TV Presenter Warns of Severe Global Food Shortages
Albert Turkington
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While some circles on the internet have attempted to warn the wider public about the true consequences of the food shortages we have been seeing, it appears that it will most likely take a more mainstream figure sounding the alarm for this warning to reach a critical mass of the population. Indeed, while empty shelves at the supermarket might come across as a nuisance, the cause of these empty shelves could potentially, in the long run, lead to genuinely dire situations for large swaths of the human species. One somewhat prominent figure that has been the latest to join in on sounding this alarm appears to be TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson.
According to Summit News, Jeremy Clarkson, former Top Gear presenter turned farm shop owner, recently admitted that the situation with Ukraine has caused him “a few chin-scratching moments of despair.”, not to mention several nights of insomnia. Indeed, with a large portion of global wheat exports coming from Ukraine and the Russian Federation, countries that are dependent on outside sources to fulfill their caloric intake may face severe hardship should such food supply disruptions persist.
Clarkson also touched on the subject of rising input prices inducing farmers to lower output, with many even considering allowing their fields to remain fallow this growing season. Indeed, the general inflation that has resulted from pandemic money-printing escapades has caused the price of everyday necessities to rise sharply, with the price of fertilizer not immune to this trend.
According to Clarkson, a good number of farmers, in light of this pickle they have found themselves in, are willing to use less fertilizer and therefore produce less this growing season in hopes input prices will come down in the not-too-distant future. This, he argues, will mean that the food price inflation many have seen might just be a taster of what is to come if prices are not somehow brought back under control.
“The problem is that next year many farmers will decide that, because of the costs involved, they’ll use less fertiliser,” he wrote. “Some will doubtless try to use none at all. Others will try to use cardboard or lawn clippings or faeces instead. Either way they will produce less food. Some farmers — I know of three in my area alone — have already decided to fallow their fields next year and grow nothing at all.”
Clarkson also pointed out the specific geopolitical implications of Ukrainian heat being taken off the market. Apparently, “nearly a third of the wheat Ukraine grows goes to Africa, and it won’t be getting any this summer”, which means that continued food disruptions from Ukraine might very well lead to yet another migrant crisis in Europe as millions of starving Africans will once again look to Europe for relief. Given how giddy many European leaders are about displaying their pathological altruism, this wave might still be welcomed with open arms.
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