered by processing and preserving it
can hardly be called bread at all.

America is now the fattest nation in the world, evidence that we are truly “given to gluttony”. We are now
the world leader in heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Asthma has increased by 200% in the past 10
years and the number of children with type II diabetes (previously called “adult onset”) is alarming.
Americans, old and young alike, are dependent on antihistamines and allergy relief medications and
constipation is no longer an old person’s problem.

Recent government studies state that whole grains reduce the risk of these now common health issues,
yet God knew all along. In Deuteronomy 24:6 God instructed the Israelites in wise business practices. It
was customary to take a pledge from someone when making a loan. God declared, however, that “no
man shall take a mill or upper millstone in pledge, for he would be taking a life in pledge” (emphasis
mine). God knew the importance of bread for maintaining life and health, therefore the capacity to mill
grain was equated with the very life of a person. (Sue Becker – Source.)

My company, Healthy Traditions, has been investing in high quality whole grains that test free from the
herbicide glyphosate since last year, buying up as much of it as we can find, since it is so hard to find
uncontaminated grains today, and that is BEFORE the coming food shortages where even
contaminated grains will be difficult to find.

We are storing these high quality grains all across the U.S. as well, so that if an “accident” happens to
one of our warehouses, we will not lose our entire inventory.

Investing in whole grains and a good grain mill could be one of wisest investments you make right now if
you are looking to provide some food security for you and your family. The cheaper grain mills are now
difficult to find, and they will probably become even more scarce in the days ahead.

We have many articles on working with whole grains on the Health Impact News network as well, and it
would be wise to start learning how to make your own products from whole grains, and print out these
articles while you still can.

Here are a few to get you started:

Sprouting, Dehydrating, and Grinding Grains for Flour

Sourdough: A Traditional Way to Prepare Grains

Creating an Active Sourdough Starter From Two Simple Ingredients

Benefits of Long Sourdough Fermentation

The Benefits of Fermentation: Whole Grain Sourdough Pancakes

Sifting Whole Wheat Flour and Other Tips for Making Better Whole Grain Breads

Phytic Acid Friend or Foe? The Soaking of Grains Health Claims Investigated

Comment on this article at HealthImpactNews.com.

20 Facts About The Emerging Global Food Shortage That
Should Chill You To The Core
by Tyler Durden Tuesday, Apr 05, 2022 Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

A very alarming global food shortage has already begun, and it is only going to get worse in the
months ahead. 

I realize that this is not good news, but I would encourage you to share the information in this article with
everyone that you can.  People deserve to understand what is happening, and they deserve an
opportunity to get prepared.  The pace at which things are changing around the globe right now is
absolutely breathtaking, but most people assume that life will just continue to carry on as it normally
does.  Unfortunately, the truth is that a very real planetary emergency is developing right in front of our
eyes. 

The following are 20 facts about the emerging global

food shortage that should chill you to the core…

#1 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.

#2 Joe Biden recently admitted that food shortages are “going to be real”, and his administration is now
openly using the word “famine” to describe what is coming…

The Biden administration is worried Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will cause famine in parts of the world,
White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse told CNBC on Friday.

#3 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), giving locals a distinctly unpleasant deja vu
feeling even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine broke what few supply chains remained and sent
prices even higher into the stratosphere…

… on Monday, Germany will take one step toward a return of the dreaded Weimar hyperinflation, when
according to the German Retail Association (HDE), 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%

#4 Rationing has already begun in Spain…

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…

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 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”…

On Tuesday, BlackRock Inc. President Rob Kapito 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.”

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

#8 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.

That could potentially curb cereals output by 30 million tons, enough to feed 100 million people, he said.

#9 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.

#10 In a typical year, Russia and Ukraine collectively account for approximately 30 percent of all global
wheat exports.
#11 Half of Africa’s wheat imports usually come from either Russia or Ukraine.

#12 Other nations rely on wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine even more than Africa does…

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.

#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 On Friday, it was 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 China’s agricultural minister has announced that the winter wheat harvest in China could be “the
worst in history”.

#18 We are being warned that the winter wheat harvest in the United States will be “disastrous” due to
severe drought.

#19 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”.

#20 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.”

We have been warned over and over again that this day was coming, and now it is here.
Like I said at the beginning of this article, I hope that you will share this information with as many people
as possible, because this crisis really is going to affect every man, woman and child on the entire planet.

In my entire lifetime, I have never seen anything like this, and conditions are getting worse with each
passing day.

A truly nightmarish global food crisis really is upon us, and hundreds of millions of innocent people are
going to deeply suffer as a result.

*  *  *

Livestock Dies In Droves In Somalia — And Without Rains

‘Humans Are Next’
By Sara Jerving | March 16, 2022

Somalia is experiencing one of the worst

droughts in the country’s recent history,
threatening the lives of those dependent on
livestock and agriculture.

PUNTLAND, Somalia — For Hawa Hassan,

having livestock means having freedom and
security. About a year ago, she had about
600 goats and sheep. Her family would roam
around Somalia in search of pasture and
water. When they needed cash, they would
sell a few for about $60 each and use their
livestock’s milk and meat to feed the family.

But beginning in late 2020, the rains failed.

And with each subsequent rainy season, they
failed again. Her family would release their
goats to find food, but some wouldn’t return. The animals began to perish day by day in the unforgiving
landscape of sand, stones, and dehydrated bushes. In
the past three months alone, about 250 died. Now she
only has 35.

One of Hawa Hassan’s last remaining goats.

“This is our only source of income. If our animals die,

we might be next. There is no way for us humans to
stay alive without them,” she said. 
In December, Hassan walked with her husband and their seven children for two days in search of a
steady source of water to keep the last remnants of their flock alive. Their only camel died along the
way. 

"The severe drought worsens day by day. People are quite weak, and the livestock are dying. The
humans are next if the rains don't come."— Faduma Hassan Hussein, a midwife at a health clinic in
Qarxis

Eventually, they reached the village of Dhaxan, where they set up a tent, cobbled together with sticks
and pieces of cloth and tarps.

Surrounding the village are a handful of cement dugouts used to catch rainfall called berkads, which
look like empty swimming pools with wires and branches strewn across the top. Most of them have been
dry for about two years. The community can’t depend on rainfall, so it instead relies on water trucks from
the nearby city of Qardho. 

A water catchment area.

For Hassan, moving near a tarmac road

on the water delivery route provides
some level of security. But this also
comes at the cost of a few dollars per
water barrel, with prices spiking because
of wide-scale need. They have depleted
their savings and now depend on water
provided by their neighbors.

Recently, three baby goats were born

but their mother was not strong enough
to feed them. Hassan leaned over and
encouraged a newborn goat to suckle
milk from the teat of another female
goat, as the mother stood anxiously next to the newborn she was unable to feed. Hassan is worried her
newborn goats won’t survive the coming weeks.

The Horn of Africa is suffering from one of its most severe droughts in recent history. The rains failed
three seasons in a row, spiraling the majority of the country into severe drought, with some areas facing
the worst conditions in 40 years. Internal displacement from the drought has more than doubled in
recent months, now reaching nearly 700,000 people. That is projected to double yet again to 1.4 million
people as the situation worsens.
By May, it's projected that about 30% of the country might not have enough to eat. At least 4.5 million
people have already been affected by the prolonged drought. Across the Horn of Africa, 13 million
people face severe hunger.

A resident of Qarxis village milking one of her last

remaining goats.

"The severe drought worsens day by day. People

are quite weak, and the livestock are dying. The
humans are next if the rains don't come," said
Faduma Hassan Hussein, a midwife working at a
health clinic in the town of Qarxis.

A lot is riding on the next rainy season, which is

expected in April. Another failed rainy season
would be disastrous. Even if sufficient rains do
come, it could replenish water sources but won’t
provide enough relief to the shriveled-up vegetation.

“The rainy season is expected in the first or second week of April, but given the situation, it seems like
nobody can wait until then,” said Jama Hassan Abdille, director general of the Puntland’s Ministry of
Labor, Youth and Sports. “March is a very hot time which will further devastate the situation.”

The last of Hawa Hassan's flock.

Without pasture, Hassan’s family feeds their

goats rice to keep them alive. They aren't
healthy enough to be sold, she said, and the
family cannot drink the milk themselves. The
family also lives on just rice. Hassan can’t
remember the last time she ate meat or
vegetables. A month ago, her 4-year-old
daughter suffered from diarrhea and was
hospitalized after drinking contaminated
water.

They have relatives in Dhaxan, who have provided them with help. But everyone is stressed in that
community — and Hassan knows this support has its limitations.

“This is our only source of income. If our animals die, we might be next. There is no way for us humans
to stay alive without them.”— Hawa Hassan, a pastoralist
Previous droughts have also hit her family hard, killing large numbers of livestock, but then the rains
came — bringing much-needed relief. With the consecutive failed rainy seasons, her family has no
opportunity to recover their flocks.  

“When I had 600 animals, I wasn’t worried about my life or the lives of my children,” she said. “But now,
my stress is endless.”

Malnutrition and outbreaks

In the dusty town of Qarxis, in Puntland, the residents

feel the ripple effect of the livestock dying in droves.
The pastoralists no longer come to town selling
livestock and buying goods from people in the village. 

Maryan Ali Awke used to have a small shop but had to

close it in September because of the crumbling
economy. “My main customers were pastoralists, and they don’t have the money to buy from me,” she
said. Livestock contributes 40% to the Somali gross domestic product. 

Midwife Faduma Hassan Hussein is worried about a

rise in health outbreaks in the coming months.

The price of goods, such as milk has spiked, according

to residents, and vegetables are expensive and not
widely available. Meat is scarce because many of
the remaining animals are too weak to be sold. This
impacts the nutrition of the community. Many families
eat primarily plain rice and pasta each meal.
Ayan Hirse Elmi’s husband, who makes shoes, is out of work because of the economy. For the past two
days, the family hasn’t eaten anything. The shops in the internal displacement camp where they live on
the outskirts of Garowe, Puntland’s capital, stopped allowing them to purchase food on loan.
“We are expecting a high number of cases of malnutrition in the coming months,” said Filsan
Mohammud, a nurse at a maternal health center in Yake village. She said they also expect to see an
increase in diarrhea, which makes it more difficult for children to absorb nutrients. Last year, there were
two outbreaks of watery diarrhea in the area because of contaminated water. With limited access to
water, hygiene and sanitation drops on the list of priorities.

Halima Mahad, who lives in Yake, said her son recently finished treatment for malnourishment. Last
year, her daughter was also treated. Because of the
water shortage, the family limited washing their clothes
and hand-washing. “I beg the children to not waste the
water,” she said. Her family is mostly eating rice and
pasta. She began to feed the goats maize because
there was nothing else for them to eat. Three died in
January, now she only has two.

“The rainy season is expected in the first or second

week of April, but given the situation, it seems like
nobody can wait until then. … March is a very hot time
which will further devastate the situation.”— Jama
Hassan Abdille, director general, Puntland’s Ministry of
Labor, Youth and Sports 
There have been upticks in cases of measles and severe malnourishment across the country, including
among children arriving at displacement camps. According to the United Nations Children's Fund and
World Health Organization, over 3,500 measles cases were reported and some 60,000 children were
newly admitted for treatment for malnourishment in January, of these over 27,000 had severe acute
malnutrition. Hajir Maalim, regional director for the
Horn and East Africa at Action Against Hunger,
said the organization has seen an increase in
admission levels of malnourished children at its
health centers in Somalia. In Xudur, in the
southwestern part of the country, an average of 18
malnourished children have been admitted daily
over the past month, with the highest single daily
admission at 25 children. There is also an uptick in
cases of acute watery diarrhea. 

