Free Republic

Andrew Bailey said he has “run out of horsemen” when counting the shocks facing Britain, with runaway energy and food costs driven by global market forces beyond his control. Prices are rising at the fastest rate in 30 years, creating a “very big income shock” that is expected to intensify in coming months with a risk of double-digit inflation before the end of the year. Mr Bailey told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee that he is increasingly concerned about a further surge in food costs if Ukraine, a major crop grower, is unable to ship wheat and cooking oils...

The United States and the European Union (EU) have been ineffective in their trade war against Russia and are currently working on their sixth package of sanctions. These sanctions have caused price hikes and food shortages, severely harming innocent people all around the world. As the West struggles to constrain Russia’s military mission in Ukraine, European gas importers have already surrendered to Russia. European gas importers have quietly violated the EU’s own sanctions and have begun buying gas in Rubles, capitulating to Russia’s new rules. As the West’s economic warfare scheme backfires, EU leaders are beginning to crack even further....

India, the world’s second largest producer of wheat, has banned all exports with immediate effect after a heatwave affected the crop. A notice in the government gazette by the directorate of foreign trade, dated Friday, said a rise in global prices for wheat was threatening the food security of India and neighboring and vulnerable countries. A key aim is to control rising domestic prices. Global wheat prices have increased by more than 40% since the beginning of the year. Before the war, Ukraine and Russia accounted for a third of global wheat and barley exports. Since Russia’s 24 February invasion,...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a warning about the future, which looks grim. If things continue as they are now – and they more than likely will – global food shortages will continue. The result will be supply issues and civil unrest, likely beginning in the Third World and spreading from there. Protests have already erupted in Peru due to unrelenting inflation, and this is probably only a taste of what is to come as the problem spreads. Sky-high food prices, especially in poorer countries, will make it unaffordable for many families to make ends meet. This will...

A pattern of fires striking food facilities across the United States suggests that arson team are targeting food facilities for destruction. This theory, if confirmed, is consistent with other engineered tactics now being deployed to destroy food abundance in America: (snip) The partial halting of grain and fertilizer deliveries by Union Pacific railroad, which is largely owned by Blackrock and Vanguard investment funds. The mass culling of chickens and turkeys, using fraudulent PCR testing to claim there’s another “bird flu epidemic” that requires the mass destruction of egg-producing chickens (and other birds used for meat). The government paying farmers to...

Only 32 percent of the winter wheat crop in the United States received a “good” or “excellent” rating from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), new reports show. While this represents a slight increase of two points compared to a week ago, the figure is far behind 2021’s 53 percent rating, illustrating just how bad America’s wheat crop is due to persistent drought conditions in many areas. “Winter wheat rated as fair was 32 percent and winter wheat rated poor to very poor was 36 percent,” reported the Longview News-Journal. “Winter wheat headed was 5 percent, 1 point less than...

The U.S. winter wheat crop has emerged from dormancy in miserable condition following a historically dry winter in key production states, almost guaranteeing that the harvest will not rank among the country’s better ones. The timing is not great since tensions in the wheat market are running high. Global wheat prices hit record levels last month after war broke out among top exporters Russia and Ukraine, and that came on the heels of an already-tight supply situation. The United States is also among the world’s leading suppliers of wheat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture late on Monday said 30% of...

With Joe Biden only in office for just over 430 days so far, with well over 1,000 days left in his presidency, and stores in America already looking like the photograph above sent in to ANP by a reader in Beaver Falls, PA, just imagine what the store shelves will look like at the end of Biden’s term! With it long having been warned that only 9 meals separate a civilized society from complete and total anarchy, please listen to what Biden says in the final video below: “We both talked about how we could INCREASE and disseminate MORE RAPIDLY...

When I started warning of an emerging global food crisis a number of months ago, many out there assumed that I must be exaggerating things. Sadly, I was not exaggerating one bit. The soaring price of fertilizer, extreme global weather patterns, shocking crop failures and an epic global supply chain crisis had combined to create a "perfect storm" even before the war in Ukraine began. Of course the war has made things far worse, because Russia and Ukraine collectively account for about 30 percent of all worldwide wheat exports under normal conditions. For a while, the mainstream media and our...

President Biden said Thursday that a food shortage is "gonna be real" following the sanctions that were placed on Russia by the U.S. government as a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion into Ukraine."With regard to food shortage, yes we did talk about food shortages, and it's gonna be real," Biden said during a press conference at a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, following a meeting with other world leaders."The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia," he added. "It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as...

