Food as Weapon
The Coming Starvation
When you go to the store, you mostly put your food in the basket, pay for it, and go home. There is very little thought given to how food gets to your plate. Most of the time we do not need to worry about this.
This is relevant during disasters and pandemics. Recall the issues with toilet paper in the midst of the COVID pandemic? That was a failure in logistics. Not being able to get some electronic parts because of China’s Zero COVID policy is also a failure of logistics.
Right now we are having a more urgent one. Toilet paper is a problem. Not getting your electronics is as well. Closer to what we are facing globally is the formula shortage in the United States, which is closer to wheat from a logistics point of view. What we had here is a single point of failure in the logistics chain. Granted, a critical point of failure. The formula was a manufacturing plant. It was market concentration and lack of maintenance.
In Ukraine, because of the war, wheat is sitting in silos. It’s not moving. Ergo, global supplies for at-risk populations, in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America for example, are at risk.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of this already.
Two weeks ago, I visited the Sahel region of Africa, where I met families who do not know…