President Biden warns of food shortages in coming year, says it’s ‘going to be real’

President Joe Biden has said that Western leaders have discussed the possibility of food shortages in the coming year.

Biden said that food shortages will be “real” and he called Ukraine and Russia the “breadbasket” for Europe.

According to CNN, the two countries together account for nearly 30% of global wheat trade. Biden discussed that the US will be investing funds for humanitarian assistance which would include food.

“The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia. It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well,” Biden said in his remarks after the emergency NATO meeting in Brussels.

“We had a long discussion in the G7 with… both the United States, which has a significant – the third largest producer of wheat in the world – as well as Canada, which is also a major, major producer. And we both talked about how we could increase and disseminate food more rapidly.”

He later continued, “In addition to that, we talked about urging all the European countries and everyone else to end trade restrictions on sending, limitations on sending food abroad. So we are in the process of working out with our European friends what it would be, what it would take to help alleviate the concerns relative to food shortages,” Biden said.

French President Emmanuel Macron also detailed an EU-led food security initiative designed to alleviate the risk of food shortages as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In a news conference on Thursday, Macron said, “This situation will create a food crisis, extremely serious humanitarian situations in several countries and are sure to have massive political consequences in several countries.”

Reports show that nearly 27 countries (mostly African and Middle Eastern countries) source more than 50% of their wheat from Russia or Ukraine.