Welcome to a new age of food insecurity

The war on Ukraine has weaponised global food supply. In blockading ports and destroying infrastructure, Russia is severing ties between acutely food insecure populations and the Ukrainian wheat and cooking oil on which they depend. Putin’s refusal to end the blockade unless sanctions are lifted dispels any doubt that global food security is a deliberate target. The war is not the sole cause of rocketing food prices, nor of food shortages. But it has added fuel to an already raging fire, following two years of economic upheaval and a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

The latest food price spike is one of a series that have taken place over the past 15 years: 

In 2007-2008, amid the financial crisis; in 2010-2011 (which helped trigger the Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East); and in 2020, when Covid-19 hit.

These episodes underline how vulnerable our globalised food system…