“When there is drought, and children are

malnourished, it makes them very vulnerable to a
lot of diseases,” said Hussein. “And those living in the rural areas have likely not been vaccinated.” She
is also concerned about a spike in cases of skin infections, pneumonia, measles, and whooping cough
in the coming months. 

Health outbreaks threaten to “take the situation to another level of emergency,” said Abdihakim Farah,
social transfer adviser at Puntland’s Ministry of Labour, Youth and Sports.
The Food Riots Of 2022 Have Already Begun… They Will
Spread Globally… New Intel On Scarcity Of Food,
Minerals, Telecom Equipment And More
03/11/2022 / By Mike Adams

Food riots have already begun in Iraq (Al Jazeera).

Lebanon has announced rationing of wheat (Irish Times).
Ukraine has halted all exports of most grains, while Russia
has halted exports of fertilizer and many sources of natural
gas.

The world is being plunged into an engineered global

starvation scenario, and in North America, we only have a
few months of abundant food still in the supply line.

Agricultural experts have told me the May and June crop

yield reports for 2022 will be “catastrophic.” By July, it will become obvious to even the deniers that food
availability — even in America — is severely hampered. Empty shelves will plague US grocery
retailers throughout the second half of this year.

Yesterday on the Alex Jones Show, I predicted that 1-2 billion people on planet Earth will face risk
of starvation by the end of this year. Without fossil fuel-based fertilizers, 4 billion people would die
(about half the current population).

Get ready for food rationing passports and armed guards at grocery stores

As I explain in my HRR podcast below, this crisis will lead to:

 Robberies and flash mob looting of grocery stores.

 Grocery stores responding by beefing up security with armed guard and security checkpoints.
 Government initiating food rationing passports that will eventually be tied to central bank digital
currencies (CBDCs).

In other words, tyrannical governments are going to use this engineered crisis to force people into
CBDCs and food rationing control systems. If you want to eat, you will be forced to use their digital
wallet system, where they have total surveillance and control over your spending behavior.

Oh, and by the way, they will collapse the dollar during all this in order to exacerbate the panic and
destroy whatever assets people are foolishly keeping in dollars.

This is all covered in the 56-minute Situation Update at the bottom of this article.
Intel on scarcity of ammo, satellite phones, bulk food supplies and more

I’ve also posted a 20-minute intel update based on information received from an ammunition retailer, a
satellite phone retailer and our own direct experience attempting to purchase bulk food resources by the
pallet (many thousands of pounds at a time):

 All satellite phones are blown out of inventory, across the world, and now sat phones that once
cost just $900 are fetching $3500 on the open market.
 Ammunition sales have spiked 166% according to one prominent retailer, following the Feb 24th
Russian action on Ukraine.
 The future supply of sat phones will see at least a 40% increase in price due to supply chain
demand and disruptions. There are currently waiting lists to receive sat phones toward the end
of April.
 Food commodities used in the preparedness food industry are skyrocketing in price while supply
is heavily strained. The supply hasn’t yet collapsed, as we still have a few months’ buffer of raw
materials in the pipeline, but we expect catastrophic shortages to begin this summer.

Tomorrow (Saturday) a Food Grow Network webinar is being offered by Marjorie Wildcraft, who I just
interviewed yesterday. The webinar teaches “emergency gardening” skills, meaning you’ll learn how to
grow food when your life depends on it. It’s a free webinar, with registration required, which will add
you to her email list. Register and watch at ICanGrowFood.com (our affiliate link). My full interview with
Marjorie will be posted later today on my Brighteon.com video channel.

Here’s the full Situation Update podcast covering all this and more. (I will have weekend podcast
updates this weekend for certain, so check the Brighteon channel Saturday and Sunday for most
updates.)

Brighteon.com/f128b249-63cc-4c38-9697-bdde4b2a46d7

Discover more information-packaged podcasts each day, along with special reports, interviews and
emergency updates, at:

https://www.brighteon.com/channels/HRreport

Also follow me on:

Brighteon.social: Brighteon.social/@HealthRanger

Telegram: t.me/RealHealthRanger

Truth Social: Username = HealthRanger

Gettr: GETTR.com/user/healthranger

Parler: Parler.com/user/HealthRanger
Rumble: Rumble.com/c/HealthRangerReport

BitChute: Bitchute.com/channel/9EB8glubb0Ns/

Clouthub: app.clouthub.com/#/users/u/naturalnews/posts

Join the free NaturalNews.com email newsletter to stay alerted about new, upcoming audiobooks that
you can download for free.

Download my current audiobooks — including Ghost World, Survival Nutrition, The Global Reset
Survival Guide and The Contagious Mind — at:

https://Audiobooks.NaturalNews.com/

Global Food Prices Reach Record High In September

Amid Harvest Issues And Rising Demand For Vegetable
Oils, Sugar & Cereals
8 Oct, 2021

The world’s food price index in September rose for the second consecutive month to its highest level in
10 years, data from a press release of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO) shows.

FAO's food price index, which tracks global prices of the most internationally traded foods, rose 130
points last month to its highest level since September 2011. In total, food prices were up 32.8% on a
year-on-year basis.

The food agency mainly attributes this growth to price hikes in vegetable oils, cereals and sugar,
brought about by harvest troubles and rising demand.

The price index for vegetable oil increased by 1.7% in September alone, with a year-on-year rise of
about 60%, led by a higher cost of palm oil due to concerns over labor shortages in Malaysia.

The cereal price index rose by 2%, with wheat gaining the most as a result of reduced export supply
amid strong global demand. The agency projected a record global cereal production of 2.8 billion tons in
2021, but noted it would still be outpaced by consumption. 

Sugar was up 0.5%, mainly due to poor weather in Brazil, the world's largest sugar exporter. Sugar’s
gains, however, may be offset by a favorable production outlook in India and Thailand, FAO said.

The price index for dairy products in September was also on the rise, with skimmed milk powder and
butter showing major gains.
The meat price index continued to rise for the twelfth straight month, with lamb and beef at the helm.
Poultry prices have declined, as a result of increased supply in the global market. Pork prices across the
globe were also down, driven by low import demand from both China and Europe.

'The Saddest, Bitterest Thing of All.’ From the Great

Depression to Today, a Long History of Food Destruction
in the Face of Hunger
By Suyin Haynes May 28, 2020 11:03 AM EDT

Tons of carrot dumped to rot by a local farmer in

Ukraine on May 18, upon failing to sell it amid the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, local villagers
taking some of it for use as animal feed.

Hunger is a powerful force in The Grapes of

Wrath, John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel of the Great
Depression, but so is the fertility of California’s
landscape. The bounty of the harvest, tragically,
does not translate into food for the workers —
and in fact, with the economy having ravaged the
chain of commerce, much of the food is destroyed
rather than eaten.

“The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the
saddest, bitterest thing of all,” Steinbeck wrote. “Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground…a million
people hungry, needing the fruit — and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains.”

Steinbeck’s observations were a depiction of reality: During the Great Depression, plummeting prices
and adverse weather conditions resulted in a crisis for the U.S. farming industry and its stock.
Government intervention in the early 1930s led to “emergency livestock reductions,” which saw
hundreds of thousands of pigs and cattle killed, and crops destroyed as Steinbeck described, on the
idea that less supply would lead to higher prices.

Now, as experts warn that the economic effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic could be
comparable to the Great Depression in the U.S. and around the world, and as the International
Monetary Fund predicts that the “Great Lockdown” could cause the worst recession since the 1930s,
similar scenes of crop destruction have taken place, with reports of U.S. farmers having to make difficult
choices to dump their milk, slaughter their livestock and smash their eggs. And around the world,
COVID-19 has brought food supply chains to a standstill, as farmers in China have been unable to sell
their produce at closed wet markets and unable to access animal feed; in the U.K. and Germany, there
has been a shortage of workers to help with the spring harvest due to lockdown and self-isolation
measures.
As advocates mark World Hunger Day on May 28, experts and officials around the world are hoping
they can avoid adding mass hunger to the list of parallels many have seen between that period and
today.

Tomato crop dumped in fields by

farmers protesting against a lack of fair
prices in the market, at Kharkhari
Makhwan, on May 18, 2020 in Bhiwani,
India.

The onset of the Great Depression

after 1929 left many U.S. farmers in
financial ruin as prices dropped and
they were left with huge surpluses of
stock; in California alone in 1932,
farmers unable to shift their stock
lost nearly 3 million watermelons and
22.4 million pounds of tomatoes to
rot. Unemployment and poverty soared, not just in the U.S., but in much of Europe and in the U.K.,
where manufacturing took a major hit due to declining exports.

President Herbert Hoover, who downplayed the early impact of the Depression, said in 1931 that “no
one is actually starving” — the same year makeshift breadlines popped up around New York City and
were serving some 85,000 meals per day, according to historians Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe.
Across the country, families restricted their diets, which caused health conditions that had
consequences even into the interwar years, as prospective soldiers failed their physical examinations
due to vitamin deficiency. In 1932 and 1933, both in the U.S. and farther afield in Canada and the U.K, a
series of popular protests dubbed “hunger marches” drew attention to the plight of the unemployed.

After President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, one part of his New Deal program to revive the
American economy was to eliminate the surplus stock, and pay farmers a subsidy to do so. This policy
became the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 (AAA), and led to depressing scenes as farmers were
forced to kill their pigs and burn their corn. Under the AAA, even as poverty soared, farmers could
receive payment for not producing food. The government would also buy out livestock or harvests — to
the tune of six million hogs nationwide — and kill or get rid of it. In Nebraska alone, the government
bought hundreds of thousands of cattle and pigs. Millions of acres of cotton in the South were also
plowed under. Similar levels of destruction happened in other countries; in Brazil between 1931 and
1934, more than a year’s global supply of coffee, totaling more than 28 million bags, was destroyed.
 A dairy farmer dumps excess milk down
a drain at Plurenden Manor Farm dairy
farm in Ashford, U.K., on Sunday, April
26, 2020.

Jason Alden—Bloomberg via Getty

Images

Then as now, people could see the

bitter irony of the situation. “There is
a failure here that topples all our
success,” Steinbeck wrote. “And
coroners must fill in the certificates —
died of malnutrition — because the
food must rot, must be forced to rot.”

The U.S. government wasn’t only

asking farmers to destroy food; at the same time, it was also purchasing and distributing food to the
hungry — but the idea of any such destruction was hard to stomach. “Although one hundred million
pounds of pork were processed for relief purposes, the idea of waste, and stories about the bodies of
little pigs floating down the Mississippi River continued for years,” writes historian C. Roger Lambert.

And while pork products, cheese, flour and butter were initially redistributed to unemployed families,
there wasn’t a nationwide effort to redistribute food until later in the year, when criticism of the
widespread waste became part of the public debate. In autumn 1933, Roosevelt provided $75 million to
purchase agricultural products to feed the needy, and the government set up the Federal Surplus Relief
Corporation (FSRC), which helped redistribute surplus food to the hungry.

Farmer Dave Burrier plants corn in the Marvin

Chapel field in Mount Airy, Maryland on May 19,
2020. - Dave Burrier steered his tractor through
a field, following a GPS map as he tried to plant
as much corn as possible amid the yellow and
green rye covering the ground. Striving to get a
massive yield out of his crops in rural Maryland
is how Burrier hopes to make it through yet
another uncertain year, beset by market
disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
and renewed trade tensions between the United
States and China.

There were complexities and limits to the

effectiveness of the AAA and the FSRC.
The AAA benefited farmers by raising their incomes, and provided a framework for federal support for
agriculture that lasted well beyond the Depression, as the Act was repeatedly revised and amended
over a 60 year period. Some farmers at the time felt that the FSRC’s distribution efforts undermined the
economics of the AAA, and — at a time when the idea of direct federal relief was still relatively new in
the United States — the program was not a silver bullet for solving hunger. In retrospect, some
historians have argued that the government ended up prioritizing agricultural demands rather than
seeing a responsibility to feed the needy with surplus food. It was a persistent problem; in 1972,
historian Lambert wrote that the whims of agricultural bureaucrats and rural congressmen were still
consistently opposing “realistic efforts to resolve the paradox of ‘want in the midst of plenty.'”

