The Economist examines the implications of the Black Sea Grain Deal suspension, looking at how Putin’s attempt at grain blackmail highlights a wider problem: food supplies are often disrupted by men with guns. “Indeed, of the 828m people who do not get enough food, nearly 60% live in countries racked by conflict. Armed violence is the single greatest obstacle to ending hunger, says the UN’s World Food Programme.”
The article quotes IFPRI senior research fellow Joseph Glauber who said that the deal has always been “one rocket away from termination.”
“Farmers need peace to produce,” says David Laborde, senior research fellow, IFPRI. Where war rages, fields are burned, cattle are slaughtered and farmers are drafted. Armies grab fuel, leaving little to power tractors and irrigation systems. Roads become hazardous. In DRC, where dozens of armed groups plunder and rape, local women “might not want to walk five minutes down the road to sell [their] food,” observes Laborde.
