The Russian invasion of Ukraine is increasing alarm regarding global food shortages given the importance of Ukrainian production and exports in providing food for the world.
U.S. President Joe Biden said that food shortages may be a possibility. In late March, multiple agricultural groups wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asking the administration to ease Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) obligations in the hopes of alleviating coming food shortages. The USDA rejected this request.
"It provides 12% of the world’s wheat, 15% of the world’s corn, 15% of the world’s barley and 50% of the world’s sunflower oil," the letter said of Ukrainian exports. "World stocks-to-use ratios, which are a measure of supply to demand adequacy, for wheat, corn, barley and sunflower oil already are running low. If Ukraine’s agriculture is taken offline, these ratios will return to the extremely low levels that happened between 2006 and 2013 and lead to rationing among grain end users." The letter also said that these experts are critical to countries in North Africa and the Middle East.
According to the letter, which used 2017 data, 26% of the land enrolled in the CRP is prime farmland. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack did not refute that statement but cited 2020 data that only 1.6% of the prime farmland in the country is in the CRP. Vilsack issued a rebuttal in a March 31 letter to the National Grain and Feed Association.
“Production on those acres would be marginal at best, and there is no realistic way to convert all CRP acres into cropland in 2022,” Vilsack wrote. “It is critical to point out that if we allow the tillage of CRP acres, the marginal at best benefit to crop production will be coupled with a significant and detrimental impact on producers’ efforts to mitigate climate change and maintain the long-term health of their land.”
Despite this, President Biden is concerned about food shortages.
"With regard to food shortage...it's gonna be real," Biden said.
According to Politico, the Conservation Reserve Program pays agricultural producers to keep environmentally sensitive cropland from being farmed in an attempt to help the health of the land.
Reuters reported on April 8 that food prices in March increased by 18% as compared to February, attaining a new record high. The February numbers were already a previous record. Specifically, vegetable oil increased by 23%, which was also a record high for the product.
