"Weaponizing global food supply chains supports both nations' drive for global dominance"
The Epoch Time, James
Gorrie
April 6, 2022
Despite significant
military setbacks, China remains fully supportive of Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine. The reasons why Beijing does so may vary, but the bottom line is that
the two authoritarian nations are working together to reshape the global order.
In other words,
Beijing and Moscow have figured out they don’t have to have military bases or a
large, blue-water navy to gain influence or even control other nations. All
they have to do is control much of the world’s food supply.
In this light,
Russia’s Ukraine invasion takes on a different meaning.
Ostensibly, Moscow’s
attack on its neighbor was a pushback against NATO encroachment. Whether it was
or wasn’t, it does not preclude the possibility of a much grander strategy that
involves controlling much of the world’s food supply. In any case, the invasion
has put Moscow in a dominant position over global grain supplies.
Before the invasion,
Russia and Ukraine produced about one-third of the world’s wheat exports, but
not anymore. Russia has destroyed much of Ukraine’s export capacity without
even taking control of the wheat fields. It did so by destroying much of
Ukraine’s export infrastructure, including ports in the south. Consequently,
about 80 percent of Ukraine’s grain exports have stopped or slowed to a
trickle.
The impact of the
resultant price increases is currently limited to the Middle East, North
Africa, and some Asian markets—at least for the moment. But the price effects
could spread much further across global markets.
That would seem to put
the scope of the invasion in a much broader strategic context.
Russia’s Policy of
Famine
Famine as a policy for
political and military gain is nothing new for both Moscow and Beijing. Both
nations have murdered tens of millions of people and subdued entire regions by
famine.
In Russia’s case,
Moscow engineered famine against Ukrainians during the Soviet era of the early
1930s, known as the Holodomor. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin imposed his
communist ideology upon some of the most productive farmers in the world. With
forced collectivization came inefficiencies and severe shortages, all in the
service of power for Moscow.
In short, Stalin
gained control of the food supply in Ukraine in order to apply famine as a
policy. He deliberately starved around 7 million Ukrainians to enforce
collectivized farming and suppress nationalism. The continued oppression of the
Ukrainian people by the Soviet Russians followed the famine.
This history helps
explain the stiff level of resistance of the Ukrainian people against Russia’s
current war against them. Ukrainians know what Moscow is capable of and want to
avoid a replay of the past.
China’s Famine by
Ideology
China, too, has a long
history of famine.
Food shortages in
communist China in the 20th century were a direct result of forced
collectivization and other ideologically-driven policies imposed upon the
people by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Like Stalin’s forced
collectivization of Ukrainian grain producers, Chairman Mao Zedong’s so-called
“Great Leap Forward” from 1958 to 1962 also enforced collectivization on farms.
Food production, harvesting, and distribution plummeted.
This policy resulted
in the starvation deaths of more than 30 million people (*), or 1 out of 20
Chinese. It remains the greatest man-made, completely avoidable disaster in
history.
Engineering a Global
Famine?
Today, as the war in
Ukraine continues, another famine—this time of global proportions—may be in the
process of being engineered by both Moscow and Beijing. That Russia and China
would attempt to gain such leverage should surprise no one. Both nations are
overtly challenging the current world order.
What’s more, the food
weaponization equation is as simple as it is powerful. As the world’s largest
exporter of wheat and among the world’s top barley exporters, Russia gains from
a tighter global grain market and rising prices.
On the other side of
that calculus, China also plays an important role as the world’s largest food
importer. For one, it’s providing Russia, which is subject to sanctions and
trade embargoes from the West, with a much-needed market for its grains.
But that’s only the
beginning.
China’s Power Over
Food Supplies
China’s growing power
to weaponize food supplies has been greatly enhanced by its expansion into the
food-producing nations over the past decade or so. Thanks to its significant
ownership of agricultural lands in Africa, Latin America, and even in the
United States, Beijing can strategically leverage its position as a leading
food supplier to the world.
At the same time,
China’s policy is one of actually hoarding food. This lowering of food supplies
to the rest of the world drives up prices.
In its drive to gain
more control over the rest of the world, what would prevent Beijing from simply
withholding food from other nations?
Restricting food or
other critical commodities—such as natural gas and oil—to influence outcomes is
nothing new for Russia or China. Both are intimately familiar with abusing the
devastating power of controlling, or more to the point, limiting food supplies
to both their own people and their enemies (often the same) in order to achieve
their political or military objectives.
And both regimes are
run by ruthless tyrants who have global ambitions.
Is it possible that
the war in Ukraine isn’t just about a buffer zone against NATO ?
Is it reasonable to
assume that both Russia and China are coordinating their policies of
controlling such a basic need as food in order to expand their power and
influence?
Is it probable that
more food shortages, not fewer, are in our near future?
All are possible and
seem to be the carefully coordinated plan of Moscow and Beijing.
(* Has China ever been tried for crimes against humanity ?)
related:
Where Will The Food
Riots Start ?
In music...
How does it feel when
you have no food ?
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