Last I checked, 86% of Zimbabwe’s wheat comes from Ukraine, and only 4% is grown locally. The author suggests that this “catastrophic situation [was] promoted by Western media and politicians over the past 2 years.”
How, exactly, did “Western media houses and politicians” cause Zimbabwe to have a catastrophic agricultural policy? I’m dying to know.
I think the article was referring to the inflationary environment we were already in before the Ukraine conflict started – not the existing agricultural policies of country X, Y, or Z.
There are many causes of food inflation in the region, none of which can be distilled down, as the author would like, to the simple factors he suggests.
The reality is that most of Africa has not been food sufficient in 50 years. This problem is worsening and much more to do with drivers he won’t mention – like populations doubling every 25 years,
Zimbabwe’s dependence on Ukraine wheat may have more to do with the ethnic cleansing of the white farmers by Mugabe’s régime and the consequent destruction of that country’s agricultural economy and capacity. The former ‘Breadbasket of Africa’ fed itself!
Indeed, Julian, which is precisely why it is irritating for me to read an article imagining the problem to be foreign journalists and politicians rather than local governance.
Hayden – I so enjoy reading your post on Unherd. You provide penetrating, intelligent insights and are fearless in expressing yourself in a world where most people now are too afraid to be intellectually honest. It would be good to re-establish email comms sometime, I think you have my email address so feel free to get in touch any time. Hamba gashle! Julian
Andrea X
2 years ago
“it’s a lot more comfortable for media outlets to blame impoverishment in Africa on Vladimir Putin, than to recognise that he has exacerbated an already catastrophic situation promoted by Western media and politicians over the past 2 years.”
Yeah they should be blaming African governments for destroying its capacity to feed itself. But that’s not woke.
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago
Perhaps Africa should advance a couple of thousand years when it comes to farming and food production, as most of the rest of the world appears to have managed… or is pointing out this fact ” racist”?
African countries’ populations currently double every 25 years. Kenya’s current population, for example, is at 55 million; in 1995, it was approx 25 million. https://www.populationpyramid.net/kenya/2021/
Perhaps the population factor should be included in discussions of food-and-resources shortages.
And why does ‘everyone want to live in the West’?
Because the West has been wealthy.
Why has the West been wealthy?
Because for almost 500 years it plundered almost every corner of the Earth taking whatever it wanted and killing everyone who objected.
The West decided what was right and what was wrong.
In case you’re wondering what ‘right’ really meant – it was the entitlement of Caucasians to whatever they wanted. ‘Wrong’ meant trying to stop them taking whatever they wanted.
POWER determines everything and the West exercised it’s POWER to enrich itself.
The only question in geopolitics worth asking now is:
WHITHER POWER?
Name me one Siberian tribe. Can’t? One reason is that many were violently wiped out by Russian imperialism during centuries of brutal expansion. As for the Ottoman Empire and Chinese Ming suppression of Tibet and Mongolia and Korea…
Our European ancestors had the determination and vision to build much of the “modern world”. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Ian Stewart
2 years ago
Jeez this is just rubbish, failing to reference the destruction of agricultural capacity, because it was operated by white farmers, in the last 30 years, accompanied by an explosion in populations across the continent.
Toby Green, you need to do much better than this.
Last I checked, 86% of Zimbabwe’s wheat comes from Ukraine, and only 4% is grown locally. The author suggests that this “catastrophic situation [was] promoted by Western media and politicians over the past 2 years.”
How, exactly, did “Western media houses and politicians” cause Zimbabwe to have a catastrophic agricultural policy? I’m dying to know.
I think the article was referring to the inflationary environment we were already in before the Ukraine conflict started – not the existing agricultural policies of country X, Y, or Z.
There are many causes of food inflation in the region, none of which can be distilled down, as the author would like, to the simple factors he suggests.
The reality is that most of Africa has not been food sufficient in 50 years. This problem is worsening and much more to do with drivers he won’t mention – like populations doubling every 25 years,
Wasn’t Zimbabwe the “bread basket of Africa” once upon a time? Oh, sorry – I was thinking of Rhodesia.
Ooooo like, so racist? Probaly lbgt q ” herfensiffe” and climate change denying to… beware! The sandaloids will cancel you!
Why doesnt Zimbabwe grow its own crops as Rhodesia did?
I suspect that murdering the farm owners who knew large scale agriculture may have something to do with it?
They can’t get the people to do it.
Zimbabwe’s dependence on Ukraine wheat may have more to do with the ethnic cleansing of the white farmers by Mugabe’s régime and the consequent destruction of that country’s agricultural economy and capacity. The former ‘Breadbasket of Africa’ fed itself!
Indeed, Julian, which is precisely why it is irritating for me to read an article imagining the problem to be foreign journalists and politicians rather than local governance.
Hayden – I so enjoy reading your post on Unherd. You provide penetrating, intelligent insights and are fearless in expressing yourself in a world where most people now are too afraid to be intellectually honest. It would be good to re-establish email comms sometime, I think you have my email address so feel free to get in touch any time. Hamba gashle! Julian
“it’s a lot more comfortable for media outlets to blame impoverishment in Africa on Vladimir Putin, than to recognise that he has exacerbated an already catastrophic situation promoted by Western media and politicians over the past 2 years.”
Amen! And it must NOT happen.
Yeah they should be blaming African governments for destroying its capacity to feed itself. But that’s not woke.
Perhaps Africa should advance a couple of thousand years when it comes to farming and food production, as most of the rest of the world appears to have managed… or is pointing out this fact ” racist”?
African countries’ populations currently double every 25 years. Kenya’s current population, for example, is at 55 million; in 1995, it was approx 25 million. https://www.populationpyramid.net/kenya/2021/
Perhaps the population factor should be included in discussions of food-and-resources shortages.
Well said Helen, it should be, but is politically incorrect for both left and right to discuss this.
Last few sentences lurching off into floating generalisation. The West, the area that everone wants to live in, is wrong again.
And why does ‘everyone want to live in the West’?
Because the West has been wealthy.
Why has the West been wealthy?
Because for almost 500 years it plundered almost every corner of the Earth taking whatever it wanted and killing everyone who objected.
The West decided what was right and what was wrong.
In case you’re wondering what ‘right’ really meant – it was the entitlement of Caucasians to whatever they wanted. ‘Wrong’ meant trying to stop them taking whatever they wanted.
POWER determines everything and the West exercised it’s POWER to enrich itself.
The only question in geopolitics worth asking now is:
WHITHER POWER?
Name me one Siberian tribe. Can’t? One reason is that many were violently wiped out by Russian imperialism during centuries of brutal expansion. As for the Ottoman Empire and Chinese Ming suppression of Tibet and Mongolia and Korea…
Our European ancestors had the determination and vision to build much of the “modern world”. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Jeez this is just rubbish, failing to reference the destruction of agricultural capacity, because it was operated by white farmers, in the last 30 years, accompanied by an explosion in populations across the continent.
Toby Green, you need to do much better than this.