Russia’s recent decision to halt fertilizer exports could have a devastating impact on Brazil, an agriculture powerhouse that imports more than 85 percent of its fertilizer demand. According to Bloomberg, Russia is Brazil’s top supplier of fertilizer. And Belarus, one of Russia’s allies, provides 28 percent of Brazil’s fertilizer imports. Before the invasion of Ukraine, fertilizer costs were already high due to inflation. Moscow’s protectionism following the invasion made it that much worse, depriving countries like Brazil of the nutrients they need to grow all kinds of farm goods. “No other nation in the world relies on foreign fertilizer (more)...

In one of the more tone-deaf examples of elitist arrogance we’ve seen in quite some time, the billionaire-owned news outlet Bloomberg has offered Americans some mind-blowing “advice” on how best to cope with Joe Biden’s inflationary economy. Specifically, you who are struggling to make ends meet thanks to steep (and climbing) increases in price for food, gas, energy and housing under the current regime should reduce your lifestyle to eating lentils, while allowing your pets to die as well. The article begins with this headline: “Inflation Stings Most If You Earn Less Than $300K. Here’s How to Deal” – as...

The fertilizer crisis just got a whole lot worse after 3,000 Canadian Pacific Rail Workers walked off the job, leaving fertilizer shipments stranded. Thousands of CP Rail conductors, engineers, train, and yard workers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference decided to strike after the union and the rail company failed to strike a deal. This could result in a shortage of fertilizer and other needed farm supplies ahead of the spring growing season. “CP Rail is the leading carrier of potash, a potassium-rich salt mined from underground deposits formed from evaporated sea beds millions of years ago, used to...

March 14 (Reuters) - A worsening drought in the southern U.S. Plains is threatening the region's winter wheat crop just as the Russian invasion of Ukraine dents global supplies. Some farmers in southwestern Kansas, the top U.S. wheat producing state, have not received much measurable rain or snow since October. Winter wheat is planted in autumn, lays dormant in winter and begins sending up green shoots in spring. Proper soil moisture is critical at this stage for the crop to thrive. More than half of Kansas was classified as under severe drought or worse as of March 8, the driest...

Williamsport, Pa. -- A mother accused of the homicide of her two daughters, Nicole and Jasmine Snyder, admitted during a preliminary hearing on Wednesday that she and her girlfriend starved each of the two girls “so she would die.” During the hearing held at the Lycoming County Courthouse for Echo Butler and Ronald Butler, Marie Snyder relayed intimate details of the death of both of her daughters. The girls, just four and six years old at the time of their deaths, were subjected to physical abuse, verbal abuse, restraint, humiliation, and starvation, Snyder admitted.

Iowa reported an outbreak of highly lethal bird flu in a commercial flock of egg-laying chickens on Friday, raising the risk for further infections in the top US egg-producing state. Iowa was already facing restrictions on exports of poultry products after a commercial turkey flock tested positive for the disease on Sunday.

The Chinese regime continues to mandate its COVID-zero policy that quarantines all potential infections and locks down cities. Residents in Shenzhen, a city with multiple districts reporting outbreaks of COVID-19, complained that they were surrounded by “trash mountains” and in desperate need of food due to the lockdown. “On the evening of Feb. 28, a neighbor tried to jump off the building from his apartment. Other neighbors told me that he has depression and hadn’t eaten for two days. He lost all hope and tried to commit suicide,” Lin Dai (pseudonym), a resident of Shangshadong village in the city of...

A scarcity economy begins with inflationary hikes. Consumer prices surged more than expected over the past 12 months, indicating a worsening outlook for inflation and cementing the likelihood of substantial interest rate hikes this year. With all of the things that have transpired, from bad weather, wildfires, disasters and even food chain shortages — I often wonder what it takes to get people to invest in protecting their own food chain and the ability to have some kind of food that provides and calories necessary to survive. I guess a lot of people need the mainstream media to convince them...

DURING 15 years of confinement in psychiatric institutions in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, Dimitri Gerasimenko was starved and repeatedly beaten. The indignities did not end with his death five years ago at the age of 30.Staff at the ramshackle asylum 50 miles from Bishkek, the capital, have never told his mother Raisa, 65, how he died. All her attempts to retrieve his remains have been met with prevarication, compounding her grief. “First I was asked for money if I wanted the body back,” she said. “Then I was told Dimitri had been sent to a medical academy. When...

SEATTLE—Edmina Romanov fasted all day so she wouldn’t have to worry about calories at her friend’s Communist-themed party, but it was all for naught because no food was offered at the authentic commie get-together. “Yeah, yeah, I’ve got egg on my face,” said Romanov. “I mean not really. I wish I did. I’m so hungry.” “But think of the weight you will lose, comrade!” joked the party’s host, Larry Bolshevik. “Come! Let us play ‘Arrest the Lienz Cossack.’” Another guest of the party, Natasha Summers, didn’t understand why Romanov was so upset. “There’s plenty of food if you know where...