The Hunger Games: The Geopolitical Impact of Food Supply with Jeff Rubin

Food has been used in warfare since time immoral, becoming a powerful weapon to terrorize populations. As Henry Kissinger once quipped, “Control oil and you control nations, control food and you control people.” In the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, both nations being major breadbaskets, it should come as no surprise that food has become both a weapon and a casualty of the war.

Russia, the world’s top grain exporter, may be leveraging its food exports to gain more geopolitical power, particularly in the developing world. While only 2.5 million people in Cairo drive a car, all 20 million of them eat, with their primary food source being imported Russian grain. This dynamic showcases the strategic importance of food in global politics.

The United Nations warns that the world is facing its worst food security problem since World War II. The supply of food and the fertilizer needed to grow it have both become precarious, with prices for both food and fertilizer soaring to record highs since the conflict in Ukraine began. Russia, with its vast natural gas reserves, just also happens to be the world’s leading fertilizer exporter, exacerbating the crisis. It is certainly no coincidence that African nations—who are critically dependent on Russian grain—have refrained from condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Interestingly, this situation benefits Canadian farmers and fertilizer producers. Canada, the world’s second-largest grain exporter and second-leading exporter of fertilizer, is experiencing extended growing seasons due to climate change, enabling the commercial growth of corn and soybeans on the Canadian prairies for the first time.

This new world order, marked by economic conflict, suggests that wheat kings will find many hungry friends in the emerging global landscape.