More than three-quarters of a century later, as the world faces another hunger crisis, efforts are already
underway to prevent food from going to waste the way it did back then. In April, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture announced it was purchasing up to $3 billion in fresh produce, meat and dairy supplies from
farmers to redistribute to the needy via relief organizations, and in New York, the state is working with
dairy farmers and cheese and yogurt manufacturers to turn excess milk into other products rather than
dumping it. Meanwhile, as TIME reported earlier this year, before the pandemic took hold in the U.S.,
American milk producers have been struggling due to declining demand, and increasing numbers of
small family farms have filed for bankruptcy, but many in the struggling industry are looking for ways to
keep their businesses afloat while also feeding those who need it.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Earlier this week, the U.N.’s World Food Program’s Chief Economist Arif
Husain told TIME that the world is facing an “unprecedented” food crisis due to the COVID-19
pandemic, with an estimated 265 million people projected to go hungry in 2020, adding a global
dimension to the contrasting actions of farmers who are having to destroy their stocks. Husain warned
that countries need to work together to protect those living in already vulnerable situations, and that
agricultural sector workers need to be treated as key workers too.

Writing in the late 1930s, Steinbeck too observed the impact of hunger on the working class, and how
the paradoxical waste of food destruction would enrage those on the brink of survival. In fact, the
passage that gave the novel its title came after a description of burning corn and dumping potatoes in
rivers: “In the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath
are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

Is the Government Really Paying Farmers to Destroy

Crops and Kill Animals?
By Sophie Hirsh Jul. 22 2021, Published 2:49 p.m. ET

The coronavirus pandemic affected the U.S. agriculture industry in many ways over the past year and a
half. And even though much of the country is finally “reopening” thanks to the vaccine, recently, there
have been rumors that the government is paying farmers to destroy their crops — but those are really
just TikTok conspiracy theories.

The government is far more invested in agriculture than you realize.

In the U.S. (and many other countries), the agriculture industry would essentially collapse without the
government, as the government uses taxpayer money to give billions of dollars in subsidies to farmers
every year.
 Estimates regarding the exact amount of
agricultural subsidies given to U.S. farmers
vary, but according to Meatonomics in 2016,
the U.S. government gives about $38
billion in subsidies to meat and dairy
farmers every year, but only about $17
million to crop farmers.

And in December 2020, the U.S. government

announced that farm income across the
country in 2020 was the highest it had been
since 2013. That’s because the federal government gave the highest payments to farmers in history:
$46.5 billion, as reported by Successful Farming.

Many farmers had to destroy crops in the beginning of the pandemic.

Early in the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., reduced demand for bulk orders of dairy products had the
dairy industry pouring raw, unpasteurized milk down drains and dumping it outdoors. At the same time,
many slaughterhouses shut down due to COVID outbreaks, which forced a lot of farms to “depopulate”
their livestock, aka kill the animals (by gunshot or CO2) and discard their bodies.

Additionally, early in the pandemic, fruit and vegetable farmers were essentially forced to trash crops
(including top berry manufacturer Driscolls), even though food banks were in serious need of food,
because the government refused to give financial assistance to make the donations happen.

And around the same time, one crop farmer told The Wall Street Journal that with the supply chain in
disarray, rather than let his crops die in the field, he chose to destroy them. “It’s a mental thing, you
don’t want to see your crop rot and suffer,” he told the newspaper.

Is the government really paying farmers to destroy crops?

Basically, farmers are not eligible for government

subsidies if they are not actively raising animals
or growing crops — so it’s more profitable for
them to continue business as usual, but trash
berries, milk, and even animals instead.

So no, the government is not forcing farmers to

destroy crops or animals. However, the current
agricultural system makes it so that many
farmers have no other choice but to destroy their
product, otherwise they will lose money.

As per Time, the same thing happened during the Great Depression — so this unjust system has clearly
been going on for a while.
TikTok conspiracy theorists are convincing people that the government is demanding
farmers destroy crops.

That said, rumors that the government is demanding farmers to destroy their crops in exchange for
payment have been circulating recently, thanks to a few TikToks on the topic.

For instance, TikTok creator and farmer, @neflyinfarmer, posted a video earlier this month showing a
letter and binders that the USDA allegedly sent him, ordering him to destroy his crops. But when he
shows the USDA letterhead, it’s marked January 2018 — a fact that many users pointed out in the
comments, calling the creator out for fake news. Even though the video spread misinformation, as it was
viewed nearly 700,000 times, fortunately, the creator does make it clear in the comments that he was
joking.

@neflyinfarmer

Got The Letter To Destroy Crops #farmtok #letter #destroy #your #crop #foodshortage2021
#coming2america #buschlight #nebraska

♬ Beer Run (Garth Brooks) - Nashville Tribute Collection

Another TikTok, posted by @shanehattander on May 18, is much more plainly a conspiracy. He claims
that the federal government will not give farmers subsidies if they refuse to destroy their crops. “They’re
trying to create a food shortage,” he tells the camera. “We’ve got eight months to create our own food
supply or we’re probably going to be facing mass starvation. Good luck.”

@shanehattander ♬ original sound - Shane Hattander

Fear not: there’s no reason to worry about a food shortage in the U.S. — the USDA reports that there
are not currently any food shortages in the country. That said, the USDA did not immediately respond to
Green Matters’ request for comment on these conspiracies.

More from Green Matters

The Dairy Industry Is Dumping Truckloads of Milk — And It’s Hurting Fish

To Prevent Food Waste, Berry Company Calls on Government to Provide Financial Aid

Sanctuaries Petition Factory Farms to Surrender Animals From "Depopulation" Amidst Coronavirus

The Biden Administration Will Pay Farmers More Money

Not To Farm
by H. Claire Brown 04.22.2021, 2:28pm
 The goal is to add 4 million acres of
farmland to the Conservation Reserve
Program, which takes land out of
production to blunt agriculture’s
environmental impact. 

The Biden administration announced on

Wednesday that it would expand a
program that pays farmers to leave land
fallow, part of a broader, government-
wide effort to cut greenhouse gas
emissions in half by 2030. The new
initiative will incentivize farmers to take
land out of production by raising rental
rates and incentive payments. 

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) was created in 1985 to incentivize landowners to leave
some of their marginal land unplanted, a plan meant to protect the environment by reducing agricultural
runoff into streams and rivers, preserving wildlife habitats, and preventing erosion. Today, the
Department of Agriculture (USDA) “rents” about 21 million acres of farmland from landowners, typically
for 10 years at a time—a tiny fraction of the total land farmed nationwide. In recent years, the number of
acres enrolled in CRP has fallen, possibly because USDA’s rental payments have not been competitive
with the open market, Chuck Abbott reported for FERN News.

The new announcement is a bid to incentivize farmers to enroll 4 million more acres of land in the
program to total 25 million acres, the current program limit. “Sometimes the best solutions are right in
front of you,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a press release. 

“A huge amount of money was essentially paid and then lost when those acres go back into farming.”

All told, the increased rental rates and expanded incentive payments—which pay farmers extra for
growing buffer strips and promoting wildlife habitats—will increase CRP spending by about 18 percent,
totaling $300 million or more in annual spending. 

“Overall, we think the changes are good, but also they could still be better,” said Anne Schechinger,
senior economic analyst with the Environmental Working Group. CRP typically only takes land out of
production for 10 years at a time, and many farmers opt not to renew after a decade—many of the
environmental benefits are erased as soon as the soil is plowed under and crops are replanted.
Schechinger published a report that found almost 16 million acres were taken out of the reserve
between 2007 and 2014 after landowners opted not to re-rent them to USDA. The government had
spent more than $7 billion to preserve those acres. “A huge amount of money was essentially
paid and then lost when those acres go back into farming,” Schechinger said. 
Asked about this issue in a press call on Thursday, Vilsack was vague. “The key here is to make sure
that we continue to have a commitment to CRP as one strategy, one of many strategies,” he said. “An
acre here may change, but there may be additional acres over there that weren’t in a program that are
in a program. Over time you make significant improvement toward a net-zero future.” 

So far, there’s been little motion from Vilsack’s office and the Democrat-controlled Congress on
mandatory regulations designed to mitigate agriculture’s environmental impact.

To be clear, conservation is still a good thing, even if it only lasts for 10 years, Schechinger said. But
from a climate perspective, plowing up land that has lain fallow for a decade will release a lot of the
carbon that was sequestered in the soil. She’d like to see an expansion of the CLEAR30 pilot program,
which rents land for 30 years at a time and requires farmers to implement water-friendly conservation
measures. Other measures, like slightly higher payments for acreage that has been kept out production
for one ten-year cycle, could further incentivize long-term conservation. 

To date, the Biden administration has focused on voluntary, incentives-based programs like CRP to
address climate change and the environment in the farming sector. Other Democrats have favored a
less business-friendly approach: Senator Cory Booker introduced a moratorium on the construction of
new Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in 2019, which emit the potent greenhouse gas methane,
and Senator Bernie Sanders championed broader enforcement of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts
during his presidential campaign. So far, there’s been little motion from Vilsack’s office and the
Democrat-controlled Congress on mandatory regulations designed to mitigate agriculture’s
environmental impact. 
B@#Turd,anything,”
“I really think regulations are the only way we’re going to accomplish SoB or Just Bit@#
Schechinger
said. “We can keep doing some voluntary—CRP is good, retiring land is a great thing—but it’s not going
to be enough to get us where we need to be with mitigating climate change.” 
The Dairy Industry Is Dumping Truckloads of Milk — And
It’s Hurting Fish
By Sophie Hirsh Apr. 7 2020, Updated 11:44 a.m. ET

With the novel coronavirus causing a shift in market demands, dairy industry workers all over the U.S.
are pouring truckloads of cow’s milk down drains and into fields. As if that wasn’t wasteful enough,
governments are now warning the dairy industry that raw, unpasteurized milk entering the water system
could kill fish. 

Footage and photos of the dairy industry emptying trucks filled with milk have gone viral during the
COVID-19 quarantines. But with so many people stocking up on groceries and dairy aisles emptying out
in supermarkets, why are dairy farmers dumping milk? 

Why are dairy farmers dumping milk?

We are dumping milk in South Florida because there is no home for it. We still have to feed and care for
our cows, and our farmers are still milking cows, in hopes that we can sell that milk in the future...
#stillfarming pic.twitter.com/tn4dpUBuUa

— Ben Butler (@BenLButler) April 3, 2020

As reported by The New York Post, dairy farmers are getting rid of milk that would usually be
pasteurized and turned into drinkable milk, cream, butter, cheese, etc. for schools, restaurants, and
other places that have shut down due to coronavirus lockdowns.

Schools and businesses are understandably canceling orders for dairy products, since no one will be
there to consume it. So with the demand for milk down, farmers are still milking cows, but dumping the
milk.

What a waste! #COVID19Pandemic is forcing Dairy farmers to dump their milk down the drain so the
milk market doesn’t implode. Why not give it away to those who need it? We’ll get to the bottom of it at
6:00. pic.twitter.com/ZXp2uSjWQa

— Shaun Gallagher (@ShaunGalNews) April 2, 2020

Why are farmers still milking cows?

Because they are still spending money to feed, shelter, and hydrate the cows, dairy farmers are
continuing to keep cows hooked up to milk machines and continuing to take their milk. 

