Sounds like there's a big potential for upheavals similar to the Arab Spring. A fair number of countries subsidize food for their citizens, and if they can't get their hands on any, there's going to be issues.
I wonder which countries are most at risk? I read somewhere that the Arab countries get a lot of Ukrainian wheat.
That’s probably mainly due to low shipping costs due to proximity (in the grand scheme of things). There is scope for substitution with supplies from elsewhere in the world, if those supplies can be freed up from their usual end use. Biodiesel, cattle feed, etc.
Here in the UK restrictions on labelling sunflower oil now mean it’s acceptable to adulterate it with other oils. My family has switched to using rapeseed oil where we can (except for deep frying, it stinks). I’d recommend eating less meat even if that means eating more grain products, it’s a more efficient use of the resource. For the well off we can weather this just fine, but we can still help by reducing our use of the scarcest resources.
> A subsidized flatbread loaf in Egypt sells for the equivalent of about 1 U.S. cent. The country allocates five loaves a day to people in the program and uses the public treasury to compensate bakers for their losses.
> An attempt in the late 1970s by then-President Anwar Sadat to end subsidies on basic foodstuffs triggered riots that left more than 80 people dead, so the government since has resorted to workarounds such as shrinking the size of loaves.
> CAIRO, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Egypt is considering replacing a popular bread subsidy with cash payments for the poor to protect the budget from soaring global wheat prices, but domestic inflation and a history of protests could make the government opt for a less ambitious reform.
> Under the existing program, more than 60 million Egyptians, or nearly two thirds of the population, get 5 loaves of round bread daily for 50 cents a month, little changed since countrywide "bread riots" prevented a price hike in the 1970s.
It's not really as much about freeing up the supplies as much as it is about whether or not the supply chain can ship that food from someplace else. From what I've read, we don't have nearly as much of a food problem as we do a food shipping problem.
> Here in the UK restrictions on labeling sunflower oil now mean it’s acceptable to adulterate it with other oils.
Do you have a source for this claim? I'm interested since I'm using sunflower oil here in the UK.
Tesco labels its sunflower oil as "pure sunflower oil", it also has an ingredient list of "sunflower oil" [1].
Asda only labels it "sunflower oil", it doesn't have an ingredient list (at least on the website), but it states that the "regulated product name" is "sunflower oil" [2]
From the two the Asda one looks more suspicious, but I don't know what the regulation is. My suspicion is that regulation is for the label "sunflower oil", and Tesco goes out of its way to clarify that it doesn't contain other oils, or otherwise why risk putting "pure" there?
I'm not sure why sunflower oil is so popular. Olive oil is much nicer for anything that isn't going to be deep-fried, and peanut oil is much better for frying (more saturated fats = more crispiness).
I don't see them selling anything, just a Patreon and some referral links. If that's considered some dark ulterior motive, then you also wouldn't be able to trust most youtubers (Veritasium, CPG Grey, MinutePhysics, etc)
There's a direct ask for support in the form of paypal donations right there on the linked page. He also funnels traffic to his youtube, where he has well over a quarter million subscribers. He has quite a cottage industry selling doom prepper news.
I'm well aware of the general quality (or lack thereof) on Youtube, but that's why I gave a few examples of good Youtubers that also use patreon/referral links. Point being, I don't see a good reason to specifically call out iceagefarmer for having vested interest in saying what they say
I wonder which countries are most at risk? I read somewhere that the Arab countries get a lot of Ukrainian wheat.