People’s Daily Overseas Edition: To deal with the food crisis, we must return to multilateral cooperation – yqqlm

The World Food Program has warned that humanity may face the “biggest food crisis since World War II”, with as many as 1.7 billion people being exposed to the destruction of food, energy and financial systems, leading to worsening poverty and hunger. The agency recently predicted that due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the number of severely hungry people in the world will increase from 276 million to 323 million.

Since 2020, the world has faced severe food security and shortage challenges due to the COVID-19 epidemic, natural disasters, extreme weather and other factors.Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations shows that from the middle of 2020, due to the anti-epidemic lockdown measures, major central banks have set a recordcurrencyDistribution activity, rising energy prices and natural factors, in the international market, the price of almost all categories of food has been rising for a long time in a straight line.

Since February this year, as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to ferment, the United States and other Western countries have imposed extreme sanctions on Russia, and global grain, edible oil, fertilizer and energy prices have soared across the world, making the global food crisis worse. Data show that, as the world’s important grain producers and exporters, Russia and Ukraine’s wheat exports together account for about 1/3 of global exports, and corn exports account for about 20%. In addition, Russia is a major fertilizer producer in the world. In the real situation that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has led to the interruption of the food production supply chain and logistics between the two countries, the United States and other Western countries have increased sanctions on Russia in the fields of finance and shipping, and imposed blockades on Russian exports, which not only further improves Russia’s domestic agricultural production cost, and pose a major threat to global food production and supply, further exacerbating the global food crisis.

Matthias Mogg, secretary-general of the German aid agency World Hunger Aid, once called after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, focusing on the current humanitarian situation, it is necessary to maintain open channels of communication with Russia and exclude Russia from the 20 countries Outside the group could be a drag on efforts to tackle the global food crisis. More than a dozen international aid and charitable organizations also warned that due to factors such as the conflict in Russia and Ukraine, West Africa is facing the worst food crisis in a decade.

However, the United States and other Western countries, instead of taking concrete measures to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, have continued to “fire”, resulting in the tension never being eased.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a ministerial meeting on global food security a few days ago that the current level of global hunger is at a new high. More than half a million people are living in famine, a number that has increased by more than 500 percent since 2016. The vast majority of developing countries have been hit particularly hard. Many European countries that follow the US sanctions against Russia are also unable to escape the food crisis. The ECB assesses that food prices are expected to remain high throughout 2022. If the conflict continues, Mizhuxingui will not be an alarmist for Europe.

Recently, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling on the international community, including the G7 and G20, to make global food security a top priority and support multilateral efforts to find affordable solutions to this crisis, stressing that The need to keep trade channels and markets open and to eliminate all forms of protectionism.

In the era of globalization, food crises know no borders, and no country can survive alone. Only when the international community comprehensively examines food security issues, strengthens coordinated actions, and clears the “blocking points” and “breakpoints” of the food industry chain and supply chain in a timely manner, can it better cope with the challenges of global food security. The United States and other Western countries should remove unilateral restrictions on grain production and export as soon as possible, so as to stabilize and smooth grain production and supply, and give more help to developing countries in terms of capital, technology, market, and capacity building, so as to build an efficient, An open and fair global food supply system plays its due role.

(Article source: People’s Daily Overseas Edition)

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