The entire point of the dairy industry is to make a profit. To stop milking cows would guarantee zero
profits — and more importantly, it would mean losing the government subsidies that keep the dairy
industry alive — so the farmers are continuing the cruel cycle of milking cows to keep up their milk
supply, in hopes that the market will turn around soon and there will be a need for their milk. 

How dumped dairy milk is hurting fish:

Crying over spilled milk may actually be warranted in this case — at least for fish. 

As noted by Earther, a memo shared by the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources explains that
dumping milk outdoors or down drains presents several environmental concerns, because that milk is
making its way into rivers, streams, and other waterways.

To waterways, unpasteurized milk is a pollutant, similar to manure or wastewater. In fact, compared to

manure, milk has higher biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and higher concentrations of nutrients, as
well as a strong odor. These factors can hurt surface water and lower the water’s oxygen levels — all of
which can kill fish, according to the department.

Do cows need to be milked?

Cows produce milk for the same reason that

women produce milk: to nurse their babies.
To get a female cow to produce milk, farmers
forcibly impregnate them. After mother cows
give birth, farmers take their calves away to
prevent them from nursing, and taking the
milk that the industry wants to sell to humans.
Male calves are typically sent to the veal
industry, where they will live in a “veal crate”
for 18 to 20 weeks before being slaughtered
for veal. As for female calves, farmers will
artificially inseminate them as soon as they
have matured, and they will also become
“dairy” cows. Once cows have been impregnated several times and their milk supply slows down, they
will be slaughtered and become low-quality beef and hamburgers. 

So no, cows do not produce milk out of nowhere, nor do they need to be milked — the only reason they
produce milk is because they have been impregnated. Like any other mammal, they can wean off of
milk production.

With the demand for milk considerably down during the quarantines, it would be great if farmers
experiencing a reduced demand will prompt them to reduce their supply, and stop breeding,
impregnating, and milking cows. Not only would this obviously be great for the cows, but it would also be
great for all the fish who are being impacted by the new pollutant entering their water, and it would be
great for the planet, considering the dairy industry’s high environmental impact. But with the U.S.
government giving the dairy industry about $22.2 billion dollars in subsidies every year — and the
government expected to give billions of more dollars to the agriculture sector due to the coronavirus —
it's hard to say if the pandemic will significantly hurt the dairy industry.

South Africa Descends to Chaos, as People Try to Find

Food – Is This What Awaits the United States (and Rest of
the World)?
by Brian Shilhavy Editor, Health Impact News

Durban, South
Africa.

https://youtu.be/fPpaUqmGgI4 https://youtu.be/qsDVyQgakLQ https://youtu.be/krRsVPKWkmA

If you have not yet seen these reports out of South Africa, the country descended into chaos last week,
with massive rioting and looting all across the country.

The South African president stated that this massive social unrest was “planned,” and he deployed
25,000 troops from the military to restore order. (Source.)

Here are a couple of videos that show the devastation from the aftermath, and how many now face
starvation as they try to find food.

This is not the Congo, or Sudan, but SOUTH AFRICA. They have not seen anything close to this kind of
unrest in South Africa since the 1990s.
Could this happen in the U.S. and other parts of the world?

Yes, of course it can, and we already saw it last summer right here in the U.S., with rioting and
destruction in urban areas that have not been seen here since the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination
in the 1960s.

Those riots last summer were also organized and planned, and lasted much longer than the 1960s riots.

If you have not yet read this article I recently published on the Global Food Cartel, I highly recommend
you do, so you can understand just how easy it is for these Globalists to very quickly cause chaos and
massive food shortages, leading to starvation and a planned reduction of the population.

This is probably a much greater threat to you and your family than someone coming to your door to try
and inject you with one of their bioweapon shots.

Beyond COVID-19: The Global People’s Summit on Food

Systems
The COVID-19 pandemic both exposed the structural flaws of the global food systems and underscored
the urgent need for a truly radical transformation.

We are yet again at a critical turning point in transforming food and agriculture worldwide. It’s not just
because the United Nations and intergovernmental processes decided to adopt a supposedly “food
systems approach” in transforming the sector.

An unjust, inequitable, unhealthy, and unsustainable food system brought about by global monopolies in
agriculture production and trade; by decades of global landgrabs and environmental devastation
intended for profit; by unequal treaties and agreements like those under the WTO; by neoliberal reforms
bankrolled by the IMF-WB; by national policies that perpetuate corporate and landlord control of lands
and agricultural trade; and proliferation of capitalist farms at the expense of smallholder producers and
landless rural peoples. This is imperialism in action, with its laws and inherent contradictions underlying
the anarchic and wasteful production and consumption of the world’s food.

The extent and intensity of the current COVID-19 pandemic and the government actions at its heels
have surfaced and exacerbated long-standing injustices and inequalities in, and unsustainability of
global monopoly capitalism, including in the food systems.

The upswell of those in chronic hunger, collapse of local food production, and surge in food price
volatility amid Covid-19 point to one thing:

the current neoliberal food system is not working for us, for our people, and for our planet.

We are at a conjunction – either we allow the perpetuation of such food systems or we rise up and
transform it. For the deprived and famished, the choice is clear – the people are hungry for
change.
To transform our world to one without hunger, without trading off our rights and our planet – towards
just, equitable, healthy, and sustainable food systems.

We must reclaim our voices to demand food systems which put our fundamental rights above profit, our
planet over corporations, and our sovereignty over monopolies.

It’s time for a true Global People’s Summit for Just, Equitable, Healthy and Sustainable Food
Systems.

Why Counter UN Food System Summit

The fight for just, equitable, healthy, and sustainable food systems has never stopped nor wavered.
From local farming and indigenous communities standing up against landgrabs and destructive
investment projects to advocates advancing sustainable ways to end hunger. The Global People’s
Summit on Food Systems or People’s Summit provides an opportune venue to build on these struggles
and assert the people’s demands.

The Global Peoples Summit on Food Systems aims to:

1. Put the voices of the marginalized at the helm of agenda-setting in the transformation of our food systems;
2. Expose the neoliberal agenda and corporate capture in the UN Food Systems Summit; and
3. Present an actionable, pro-people and pro-planet alternative to radically transform the food systems.

The People’s Summit is part of the #Hungry4Change campaign, an ongoing initiative of the People’s
Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) and its network to highlight the people’s right to just, equitable,
healthy, and sustainable food systems.

Through the People’s Summit, we hope to develop further and broaden the Nine Demands to include an
extensive range of right holders and peoples, especially from the Global South. A People’s Action Plan
to realize the Just, Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Food Systems will be the major outcome of
the People’s Summit.

Why Just Food Systems?

At its core, our food systems should embody the right to life and human dignity. Yet the current food
systems are stacked against the poorest of the poor, structured to maximize profit.

A human-rights based approach to transforming our food systems is critical in realizing the right to safe,
healthy, and culturally appropriate food for all. It is unacceptable that almost a third of the world do not
have regular access to safe and nutritious food despite the growing surplus in production. Rural food
producers, especially in the Global South, do not own the land they till, control the seeds they sow, nor
decide on the destination of their produce. In many countries, indigenous peoples, farmers, and land
defenders are under constant threat of eviction, harassment, and even murder.

Just food systems put land and life at the center of transformation.
Why Equitable Food Systems

Our food systems today connect us like never before. Yet, this connection is built atop unequal trade
routes, inequality, and plunder.

A people’s right framework in transforming our food systems is the key in rebuilding production and
trade towards decolonization, solidarity and lasting peace. Neoliberal reforms of liberalization,
privatization, and deregulation since the Green Revolution has corporatized and denationalized food
systems. Transnational and multinational companies from a handful of rich nations have monopolized
the ownership and control of seeds, inputs, production machineries, and tradelines of poor agrarian
nations. Food aid and embargoes are also weaponized by powerful nations as political tools against
poorer and food-deprived countries.

Equitable food systems uphold the people’s right to development and sovereignty.

Why Healthy Food Systems

Malnutrition, especially among the poorest of the poor have been plaguing the world for centuries
without end in sight.

Poverty has shackled half the globe into hunger and a huge chunk of the other half into consuming
cheap and heavily subsidized sources of carbohydrates. The current chemical-intensive corporate-
driven agriculture is fostering collapse in food and seed diversity while further profiting from unhealthy
diets. Zoonotic diseases emerging from corporate farms threaten the already fragile healthcare systems
of the world. Along with genetically-modified seeds that further destroy seed sovereignty and agro-
biodiversity, food producers are trapped in a cycle of dependency on hazardous technologies, while
consumers find healthy food more and more inaccessible.

Healthy food systems reconnect the link between diversity in production and consumption.

Why Sustainable Food Systems

Our planet is at its limits thanks, in part, to today’s fossil fuel hungry corporate food systems. And the
poor and marginalized of the Global South are bearing the brunt.

There should not be a tradeoff between the right to healthy food and a healthy planet. Despite the
Neomalthussian fear mongering talk of food shortage by 2050, we are producing more today than what
we need. Decades of “sustainable intensification” have deforested wildlife areas, collapsed fish stocks,
and eroded environmental boundaries. Additionally, the support for agroecological, traditional, artisanal,
and smallholder production have since been shifted towards fossil-fuel hungry agriculture and food
waste-prone corporate farming and transnational distribution chains. The massive use of toxic
pesticides has polluted air, soil and water; caused the acute poisoning of an estimated 385 million
people each year; and placed harmful chemicals on our plates.
Agroecology — a productive, resilient, and sustainable approach to farming— integrates cutting edge
science with local and Indigenous knowledge and practice and can replace corporate-controlled
chemical-intensive agriculture by putting farmers first.

Sustainable food systems harmonize humanity’s needs and aspirations to our planetary boundaries.

Who are The Organizers of Global Peoples Summit on Food Systems

The People’s Summit is being organized by:

 People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS)

 PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP)
 Asian Peasant Coalition (APC)
 Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN)
 Arab People for Food Sovereignty (ANFS)
 Eastern and Southern Africa Small-scale Farmers Forum (ESAFF)
 Indigenous Peoples’ Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL)
 Coalition of Agricultural Workers International (CAWI)
 Asian Rural Women’s Coalition (ARWC)
 Global Forest Coalition (GFC)
 People Over Profit (POP)
 Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN)
 IBON International
 Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Land and Development (APWLD)
 Stop Golden Rice Network (SGRN)
 PAN North America (PANNA)
 A Growing Culture
 Youth for Food Sovereignty (YFS)

The UN Is Now Admitting That This Coronavirus

Pandemic Could Spark Famines Of “Biblical Proportions”
April 21, 2020 by Michael Snyder

What the head of the UN’s World Food Program just said should be making front page headlines all
over the globe.  Because if what he is claiming is true, we are about to see global food shortages on a
scale that is absolutely unprecedented in modern history.  Even before COVID-19 arrived, armies of
locusts the size of major cities were voraciously eating crops all across Africa, the Middle East and parts
of Asia, and UN officials were loudly warning about what that would mean for global food production. 
And now the coronavirus shutdowns that have been implemented all over the planet have brought
global trade to a standstill, they are making it more difficult to maintain normal food production
operations, and they have forced countless workers to stay home and not earn a living.  All of this adds
up to a recipe for a complete and utter nightmare in the months ahead.
David Beasley is the head of the UN’s World Food Program, and on Tuesday he warned that we could
actually see famines of “biblical proportions” by the end of this calendar year.  The following comes
from ABC News…

The coronavirus pandemic could soon double hunger, causing famines of “biblical proportions”
around the world by the end of the year, the head of the World Food Programme, David Beasley,
told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.

Beasley warned that analysis from the World Food Programme, the U.N.’s food-assistance
branch, shows that because of the coronavirus, “an additional 130 million people could be
pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020. That’s a total of 265 million people.”

He described what we are facing as “a hunger pandemic”, and he insisted that urgent action must be
taken in order to avoid a nightmare scenario.

