Homer-Dixon on the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food supply

Thomas Homer-Dixon, executive director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads, discusses the impact of the war in Ukraine on the global food supply, as Ukraine and Russia supply 29 per cent of the world’s wheat exports.

Here is some of what he had to say:

“Russia is in the process of basically closing off the Black Sea ports, Ukraine's Black Sea port, so it won't have any ability to export any wheat... Although I expect that this spring, very few Ukrainian farmers will actually be planting. So this is going to have a huge impact,” says Homer-Dixon. “Also, Russian exports will probably be affected by financial sanctions. So we have a very substantial food supply problem in the world already. And just if you look at the futures prices for wheat on the commodities markets, the wheat prices are soaring. They shot straight up just in the last few days, and some people are predicting that week prices might quadruple by the end of this year.”

Listen to the full interview on Background Briefing with Ian Masters.