The two-day “Global Food Security” show organized by Secretary of State Tony Blinken for the United Nations on Wednesday and Thursday, proved to be what it was designed to be: a platform for blaming Russia for the food crisis threatening up to a billion people with hunger, with no intention to launch a worldwide drive to double food production. Blinken held Russia’s “unprovoked invasion of Ukraine” responsible for the worsening crisis, and piously denied that Western sanctions against Russia had anything to do with the fertilizer shortage.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock epitomized the grandstanding intention behind this event. Baerbock accused Russia of using the blockade of grain exports from Ukraine as a weapon of war. “By blockading Ukrainian ports, destroying silos, roads and railroads, and especially farmers’ fields, Russia has started a grain war that is fueling a global food crisis,” Baerbock said Wednesday during a meeting of foreign ministers at the United Nations in New York. “This threatens to brew a global food crisis the likes of which have never been seen before,” the Green Party politician said on the sidelines of the event.
According to the German government, Russia is blocking Ukraine from exporting 20 million tons of grain, mainly to North Africa and Asia, much of it at the port of Odessa. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain producers. The U.S. had put the food insecurity consultations on the UN agenda and invited more than 30 countries. Foreign Minister Baerbock spoke as co-host.