But in some parts of the globe a nightmare scenario is already unfolding.  For example, close to half the
population of South Sudan is currently facing starvation, and for many of them the only food that is
available is what gets dropped from the sky…

The villagers hear the distant roar of jet engines before a cargo plane makes a deafening pass
over Mogok, dropping sacks of grain from its hold to the marooned dust bowl below.

There is no other way to get food to this starving hamlet in South Sudan. There are no roads, and
the snaking Nile is miles away.
Over in South Africa, the “chronic food shortages” have already become so severe that they are starting
to spark rioting, looting and civil unrest…

UNREST broke out in parts of South Africa amid chronic food shortages sparked by the
coronavirus pandemic.

Looters raided shops, attacked each other, the army and police after breaching one of the
strictest lockdowns in the world.

Police fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse the mobs but local community leaders fear
more outbreaks of violence are imminent.

Here in the western world we don’t have to worry about such things yet, but without a doubt the number
of needy people is rapidly rising.

This past Saturday, vehicles literally began lining up at 2 AM in the morning for a food distribution
event at the San Antonio Food Bank…
 The San Antonio Food Bank teamed up with Atascosa County to feed meals and hope to
hundreds of people Saturday morning. Vehicles began to line up around 2 AM Saturday outside
the county courthouse, winding through neighborhoods at least two miles away.

I have never heard of people lining up so early before.

I have heard of vehicles lining up at the crack of dawn around the country in recent days, but 2 AM is
absolutely nuts.

But these people realize that when the food is gone there will be no more handouts that day, and there
are many that are absolutely desperate to get something to feed their families.

As this coronavirus pandemic has created an enormous amount of fear all over the country, empty
shelves have been reported in frozen food sections all over the nation, and the fact that an increasing
number of meat processing plants are being temporarily closed down is certainly not helping things. 
According to CBS News, at least 17 meat processing plants in the United States have been shut down
so far…

Coronavirus infections in at least 17 meat processing plants across nine states are contributing to
a spike in confirmed cases in the Midwest. Although 13 plants are already closed temporarily or
operating at reduced capacity, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says shutting down plants would
hurt farmers and the national food supply.

In a desperate attempt to keep as many facilities in her state open as possible, Iowa Governor Kim
Reynolds has enlisted the help of the National Guard…

Hundreds of National Guard personnel are being activated in Iowa as coronavirus sweeps
through meat-processing plants in a state that accounts for about a third of U.S. pork supply.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said 250 National Guard members have been moved to full-time
federal duty status and could help with testing and contact tracing for workers at plants operated
by Tyson Foods Inc. and National Beef Packing Co.
The good news is that authorities are telling us that any product shortages should just be
temporary and that all of these processing plants will eventually be brought back on line.

But for the planet as a whole, life is not going to be getting back to “normal” any time soon.

In fact, Takeshi Kasai of the World Health Organization is warning that we need to accept “a new way of
living” until a vaccine finally arrives…

“At least until a vaccine, or a very effective treatment, is found, this process will need to become
our new normal,” he said.
 “Individuals and society need to be ready for a new way of living.”

But now that scientists have discovered approximately 30 different strains of this virus, that is going to
greatly complicate matters.
Coming up with a successful vaccine for any coronavirus would be a historic feat, and now scientists
also have to hope that they will pick the particular strain of COVID-19 that will become dominant in the
future.

And of course many people around the globe will not want to take any vaccine that is developed under
any circumstances.

So those that are thinking that there will be an easy way out of this crisis are likely to be deeply
disappointed.

Meanwhile, the global economic downturn is getting deeper with each passing day, and global food
supplies are getting tighter and tighter.

A global famine is coming, and the UN is sounding the alarm.

Unfortunately, most people in the western world are still not listening.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay
asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The
American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are
republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are
available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life
That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I
always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to
government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section
with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the
controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
websites where my work is republished. The material contained in this article is for general information
purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business,
financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely
responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of
Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to
follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with
others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever
before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with all many people as we possibly can.

US Role in Destabilizing Yemen and Somalia

Could Spark “Famine of Biblical Proportions”
The World Food Program is warning that Yemen and countries in the Horn of Africa
– not coincidentally states that the US has been destabilizing for decades, could
face mass starvation amid the coronavirus pandemic.

by Alan Macleod April 22nd, 2020 By Alan Macleod 

A new report from the World Food Program warns that the COVID-19 pandemic could spark a massive
global famine, leading to over a quarter-billion people falling into acute food insecurity by the end of the
year. While the coronavirus is devastating enough – having (officially) killed over 177,000 people
worldwide and infected 2.6 million, the upheaval it has caused might trigger far greater damage, as
harvests are ruined, supply lines broken, and people lose the ability to pay for food. “I must warn you
that if we don’t prepare and act now – to secure access, avoid funding shortfalls and disruptions to trade
– we could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions within a short few months,” said David
Beasley, the World Food Program’s Director-General.

However, the report makes clear that not all countries will be affected equally, with those populations
already facing food insecurity the hardest hit, chief among them Yemen and the countries of the Horn of
Africa – not coincidentally states that the U.S. has been destabilizing for decades.

If famine and war were not enough, much of Yemen, including the large port city of Aden, has been
inundated with floods, causing huge damage to the area and loss of life.

Flood damage in Crater Aden. This is the second flood in Aden in a

month.#SouthYemen #Yemen pic.twitter.com/js6CNNE2aZ

— Summer Ahmed (@samwrax) April 21, 2020

However, little discussed in either the World Food Program’s report or corporate media is the Western
role in Yemen’s destruction. As Oxfam noted, Yemenis are not starving: they are being starved; starved
by a five-year war sustained by the U.S. and its NATO allies. The U.S. and Great Britain have provided
crucial support, arming, training and supporting the Saudi coalition in devastating Yemen’s economy.
The country’s Ministry of Agriculture estimates that there have been at least 10,000 airstrikes against
farms, 800 against local food markets, and 450 against food storage facilities between 2015 and 2019.
And thanks to the fuel blockade, hospital and sanitation services are not able to function normally,
leading to an enormous waste build up and outbreaks of cholera and other deadly diseases rarely seen
in peacetime. COVID-19 will surely overwhelm the already struggling facilities.

The World Food Program predicts Yemen to feel the worst impact of a prolonged global pandemic and
famine; 16 million people (the majority of the population) are already suffering a food crisis, the highest
number in the world. 40 percent of Yemeni households had already lost their primary source of income
before the pandemic, primarily because of the Saudi-led blockade on the country and its Houthi rebels.
The new report calculates that over half of children born since the conflict started in 2015 are already
physically stunted due to lack of food. Throughout the war, food prices have risen and international
agencies (including the World Food Program itself) have played politics with relief efforts.

Likewise, the West has played a highly destabilizing role in the Horn of Africa, supporting militias and
dictatorial regimes across the region. In addition to the famous Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, the US has
been quietly carrying out a longstanding drone bombing campaign in Somalia, greatly exacerbating the
intense economic and societal problems the country faces. But the connection between foreign
intervention and hunger is rarely made by the media or politicians. The report expresses grave concern
over countries in the region, such as Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Kenya. 4.24 million people in
Somalia, it notes, are already facing serious circumstances. The country’s 2.6 million internally
displaced refugees also pose a serious problem. The overcrowded and unsanitary camps they live in –
where social distancing and getting enough nutrition is difficult – could be a breeding ground for hunger
and COVID-19. Those with malnutrition and the health concerns it brings with it are particularly at risk of
falling ill and dying. Moreover, internally displaced people’s citizenship status is often in question, and
will likely prevent some from accessing social protections and provisions.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a worldwide mobilization to avert a catastrophic
famine: “We have the tools and the know-how. What we need is political will and sustained commitment
by leaders and nations,” he said. However, it is far from clear he can muster support from beleaguered
and divided states, especially as many of them have been intentionally hurting the worst hit countries for
years.

Feature photo | A malnourished newborn baby lies in an incubator at Al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa,
Yemen, Nov. 23, 2019. Hani Mohammed | AP
Chinese Agriculture Drone Makers See Demand Rise
Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Wendy Ye Published Mon, Mar 9 20207:56 PM EDT

Key Points

 "In the first two months of 2020, we delivered 4,000 units of our newly released agricultural
drones," Justin Gong, co-founder of XAG, a major agricultural drone maker based in the southern
city of Guangzhou, said in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation.
 Large farms, local governments and agricultural products distributors are buying high-tech
equipment as the spread of the coronavirus puts an impetus on reducing human contact.
 The interest in agricultural technology products and services also comes as the Chinese
government has stepped up its efforts to reduce reliance on food imports from the U.S. and other
countries over the last few years.

While the coronavirus outbreak in China has hit many industries hard, some technology start-ups in
agriculture are seeing demand rise.

 "In the first two months of 2020, we delivered 4,000 units of our newly released agricultural drones,"
Justin Gong, co-founder of XAG, a major agricultural drone maker based in the southern city of
Guangzhou, said in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation.

 XAG is not alone. In the north, Beijing Yifei Technology's Chief Marketing Officer Liu Zhuo said he
expects the company's revenue to at least quadruple this year to over 30 million yuan ($4.31 million).

"Recently, we received increased inquiries about agricultural drones and unmanned vehicles," Liu said,
according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.

Large farms, local governments and agricultural products distributors are buying high-tech equipment as
the spread of the coronavirus puts an impetus on reducing human contact. That's a key challenge in
putting millions of Chinese back to work since most still labor by hand on small family farms. Since
emerging in late December, the highly contagious coronavirus has killed more than 3,000 people in the
country and infected tens of thousands nationwide.

The interest in agricultural technology products and services also comes as the Chinese government
has stepped up its efforts to reduce reliance on food imports from the U.S. and other countries over the
last few years.

In fact, promoting agricultural modernization was written into the 13th five-year plan of the Chinese
economy, which reflects the central government's priorities and growth targets from 2015 to 2020.
China's agriculture ministry estimated that more than 30,000 drones for targeted plant protection will be
deployed this spring. The Chinese market for technology-driven smart agriculture products is expected
to grow from approximately $13.7 billion in 2015 to $26.8 billion this year, according to Statista.
Prioritize getting back to work

More than half of China extended the Lunar New Year holiday by more than a week in early February in
an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The number of new cases outside the disease's epicenter
of Hubei province has slowed dramatically in the last few weeks, but Chinese authorities have been
anxious to ensure farms are back up and running in time for the spring planting season.

Beginning in early February, the national leading group for fighting the virus has repeatedly named
agriculture as a top priority. And on Thursday, state media reported that the central government had
distributed 140 million yuan ($20 million) in subsidies for machine and tools purchases.

The high level of support meant that agriculture-related businesses like XAG were among the first batch
of enterprises to resume work, according to the company. The dronemaker also said it is taking
advantage of special policies such as rent reductions, and 100 million yuan in loans at an interest rate
more than three percentage points below the market level.

With this kind of support, "agriculture might be the least impacted industry by this outbreak," said Gong
Huaze, CEO of Mcfly, which is backed by Baidu Ventures and develops technology for precision
pesticide and fungicide spraying. The start-up said it recently nailed a contract with the Zhejiang
provincial government, and expects more deals with Hubei, the center of the virus' outbreak.

"All of these measures are deployed to ensure that we won't miss the most critical farming season in
China, which falls in April this year," Gong said.

In his view, part of the rush to support agricultural production is related to trade tensions with the U.S.

"China has enough grain reserves to weather even a longer-than-expected virus outbreak," Gong said,
"but any reduction in production would hurt China, a major food importer, in its bargaining position with
the U.S." 

As part of a phase-one trade deal signed in January, China agreed to buy at least $32 billion
more in U.S. agricultural products over the next two years. So far, neither country has publicly indicated
that the virus outbreak will significantly affect the ultimate fulfillment of the agreement.

