Putin’s War May Lead to the Worst World Food Crisis in Decades

Amanda Hanemaayer
3 min readMar 17, 2022
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

As the Russian army continues to tighten its grip on Ukraine, concerns over plausible protracted consequences of Putin’s war have already begun to take form as real costs to communities living beyond the region’s breached and battered borders.

Food prices were already high before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Now, a global food crisis looms as an additional debt to lengthen the addendum of Putin’s long list of offences and war crimes — except that, naturally, he won’t be the one who pays it.

The biggest weight will be borne by the people of nations already struggling to bear the burden imbedded by COVID-19, ongoing civil conflicts, and the growing qualms of climate change, where the rising prices of dietary staples are quickly outpacing the limits of affordability.

At least 50 countries depend on Russia and Ukraine for a third or more of their wheat supply, and among those most reliant are namely lower-income nations across North Africa and the Middle East, wherein the commodity holds a place of cultural importance and builds the bulk of a daily diet’s basis.

Bread is a life-line and it’s quickly becoming too expensive.

Even before Putin orchestrated the first unapologetic advance of his brigade of aggression into…

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Amanda Hanemaayer
Amanda Hanemaayer

Written by Amanda Hanemaayer

Striving to live a life defined by empathy | writing about climate change, public health and social justice