Food Security

By Jessica Adams | – Once again, last week, the people of northwest Syria were granted a last-minute reprieve. The aid community feared disaster had finally happened, after years of near misses, that the UN Security Council would fail to renew the last aid border crossing from Turkey into Idlib. Thankfully, days after it expired, […]

Food Security

How Morocco Could use its Solar Energy and abundant Phosphorous to Feed the World and Offset Russia

The Conversation

By Michaël Tanchum, Universidad de Navarra | – Morocco has a large fertiliser industry with huge production capacity and international reach. It is one of the world’s top four fertiliser exporters following Russia, China and Canada. Fertilisers tend to divide into three main categories; nitrogen fertilisers, phosphorus fertilisers, potassium fertilisers. In 2020 the fertiliser market […]

Displaced and Refugees

Starving Civilians is an ancient military Tactic, but today it’s a War Crime in Ukraine, Yemen, Tigray and elsewhere

The Conversation

By Tom Dannenbaum, Tufts University; Alex De Waal, Tufts University; and Daniel Maxwell, Tufts University | – A hideous contradiction is playing out in war-torn Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians are starving in cities besieged by Russian forces. Meanwhile, the country’s grain stores are bursting with food, and the government is begging for international assistance to […]

Food Security

Food prices: how Countries are using the Global Crisis to gain Geopolitical Power

The Conversation

By Sarah Schiffling, Liverpool John Moores University; and Nikolaos Valantasis Kanellos,Technological University Dublin | Twenty million tonnes of grain are currently stuck in Ukrainian silos, exacerbating the global food crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of the country. Aside from the need to get the grain onto world markets, freeing up storage space will be crucial […]

Food Insecurity

War in Ukraine is pushing global acute Hunger to the highest Level in this Century

The Conversation

By Daniel Maxwell, Tufts University | – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has produced a terrible humanitarian crisis in eastern Europe. It also is worsening conditions for other countries, many of them thousands of miles away. Together, Russia and Ukraine account for almost 30% of total global exports of wheat, nearly 20% of global exports of […]

Africa

The Economic Consequences of the War: Why the Conflict in Ukraine Is a Disaster for the Poor of This Planet

Rajan Menon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In 1919, the renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace, a book that would prove controversial indeed. In it, he warned that the draconian terms imposed on defeated Germany after what was then known as the Great War — which we now call World War […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency: India’s Unprecedented Heat Wave blights Wheat Crops, adding to Global Bread Shortages

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A global wheat crisis has been caused by Russian’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war there, which has drastically reduced Ukraine’s wheat production and exports, while the resultant international sanctions have also somewhat reduced Russian production. Now, there is yet another complication, as the fertile wheat-growing regions of North […]

Food Security

Ukraine Crisis: Yemen urgently needs Seeds to Avoid Famine given Global Wheat Shortages

Daniel Martin Varisco

(Special to Informed Comment) – On top of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis created by a seven year war, Yemen is facing a new threat to feeding its people due to the impact of the Ukraine crisis. The FAO points out that almost half of the population is “undernourished” with famine conditions in some areas. […]

Climate Crisis

The Five Horsemen of Today’s Apocalypse

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Once upon a time, the tutelary gods of nationalism and internationalism met for a chat. They had a superb perch above the clouds. From there, they could see everything happening on the Earth below and they set to arguing, as they so often did. Sophia, the goddess of internationalism, began by […]