More consolidation, capital ahead

Broader demographic trends support greater use of technology in China's farms in the long term.
According to official data, 300 million people hail from agrarian areas and are rapidly aging, while many
younger people have moved to cities, leaving farms with fewer people to tend them. Chinese President
Xi Jinping initiated a strategy of "rural vitalization" in 2017 and it's widely expected to be part of
China's upcoming five-year plan.

"Government policies in China serve as more than just guidelines," Qiu Shuang, a cross-border
agriculture investor at Silicon Valley-based Plug and Play Tech Center, said in Mandarin, according to a
CNBC translation.
She pointed out that authorities often use investment funds backed by the state to create incentives for
innovation in certain industries. In her view, "that explains why investment in agriculture is heating up
now in China."

And as the virus' impact has hit many small businesses, including farmers, analysts expect more
consolidation ahead.  That will create the scale needed to drive larger purchases of farming equipment.

However, for so-called smart agricultural machinery, a major determining factor for its growth is whether
it can be included in a government subsidy list, Liu said.

"Because the new kind of agricultural equipment is more expensive," he said, "only with certain
subsidies from the government, can it compete with traditional agricultural equipment in the
market."

— CNBC's Evelyn Cheng contributed to this story.

Opinion: How To Address The Impact Of COVID-19 On
Global Food Systems
By Richard Choularton, Meredith Mallory // 02 April 2020

Grain farmers in Kenya load their crops to take

them to market. Photo by: Juozas Cernius /
Tetra Tech

According to the Brookings Institution, COVID-

19 could result in a global loss of $2.4 trillion to
over $9 trillion in gross domestic product this
year alone. And according to the World Bank,
agriculture accounted for one-third of global
gross domestic product as of 2014, while the
Food and Agriculture Organization has
estimated that 60% of the world’s people
depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Though the global scope of COVID-19 presents a unique set of challenges, we can learn important
lessons from previous outbreaks — Ebola virus disease, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and severe
acute respiratory syndrome — and their impacts on agriculture and food systems.

Ebola and associated control measures caused widespread disruption to agriculture and markets in
areas affected by the disease, as well as elsewhere. In fact, Ebola resulted in approximately $2.2
billion in lost GDP in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in 2015. In Liberia, area cultivated decreased
along with rural incomes. Aggregators were unable to purchase at the farm gate, markets were closed,
and supply chains were restricted due to quarantines, sick truck drivers, border closures, and trade
restrictions. Additionally, reduced incomes limited farmers’ ability to hire farm labor, which was highly
restricted because collective work was banned in fields.

This had significant food security implications. In Liberia, rice prices increased by more than 30%, while
cassava prices rose 150%. In the wake of COVID-19, food prices in China have increased by 20%,
trade restrictions have been imposed by countries that include major exporters of wheat and rice —
Kazakhstan and Vietnam — and agricultural labor migrations have been disrupted. Trade restrictions
can impact world food prices, disproportionately affecting poor consumers, while shortages of labor can
reduce overall production and food viability.

Governments and the international development community must quickly mobilize efforts to mitigate the
impacts of COVID-19 on food and agriculture and, most importantly, to protect the food security of
vulnerable people. The International Food Policy Research Institute’s early projections indicate that
even under an effective COVID-19 containment scenario, 14 million to 22 million people could slip into
extreme poverty and low- and middle-income countries could see a 25% decline in agri-food exports.
While it will take time to fully understand the scope of COVID-19’s impact on food and agricultural
systems, here are a number of actions that the development community can start to take now:

1. Increase assessments of the impacts of COVID-19 on agriculture and food systems

Just as increased testing for COVID-19 is critical for public health, so too is measuring its impact on
agriculture and food systems. The World Food Programme and others are ramping up monitoring of
food prices globally, and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network is integrating COVID-19 impacts
into food security early warning.

The use of cutting-edge remote-sensing tools, combined with machine learning, offers a promising
approach to map disruptions in crop production. Data collection using cellphones and social media can
be deployed at scale to monitor the global impacts of COVID-19 on farmers and consumers.

Although the focus needs to be on understanding the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on food and
agriculture, the long-term impacts require careful consideration. The impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic
on labor productivity, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and dependency ratios remain challenges in
many countries today. COVID-19’s impact will no doubt be different, but starting to consider these
longer-term effects now will enable us to better address them.

2. Support farmers to continue producing and marketing food

Finding ways of supporting farmers to keep producing food and to remain connected to markets is
essential. For example, we can help farms institute safe labor practices, increase access to personal
protective equipment — such as masks and gloves that are in high demand due to needs in the health
care system — and reduce contact with packaging and produce. Taking measures such as these can
reduce the spread of COVID-19 and promote continued production of food.

Helping farmers adopt labor-saving practices that compensate for reduced labor availability — caused
by sick family members, limitations on collective labor, and restrictions on the movement of people to
producers’ fields — is also important.

3. Accelerate the deployment of relevant agricultural technologies and digital agriculture

solutions

Agricultural technologies, especially digital agriculture solutions, offer a range of important opportunities
to address the impacts of COVID-19 on agricultural production, labor availability, input supply, and
logistics. Agricultural drone sales have skyrocketed in China to address labor constraints and to reduce
human contact amid COVID-19. Drones and other digital extension tools can help farmers adopt labor-
and input-saving practices, while digital agriculture solutions that link farmers to buyers and logistics
services could help reduce the impacts of control measures related to COVID-19 on aggregators and
supply chains.

Shared mechanization services, such as Hello Tractor, can mitigate reductions in cropped areas caused
by labor shortages while increasing per-hectare productivity. Public-private partnerships and
investments in existing agricultural technology programs could help scale up these solutions faster to
help more people manage the impacts of COVID-19.

4. Support small, medium, and large agribusinesses

Small and medium enterprises are the bedrock of the world’s economy, representing an estimated
95% of private sector companies. In sub-Saharan Africa, micro and small enterprises employ almost
80% of the workforce. Agriculture SMEs are extremely vulnerable to shocks, as they have limited cash
reserves and little access to risk-finance tools. One study found that only 7.3% of 301 surveyed SMEs in
Kenya and Senegal had insurance, and 16.9% had access to loan finance for recovery from climate
disasters. It’s safe to say that few, if any, private sector actors in LMICs or high-income countries have
pandemic insurance.

Recovery lending, credit lines, grants, and other tools could all help SMEs weather the impacts of
COVID-19 and be in a stronger position to support broader economic recovery. Development actors are
especially well positioned to work with their private sector partners to support business continuity
planning, develop digital marketing platforms, and enact other measures that help SMEs keep afloat
and become more resilient.

5. Innovate in supply chains and markets

Disruptions to supply chains and markets have widespread impacts on the food system. Innovative
efforts, such as China’s “green channel” initiative, are needed to help get inputs to farmers and produce
to market. Digital logistics, both in rural and urban areas, can reduce the impacts of control measures
related to COVID-19 on transport, aggregation, and retail systems.

6. Support regional policy dialogues to help countries address food shortages

Governments need to innovate and collaborate around food security and agriculture policy. This will
allow countries to better manage their agri-food imports and export, reduce the risks of food trade bans,
and ultimately ensure their populations have access to food. Investments in sanitary and phytosanitary
controls and good practices in transport and food safety can build confidence in regional and global
trade systems and help improve the flow of food to where it needs to go.

7. Assess the impact of COVID-19 on agriculture-based livelihoods and food security

using a gender lens

Approaches to address COVID-19 that carefully consider the gender dimensions of food security, labor,
health, and vulnerability are essential. Women play a central role in the market as traders, producers,
and health care workers, and they often assume the role of caretakers in the community. These roles
may increase exposure to illness and impact income earning.

Access to food, income, resources and assets, information, and social support can be greatly shaped by
cultural norms, beliefs, and expectations. Accordingly, divisions of labor and interpersonal and social
dynamics within the household and community may influence access to information, financial support,
and health services. The development of gender-sensitive solutions to address COVID-19 will facilitate
the engagement of men, women, and youths, while addressing the inherent vulnerabilities of each group
as the public health response evolves.

Action to address the impacts of COVID-19 on our food and agriculture system needs to be accelerated
and informed by ideas and practices from around the world. The ideas above are only a start. By
collaborating to bring ideas and partnerships together, the global community has a much stronger
chance of mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 on the global food system and protecting the food
security of the most vulnerable people around the world. To catalyze the discussion, we ask other
agriculture and food security practitioners from the international development community, private sector,
and elsewhere to share their ideas in the comments below.

In Northern Triangle, Rising Food Insecurity Tests NGO

Adaptability
By Teresa Welsh // 20 April 2020

WASHINGTON — A heightened risk of food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic in El Salvador,
Guatemala, and Honduras has mobilized NGOs in the region — even those that don’t typically engage
in humanitarian response — to ensure people in both rural and urban areas have access to food.

The three “Northern Triangle” countries each have strict mobility restrictions in place that have left many
people, particularly those in the informal sector, without work. While measures in each country differ
slightly, people are only allowed to leave their homes certain days of the week for food and medicine,
which means those who made their living selling goods on the street are unable to earn an income.

Households have also seen a drop in remittances from the U.S. as family members there have lost
work, further decreasing funds available to buy food.

Farmers in rural parts of the “Dry Corridor” area of the Northern Triangle are also vulnerable, as they
work to recover from the compounding impacts of drought over the last several years.  

In Honduras, men and women are allowed out of the house for supplies on different days of the week.
Government restrictions have forced the World Food Programme to be extremely nimble in how it
reaches at risk populations with food aid, WFP Honduras Deputy Director Etienne Labande said.

“What is really challenging is that the type of assistance, the way to reach the population, has to be
extremely flexible because we have parts of the country where there’s a problem of [food] availability,”
Labande explained.

“We have part of the country where the population cannot move enough to reach the closest bank, for
instance, to receive a cash transfer.”

WFP is working with the Honduran government on food distribution, including making sure any stocks
left over in now-shuttered schools can be distributed to families and doesn’t go to waste.
The organization is also monitoring food prices, to be sure that staples such as beans, corn, rice, flour,
and eggs remain affordable. According to humanitarian data platform ACAPS, a survey by the
Honduran government found that 3.2 million people in the country need food support and 90% of
households don’t have reserves to last more than a month.

“Over the last decade, there’s been multiple droughts and the combination of this [with COVID-
19] is going to make [farmers’] situation much more precarious.”

— Blain Cerney, head of programs, Catholic Relief Services El Salvador

Navigating government regulations requires not only NGOs but also trucking and distribution companies
to have permits to conduct their activities in areas where mobility is otherwise restricted.

Labande added that because some departments and municipalities of Honduras have stricter measures
in place than the federal mandate, contracting food delivery has become exceedingly complicated for
WFP.

Stabilizing smallholders

While normal field operations remain paused, NGO Global Communities is shifting its work in Honduras
to ensure farmers have access to agricultural inputs they need for the upcoming planting season, as
well as adapting the food supply chain to manage health concerns during the pandemic.

Eva Mejia, country director for Honduras, said the organization will implement a program to manage
biosecurity of the food supply as it leaves the farm.

“What happens when the products are taken to the markets?” Mejia said. “We’re reviewing how and
proposing how we can support that value chain … so that we can continue producing in a safe way and
reduce the risk of any COVID situation.”

Small producers are particularly vulnerable during the pandemic, Mejia said, because they are less
organized and are usually in more remote areas of the country. Global Communities will provide 13,000
small producers in Western Honduras with agricultural inputs and the government will then buy their
harvest to distribute to families in need of emergency food assistance, ensuring a market for the
products.

