Ukraine has given the world a blueprint for fighting hunger

FIVE CRUCIAL WAYS

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered tumult across global grain markets. As the cost of corn and wheat surged, panic spread about instability in countries from Yemen to Bangladesh that depend on the warring region for low-cost grains.

While food-insecure countries have suffered keenly from high grain prices, some of the consequences we feared most have been avoided. Even as the conflict continues to rage, grain markets have calmed down considerably, with prices close to pre-invasion levels.

Astute diplomacy, next-level technologies, a resilient distribution infrastructure and efficient trading strategies were key elements of coping with these disrupted markets. The world acted quickly to leverage those strengths across global networks.

Here are five crucial ways we can build on lessons from a year of conflict in Ukraine:

1. Refocus funding efforts for food aid.

Spreading hunger has put food-relief agencies such as the United Nation’s World Food Program and US Agency for International Development under pressure. In 2022, WFP Director David Beasley raised $14 billion from public and private donors but took flack for publicly cajoling billionaires such as Elon Musk to help. Such aggressive measures are entirely defensible. The money Beasley raised went largely to buying high-cost grains and channeling the supplies to populations that can’t afford them.

Cindy McCain, who will soon be succeeding Beasley, and USAID Administrator Samantha Power should follow suit with continued bipartisan calls to fund their work. Food aid organizations must look beyond stopgap handouts and forge long-term strategies to subsidize resilient farming practices in climate-stressed regions.

2. Strengthen diplomatic channels that anticipate future food disruptions.

Global hunger would be far more acute if not for the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement between Russia and Ukraine forged and recently renewed with the help of Turkey and the U.N. to ensure the continued shipment of agricultural and fertilizer products from Ukraine’s key Black Sea ports. The agreement has brought some relief to countries including Turkey, Morocco, Egypt and Kenya that rely heavily on imports from this region.

3. Reassess how staple crops are traded.

Grain traders, brokers and regulators catalyzed millions of acres of new wheat and corn production in the United States, Argentina, Canada and Brazil to address the Ukraine shortfall. But merchants, largely employed by agribusiness giants like Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and Cargill Inc., are focused on profit, not alleviating hunger.

The Biden administration and its Commodity Futures Trading Commission need to think about how to help maintain integrity, transparency and perhaps even justice in global grain markets. In a crisis, could grain flows be guided not just according to who pays the highest price but to which regions are most in need?

4. Invest in logistics infrastructure.

The future of food security will involve a game of transportation logistics. Investing in better storage facilities, railways, highways, shipping networks and ports has never been more important. Investment is especially needed in the newest frontiers of low-cost grain production, from Canada to Mongolia, where warming temperatures are increasing prospects for grain production.

5. Double down on developing the next generation of ag tech.

By midcentury the world may reach a threshold of global warming beyond which current agricultural practices “can no longer support large human civilizations,” according to an International Panel on Climate Change report. One solution is to change current practices with technology that can enable the production of more food on less land. We can usher in this new era by applying artificial intelligence, robotics, cellular agriculture, genetic engineering, vertical farming, satellites and big data.

Global grain markets are fragile. Countless environmental and political variables could deliver more shocks, hampering yields from the United States, Latin America, Canada, China and other producers. But in the past 12 months, the rebalancing of grain supplies and the quelling of prices prove that we have the ability to chart a sustainable path.