{"id":103951,"date":"2022-06-13T05:36:09","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T10:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=103951"},"modified":"2022-06-13T05:36:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T10:36:09","slug":"us-china-blame-each-other-over-food-insecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2022\/06\/13\/us-china-blame-each-other-over-food-insecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"US, China Blame Each Other Over Food Insecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA \u2014 <\/span>Food insecurity is rising globally because of the war in Ukraine, according to experts, with Africa expected to be hit the hardest. The world\u2019s superpowers, China and the U.S., say they are trying to mitigate the fallout but at the same time are accusing each other of exacerbating the crisis.<\/p>\n

A state newspaper,\u00a0The China Daily<\/a><\/em>, placed blame for the situation partially on Washington, saying: \u201cFood prices have reached an all-time high, as Russian and Ukrainian grain exports are hindered by port disruptions and Western sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S., for its part, has accused China of hoarding, after President Xi Jinping said earlier this year that\u00a0food security in China was a primary concern<\/a>\u00a0and urged farmers to scale up production to ensure the world\u2019s most populous country was self-sufficient.<\/p>\n

Asked by VOA if the Asian giant couldn\u2019t help combat food insecurity caused by the Ukraine conflict, U.S. Ambassador Jim O\u2019Brien, head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination, replied, \u201cWe would love to see China act like the large power it is in helping to address the problem in the global food market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned that China is building up its domestic stocks and continuing to purchase grain on the global market at a time when we would love to see it be able to help those who are in need,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"FILE<\/div>\n<\/div>
FILE – Scattered grain sits inside a warehouse damaged by Russian attacks in Cherkaska Lozova, on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, May 28, 2022. Russia and Turkey voiced support this week for creation of a safe maritime corridor in the Black Sea so Ukraine can export grain, but Russia demanded that the Black Sea be demined and Turkey said allowing the Ukraine exports should be accompanied by easing Western sanctions against Russia.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

China has hit back at the accusations of hoarding. \u201cCurrently China supplies over 95 percent of its own needs for grain. It is unnecessary for the country to \u2018hoard grains\u2019 in the international market,\u201d an article in the state-affiliated\u00a0Global Times<\/em>\u00a0said. \u201cIn contrast to China\u2019s contributions to global food security, the U.S. is the major instigator behind the current global food crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

US rebuts sanctions narrative<\/strong><\/p>\n

The worry about global food insecurity began soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Russia and Ukraine are the world\u2019s largest and fifth-largest wheat exporters respectively. Since the war broke out, exports of the grain, as well as maize and sunflower oil, have been severely disrupted.<\/p>\n

Many African countries depend heavily on Ukrainian and Russian imports for their food supply, and some say U.S. sanctions on Moscow are to blame for their woes.<\/p>\n

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in May, \u201cThe war in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Russia have also caused shortages of wheat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said, “Even those countries that are either bystanders or not part of the conflict are also going to suffer from the sanctions that have been imposed against Russia.”<\/p>\n

\n
\"German<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n
SEE ALSO:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

South Africa’s Ramaphosa: Russia Sanctions Hurt ‘Bystander’ Countries<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Current African Union Chair Macky Sall, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, tweeted that the Russian leader was ready and willing to facilitate the export of Ukrainian cereals and suggested the West was hampering him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call on all partners to lift sanctions on wheat and fertilizer,\u201d Sall said.<\/p>\n

But at a virtual press briefing organized by the U.S. Embassy in Johannesburg on Thursday, O\u2019Brien said the narrative that sanctions were hurting food exports was misleading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. does not sanction Russian food and fertilizer,\u201d he said. \u201cRussia has disrupted one of the most productive ways that countries received grain. Ukraine used to export 6 million or so tons of grain a month, mostly to the global South. And now that has had to stop; in March and April, it was very small.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said the U.S. and European Union are trying to facilitate exports from Ukraine but that \u201cat best it will probably be about half what it was before, and that\u2019s because Russia has occupied or destroyed 30-odd percent of Ukraine\u2019s grain-producing capability. It is attacking grain storage and processing facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cary Fowler, the U.S. special envoy for global food security, said at the same press event, \u201cThe situation in the Ukraine has, by all estimates, pushed \u2013 is pushing about 40 million additional people into the ranks of the food-insecure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine produces enough food to feed about 400 million people, Fowler said, \u201cand that\u2019s sitting in silos right now in Ukraine, unable to get out\u201d because Russia is blockading the ports.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"FILE<\/div>\n<\/div>
FILE – A horse cart driver transports wheat to a mill on a farm in the Nile Delta province of al-Sharqia, Egypt, May 11, 2022. Egypt is trying to increase its domestic wheat production as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has strained international supplies of the grain.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Resultant food-price spikes are going to have \u201can impact on Africa first and foremost,\u201d he added. The\u00a0World Bank<\/a>\u00a0said this week that as of June 1, maize and wheat prices were 42% and 60% higher, respectively, compared with January of last year.<\/p>\n

More from U.S.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged more money to combat food insecurity globally, noting \u201c32 of the 39 countries at greatest risk from this acute food crisis are in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust since February, the United States has pledged more than $2.3 billion of food assistance. And pending final approval from our Congress, we’ll provide more than $5 billion in\u00a0additional aid<\/a>, including more than $760 million specifically for global food security.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as the billions in funds, the U.S. is also boosting its domestic fertilizer production, Blinken added. Russia is the world\u2019s largest fertilizer exporter.<\/p>\n

Chinese officials have also been speaking about the global food crisis, with some state media, much like the Africa Union\u2019s Sall, blaming Western sanctions.<\/p>\n

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said last month that China already feeds one-fifth of the global population, the\u00a0Global Times\u00a0<\/em>reported. The\u00a0report\u00a0<\/a>also said China had donated $130 million to the U.N.\u2019s Food and Agriculture Organization \u201cin recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, China\u2019s state news agency\u00a0Xinhua\u00a0<\/a>reported that \u201cAfrican nations can leverage existing collaboration with China to transform their agricultural systems [and] tackle hunger,\u201d attributing it to Quoqi Wu, a senior official at the U.N.\u2019s International Fund for Agriculture Development.<\/p>\n

Wu said that, among developing nations, China is the biggest donor to the IFAD and had helped finance numerous projects to boost agricultural best practices on the continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA \u2014 Food insecurity is rising globally because of the war in Ukraine, according to experts, with Africa expected to be hit the hardest. The world\u2019s superpowers, China and the U.S., say they are trying to mitigate the fallout but at the same time are accusing each other of exacerbating the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latests"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103951"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103954,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103951\/revisions\/103954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}