“They don’t have the financial capacity to buy the inputs. There are some mobility restrictions. There’s
no public transportation,” Mejia said of vulnerabilities smallholders face. “They have less access to
negotiation power to buy agricultural inputs and they don’t have the capital … These restrictions affect
them more than, for example, bigger producers.”

According to a recent study conducted by Catholic Relief Services, 80% of farmers in El Salvador said
they are concerned about where their next meal will come from after mid-April. This time of year,
farmers would typically sell reserves from their last harvest to buy basic goods like eggs, oil, and milk
that they cannot grow. But Blain Cerney, head of programs at CRS El Salvador, said many are changing
their habits given fears of food insecurity.
“Our findings are essentially that they’re afraid: One, to go to market; and two, because if they sell their
basic grains they have no guarantee that they’ll be able to get more of those things in the coming
weeks,” Cerney said.

Prices of staple foods have increased, Cerney said, with eggs having gone up in price between 50 and
100%, while oil and rice are up 20 to 25%, “which is a pretty big deal for poor families,” Cerney said.

“We’re anticipating that up to a million farmers across the region are going to have severe food
insecurity because of the accumulated impact of droughts over the years,” he said. “Over the
last decade, there’s been multiple droughts and the combination of this [with COVID-19] is going
to make their situation much more precarious.”

In Guatemala, Plan International is monitoring food prices by using telephone surveys to discover which
geographic areas of the country may have a stressed food supply. Most agricultural activity is
continuing, and Guatemala Country Director John Lundine said planting is expected to take place after
the first rains in May despite government restrictions, including a ban on movement between
departments.

But just because farmers can plant doesn’t mean they will have enough to eat, Lundine said.

“One thing that is misunderstood is that the majority of poor people in the Dry Corridor areas are
actually more dependent on off-farm labor activities, from an economic standpoint, than they are on
certain farm crop production,” Lundine said.

“On-farm crop production is important, but it’s not as if it provides enough food for half of the year or the
whole year for the majority of these households.”

Food aid with a side of mindfulness

In urban areas, informal workers are not only without an income, but are also often confined in smaller
and more densely populated spaces. Stressors caused by the quarantine situation, including food
insecurity, has led development organization Glasswing International to quickly shift programming
toward addressing people’s most immediate needs.

Vice President of Programs Celina de Sola said Glasswing, which typically runs programs focused on
reducing violence and addressing trauma, has pivoted its crisis response in El Salvador to include food
distribution.

“If you can alleviate that basic need [for food] you're also addressing other stressors within the
household that can lead to violence. How do we try to adjust as many stressors as possible?” de Sola
said.

She added that in some cases, food distribution is being done by the suppliers because going house-to-
house to distribute food is not allowed under some government rules.
Glasswing is also exploring a way to prepay for groceries at supermarkets and have people go pick
them up on days when they are allowed out of their homes for shopping. The organization wants to
include some of its violence reduction and mindfulness activities in a take-home format to distribute
along with food aid.

“We see it as very connected right now,” de Sola said. “If you're hungry and you can’t feed your kids,
there’s very little else you can do to make your household function and be stable.”

WFP Chief Warns Of 'Hunger Pandemic' As COVID-19

Threatens Food Security
By Teresa Welsh // 22 April 2020

David Beasley, executive director at the World Food

Programme. Photo by: REUTERS / Denis Balibouse

WASHINGTON — An already bleak global food security

picture will be compounded as the repercussions of the
COVID-19 pandemic destroy livelihoods, disrupt supply
chains, strain national budgets, and restrict trade, the
Global Network Against Food Crises has warned.

The concerns were raised Tuesday as the group released

its annual “Global Report on Food Crises,” which calculated that 135 million people in 55 countries and
territories were suffering from acute food insecurity. That number could double as another 130 million
are impacted by the pandemic, World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley told the U.N.
Security Council.

“Before the coronavirus even became an issue, I was saying that 2020 would be the worst humanitarian
crisis since World War II for a variety of reasons,” Beasley said Tuesday. “At the same time while we’re
dealing with [the] COVID-19 pandemic, we’re also on the brink of a hunger pandemic.”

Without taking into account the impact of the new virus, 2020 was already expected to be the worst year
for food crises since 2017, when the Global Network Against Food Crises conducted its first analysis.
The alliance of humanitarian and development organizations — founded in 2016 by WFP, the Food and
Agriculture Organization, and the European Commission for International Cooperation and Development
— promotes a data-driven approach to coordination and implementation to prevent food crises.

The 135 million people already experiencing acute food insecurity have no ability to cope with the
additional shock of the pandemic, the report found. With 15.9 million people in food crises last year,
Yemen was projected to remain the world’s worst food crisis in 2020. Conflict also drives food insecurity
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan, which have the second- and third-highest
numbers of people in food crises, respectively.

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Conflict is the primary driver of acute hunger for 77 million people globally, while climate change
accounts for 34 million and economic crises account for 24 million. The report found that these numbers
are expected to grow due to COVID-19, as livelihoods and the food system are disrupted.

“At the same time while we’re dealing with [the] COVID-19 pandemic, we’re also on the brink of a
hunger pandemic.”

— David Beasley, executive director, World Food Programme

“Most countries referenced in the Global Report lack the means to provide large-scale life-saving
humanitarian activities in response to the pandemic while simultaneously acting to protect and support
their citizens’ ability to maintain their livelihoods and earn an income,” the Global Network Against Food
Crises said in a release.

In Africa, protracted conflict, a desert locust outbreak, poor rainfall, and political and economic instability
could all contribute to rising food insecurity. In Asia and the Middle East, violent conflict and currency
depreciation will be drivers, while socioeconomic crises and weather extremes will contribute in Latin
America and the Caribbean.

The breadth of the pandemic, affecting even the richest nations, could also strain the humanitarian
system in its response efforts for vulnerable populations, with member countries of the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development experiencing adverse economic impact from COVID-19. This
could contribute to the challenges already posed to meeting Sustainable Development Goal 2 — on
ending hunger — by 2030.

“At times like these, the poorest and the most vulnerable will be hit the hardest,” said FAO Director-
General Qu Dongyu in a video message. “Together with all partners, FAO is working to maintain
humanitarian operations, prevent the collapse of food systems, [and] build resilience.”

Global Report On Food Crises: Acute Hunger Still

Affecting Over 100 Million People Worldwide
113 million people in 53 countries experienced high levels of food insecurity in the world’s most
severe food crises in 2018

2 April 2019, Brussels - A report presented today jointly by the European Union, the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) finds
that around 113 million people in 53 countries experienced acute food insecurity in 2018, compared to
124 million in 2017.

Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica said, "Food insecurity
remains a global challenge. That's why, from 2014 to 2020, the EU will have provided nearly €9 billion
for initiatives on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture in over 60 countries. Today's
Global Report highlights the need for a strengthened cooperation between humanitarian, development
and peace actors to reverse and prevent food crises. A stronger Global Network can help deliver
change on the ground for the people who really need it."

Christos Stylianides, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, said "Food crises
continue to be a global challenge, which requires our joint efforts. The EU continues to step up its
humanitarian efforts. Over the last three years, the EU allocated the biggest humanitarian food and
nutrition assistance budget ever, with nearly EUR 2 billion overall. Food crises are becoming more acute
and complex and we need innovative ways to tackle and prevent them from happening. The Global
Report provides a basis to formulate the next steps of the Global Network by improving our coordination
mechanisms."

Key findings:

 The figure of 113 million people facing food crises is down slightly from the 124 million figure for
2017. However,the number of people in the world facing food crises has remained well over
100 million in the last three years, and the number of countries affected has risen. Moreover, an
additional 143 million people in another 42 countries are just one step away from facing acute
hunger.
 Nearly two-thirds of those facing acute hunger are in just 8 countries: Afghanistan, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. In
17 countries, acute hunger either remained the same or increased.
 Climate and natural disasters pushed another 29 million people into acute food insecurity in
2018. And 13 countries - including North Korea and Venezuela - are not in the analysis because
of data gaps.

"It is clear from the Global Report that despite a slight drop in 2018 in the number of people
experiencing acute food insecurity - the most extreme form of hunger - the figure is still far too high. We
must act at scale across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus to build the resilience of affected
and vulnerable populations. To save lives, we also have to save livelihoods," said FAO Director-General
José Graziano da Silva.

"To truly end hunger, we must attack the root causes: conflict, instability, the impact of climate shocks.
Boys and girls need to be well-nourished and educated, women need to be truly empowered, rural
infrastructure must be strengthened in order to meet that Zero Hunger goal. Programmes that make a
community resilient and more stable will also reduce the number of hungry people. And one thing we
need world leaders to do as well: step up to the plate and help solve these conflicts, right now," said
WFP Executive Director David Beasley.

The report's findings are a powerful call for strengthened cooperation that links together prevention,
preparedness and response to address urgent humanitarian needs and root causes, which include
climate change, economic shocks, conflict and displacement. It further highlights the need for a unified
approach and action across the humanitarian and development dimensions of food crises, and for more
investment in conflict mitigation and sustainable peace.
Background
The Global Report is produced each year by the Global Network Against Food Crises, which is made up
of international humanitarian and development partners. This year's report is being presented at a two-
day high-level event, ‘Food and agriculture in times of crisis', that begins in Brussels today and will look
at innovative approaches and solutions for preventing and addressing food crises, plus a roadmap for
joint future action. For more key findings from the report, see the Global Report fact sheet.

Acute food insecurity is when a person's inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or
livelihoods in immediate danger. It draws on internationally accepted measures of extreme hunger, such
as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the Cadre Harmonisé.

Chronic hunger is when a person is unable to consume enough food to maintain a normal, active
lifestyle over an extended period. The FAO's most recent State of Food Security and Nutrition report, in
September 2018, found that 821 million people on the planet are going hungry.

Partners involved in producing the Global Report on Food Crises 2019 are (in alphabetical order):
Comité Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS), European Union,
Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), FAO, Global Food Security Cluster, Global
Nutrition Cluster, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Global Support Unit,
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI), Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA), Southern Africa Development Community
(SADC), UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UNICEF, USAID and WFP.

Nearly two-thirds of those facing acute

hunger are concentrated in just 8 countries:
Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan,
Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Agriculture And Food
Agriculture can help reduce poverty, raise incomes and improve food security for 80% of the world's
poor, who live in rural areas and work mainly in farming. The World Bank Group is a leading financier of
agriculture, with US$ 6.8 billion in new IBRD/IDA commitments in 2018.

 Agriculture and Food Home

 Overview

Overview

 Context

 Agricultural development is one of the most powerful tools to end extreme poverty, boost shared
prosperity and feed a projected 9.7 billion people by 2050.  Growth in the agriculture sector is two
to four times more effective in raising incomes among the poorest compared to other sectors.
2016 analyses found that 65% of poor working adults made a living through agriculture.

Agriculture is also crucial to economic growth: in 2014, it accounted for one-third of global gross-
domestic product (GDP).

But agriculture-driven growth, poverty reduction, and food security are at risk:  Climate change is
already impacting crop yields, especially in the world’s most food-insecure regions. In 2020,
shocks related to climate change, conflict, pests and emerging infectious diseases are hurting
food production, disrupting supply chains and stressing people’s ability to access nutritious and
affordable food. Agriculture, forestry and land use change are responsible for 25% of greenhouse
gas emissions. Mitigation in the agriculture sector is part of the solution to climate change.

The current food system also threatens the health of people and the planet: agriculture accounts
for 70% of water use and generates unsustainable levels of pollution and waste. Risks
associated with poor diets are also the leading cause of death worldwide. Millions of people are
either not eating enough or eating the wrong types of food, resulting in a double burden of
malnutrition that can lead to illnesses and health crises. A 2018 report found that the absolute
number of hungry and undernourished people increased to a little over 820 million in 2018,
equivalent to around one in nine people.  Obesity and overweight is also increasing. In 2018, an
estimated 40 million children under five were overweight.

