Sunday on ABC’s This Week, U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Samantha Power said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was causing global food prices to increase and will hasten countries using natural solutions.
Asked about the global impact on food shortages, Power said, “It is just another catastrophic effect of Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. I mean, as if the harms in Ukraine weren’t enough, you have countries like in sub-Saharan Africa and in the Middle East who get maybe 80 to 90 percent of their wheat or their grain overall from Russia and Ukraine. And you see massive spikes in food prices. Food prices right now, George, globally, are up 34 percent from where they were a year ago. Aided substantially, again, by this invasion.”
She continued, “So, we’ve gone to Congress asking for a substantial increase in humanitarian assistance in order to be able to meet those needs, but we’re also active, of course, in more than 80 countries around the world, well and apart from this crisis. So, we’re working with farmers to also increase their production so that you actually have more supply brought on market. Fertilizer shortages are real now because Russia is a big exporter of fertilizer. And even though fertilizer is not sanctioned, less fertilizer is coming out of Russia. As a result, we’re working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure and compost. And this may hasten the transition that would have been in the interest of farmers to make eventually anyway.”
Power concluded with what could be considered the Democrat motto: “So, never let a crisis go to waste, but we really do need this financial support from the Congress to be able to meet emergency food needs, so we don’t see the cascading deadly effects of Russia’s war extend into Africa and beyond.”
Never let a crisis go to waste, indeed. Power and her Party are exploiting the Ukraine crisis to deflect blame for the catastrophic economic impact her administration is having on America and the world.