Last Updated: Apr 01, 2020

 Strategy

 The World Bank Group works with countries, providing innovation, infrastructure and resources
so that the food and agriculture sector:
 o is Climate-Smart: more productive and resilient in the face of climate change while
reducing emissions, both for crops and livestock;
o improves livelihoods and creates more and better jobs, including for women and youth;
o boosts agribusiness by building inclusive and efficient value chains; and
o improves food security and produces enough safe, nutritious food for everyone,
everywhere, every day.

In 2019, there was US$ 5.4 billion in new IBRD/IDA commitments to agriculture and related
sectors.  In 2019, 94 projects that were implemented helped provide 6.7 million farmers with
agricultural assets and services.  3 million farmers adopted improved agricultural technology.
Irrigation and drainage were improved on 730,000 hectares of agricultural land.

In 2019, 53% of the Bank’s agricultural investments are directly financing climate mitigation and
adaptation measures, up from 28% just 4 years ago.

The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) investments were US$ 4.5 billion. IFC financing
goes to agribusiness, food companies, and banks. IFC also help clients improve productivity,
climate-smart practices and food safety.

The Bank is a partner in the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR),
Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the Global Food Safety Partnership
(GFSP) and Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture.

Last Updated: Sep 23, 2019

 Results

In Afghanistan since 2010, 81,880 people — more than 50% of them women—have joined savings
groups in 694 villages. The savings groups have saved over US$ 5.2 million and provided 41,900
loans. 1,424 enterprise groups and 617 small and medium enterprises have also benefited from
stronger links to markets and value chains.

In Armenia since 2014, the Bank is supporting 285,000 farmers in livestock farming and pasture
management improvement.   Under the project, more than 110,000 heads of livestock –or about 17
percent of Armenia’s total livestock-- received improved animal health services.

In Brazil, since 2010, access to markets improved for over 271 rural producer organizations, including
73 representing indigenous peoples, and land reform communities around Sao Paulo. This has led to an
average 87% increase in sales revenues and improved environmental sustainability instruments and
policies for over 340,000 farming families.

In Bolivia following an initial and additional Bank funding since 2011,  community investments have
helped fight extreme rural poverty for over 281,000 small landholders, particularly indigenous
populations, leading to increased road access for more than 21,000 people, and expanded or improved
irrigation for more than 45,000 beneficiaries. 
In Burkina Faso from 2000-2018, the Bank supported the “Programme National de Gestion des
Terroirs” which decentralized rural development and built local capacity to deliver basic services. The
program also invested in water and soil conservation, agroforestry, and energy-saving stoves and other
environmental technologies, helping to protect more than 200,000 hectares.

In China since 2014, a Bank-supported project has helped expand climate-smart agriculture. Better

water-use efficiency on 44,000 hectares of farmland and new technologies have improved soil
conditions, and boosted production of rice by 12% and maize by 9%.  More than 29,000 farmers’
cooperatives report higher incomes and increased climate resilience.

In Colombia, the adoption of environmentally friendly Silvopastoral Production Systems  for over

4,1000 cattle ranching farms has converted 34,500 hectares of degraded pastures into more productive
landscapes and captured 1 480,000 tons of CO2.

In Cote d’Ivoire between 2013 and 2017, the Agriculture Sector Project boosted the productivity of
200,000 farmers and rehabilitated 6,500 kilometers of rural roads which allowed farmers to more easily
bring their products to market and reduce their postharvest losses. To aid the cashew industry, the Bank
also supported a research program that helped disseminate 209 genotypes of high-performing trees and
establish 18 nurseries. The Bank-financed project also helped leverage US$27.5 million in private
investment to boost productivity on at least 26,500 hectares.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2011 and 2017, 105,556 beneficiaries benefited from
better access to agricultural services and rural infrastructure. Their cassava yields rose to 19 tons per
hectare from 7. They also received access to 2,884 tons of improved maize, rice, groundnut and
sorghum seed and mobilized US$400,000 through savings groups.

In Djibouti, the Bank supported the construction of 112 water mobilization units, which improved water
access for 9,762 households. The Bank also helped introduce hydroponic agriculture to 30
beneficiaries, rehabilitated 96 hectares of irrigated farmland and produced 14,000 seedlings.  

In Ethiopia, the Bank helped provide basic social and economic services to 4.5 million pastoral and
agropastoral communities in over 113 ‘woredas’. It also helped expand access to rural financial services
by supporting 857 Rural Saving and Credit Cooperatives that now have 77,881 members.

In Honduras since 2018, 7,200 small farmers have used productive alliances to improve productivity
and access to markets, which has leveraged US$14 million from commercial banks and microfinance
institutions. Land productivity increased by 24% and gross sales of producer organizations rose by 23%.
Also, in support to Honduras’ Dry Corridor Alliance, 4,000 households are implementing food security
and agricultural business plans, and 2,100 households are undertaking hygiene investments to increase
agricultural yields and improve nutrition and food diversity for 20,000 people.

In Bihar, India the Jeevika project reached 9.8 million women and their families, transforming

their livelihoods and economic well-being.  So far women have saved US$ 121 million and leveraged
US$ 1.1 billion from the formal financial sector.  Since 2009, more than 1 million farmers have been
trained to improve their productivity in staple crops such as rice and wheat.
Since 2013, Bank support has strengthened Indonesia’s agricultural research system. 28 Assessment
Institute for Agricultural Technology (AIAT) centers now have an enhanced capacity to develop and
disseminate improved rice, vegetable, and fruit varieties. The project has supported 161 agriculture
researchers through degree programs (68 PhD and 93 Master’s degree); upgraded 19 laboratories,
improved infrastructure at over 50 research centers and stations, and funded 503 research activities
including 44 international research collaboration activities.

In Jamaica between 2009 and 2017, an initiative focused on sustainable growth and stronger value
chains helped over 4,320 farmers in 13 Parishes. The initiative introduced drip irrigation, water storage,
livestock production and processing plants; organized 180 greenhouses for year-round crop production
and established relationships between farmers and buyers.

In Kosovo since 2017, the Bank helped over 860 farmers develop agro-processing enterprises which
boosted their average farm incomes by 56%. Bank grants also improved the health and working
conditions of beneficiaries, by establishing better working conditions in barns and reducing exposure to
agro-chemicals.

In Mexico until 2018, 1,842 small and medium agribusiness have adopted 2,286 environmentally
sustainable energy technologies, reducing C02 emissions by 6.02 million tons.

In Montenegro, the Bank helped 660 farmers get new equipment, cattle and crops and comply with EU
requirements for food safety, animal health and environment protection, improving their competitiveness
and sustainability.

In Myanmar the Bank has helped boost irrigation infrastructure and the use of climate-smart
technologies. Since 2017, the Bank helped to improve irrigation and drainage on 19,595 hectares of
land that serves 33,688 beneficiaries and shared CSA technologies with 8,088 beneficiaries-- 26% of
them women.

In Nepal, the Bank-supported Nepal Poverty Alleviation Fund helped small farmers and rural poor
people access microcredit, assets, services and training. Since 2004, it has created over 30,000
community organizations and impacted over 900,000 households.

In the Philippines since 2015, the Bank helped mainstream institutional and operational reforms,
as well as science-based planning for agricultural commodities in 81 provinces. 452 rural
infrastructure projects benefitting over 600,000 households have been approved-- 186 are already
completed. The project aims to improve 2,300 km of farm-to-market roads, as well as irrigation systems,
potable water systems, and other post-harvest infrastructures.

In Rwanda between 2010 and 2018, the Bank-supported Land Husbandry, Water Harvesting and
Hillside Irrigation project  helped increase productivity and commercialization of hillside agriculture in
targeted areas. The project supported more than 310,000 farmers—50 % of them women-- in improving
their agricultural production by providing hillside irrigation on over 2,500 hectares, and improving soil
conservation and erosion on more than 18,000 hectares of hillsides. Irrigation paved the way for
growing higher value crops, and for reducing exposure to weather and climate risks. Post-harvest
infrastructure (46,630 tons of post-harvest handling capacity), together with the development of farmers’
organizations, helped improve the quality of produce. Maize yields and potato yields have all more than
doubled and around 2.50 tons of vegetables are exported to Europe every week.

In Togo since 2012, the Bank helped farmers improve breeding techniques, allowing 19,332 livestock
producers to grow their incomes and raise healthier livestock. The Bank also provided planting materials
to boost production for 33,817 farmers—10% of them female-- working on 21,209 hectares of cocoa,
and 35, 505 hectares of coffee plantations.

In Tunisia, the Bank helped 113 remote rural villages improve land management practices on
37,000 hectares of land to increase productivity and improved 930 km of rural roads serving some 160
villages.  

In Uruguay since 2014, climate-smart agriculture techniques  have been adopted on 2.4 million
hectares and adapted by 5,087 farmers, providing for a carbon sequestration potential of up to 9 million
tons CO2 annually.

In Uzbekistan since 2014, the Bank helped more than 800 beneficiaries boost their productivity.
Beneficiary farmers created 78% more permanent jobs—the majority of which employ women,
increased their profits by 250% and expanded into new markets such as India, Malaysia, Turkey, and
the United Kingdom. 15% of beneficiary farmers upgraded their production systems. Overall, 13,026
smallholders and 12,223 agricultural enterprise benefited.

In Vietnam since 2010, the Bank has promoted sustainable livelihoods by helping develop 9,000
‘common interest groups’ (CIGs) comprising over 15,500 households, and partnering them with agro-
enterprises. The Bank also helped over 20,000 farmers improve their livestock production and benefited
an additional 130,000 people through capacity building in food safety.

The West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAP),a regional program involving 13 countries
and multiple partners, helped develop climate-smart varieties of staple crops, such as rice, banana
plantain and maize. Collaboration with cooperative and extension workers across West Africa helped
deliver 233 improved technologies including climate-smart crop varieties to farmers; provided climate-
smart technologies such as post-harvest and food processing technologies; and trained farmers on
climate-smart practices such as composting and agroforestry. Farmers also gained access to
technologies such as efficient water harvesting systems.  As of July 2019, the project had directly
helped more than 9.6 million people or more than 7.6 million hectares of land be more productive,
resilient and sustainable. Beneficiary yields and incomes have grown by an average of about 30%,
improving food security for about 50 million people in the region.

Last Updated: Sep 23, 2019

 Partners
 The Agriculture Finance Support Facility (AgriFin) works with bankers, banker associations
and others to foster learning and build capacity on financing agriculture in developing countries.
 CGIAR Global Agricultural Research advances cutting-edge science to reduce rural poverty,
increase food security, improve human health and nutrition, and ensure the sustainable
management of natural resources.
 The Forum for Agricultural Risk Management in Development (FARMD) is a knowledge
platform that provides information and best practices on agricultural risk management.
 The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) finances investments that
increase incomes and improve food and nutrition security in developing countries.
 The Global Food Safety Partnership (GFSP) is dedicated to improving the safety of food
worldwide through capacity building in middle-income and developing countries.
 The Global Donor Platform for Rural Development is a network that increase and improve
development assistance in agriculture and rural development.
 The Alliance for Good Fisheries Governance (ALLFISH)  is a public-private partnership to
establish sustainable fisheries and successful aquaculture operations in developing countries.
 The Global Program on Fisheries (PROFISH) was established to improve environmental
sustainability, human wellbeing and economic performance in the world’s fisheries and
aquaculture, with a focus on fisheries and fish farming communities in the developing world.
 The Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) is an inter-Agency platform that enhances
food market transparency and encourages coordinated policy action. It assembles food balance
data, monitors trends, provides market analysis and builds capacity in countries.
 Last Updated: Sep 23, 2019