Scott: Russia’s war imperils world’s food supply
Published 5:49 pm Friday, March 25, 2022
THOMASVILLE — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could spell dire consequences for other areas of the world, and not just Ukraine’s European neighbors, U.S. Rep. Austin Scott said Tuesday.
Scott (R-Tifton), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said other parts of the world soon may be hurt by Russia’s attack on its neighbor. Ukraine is one of the biggest suppliers to the United Nations World Food Program, contributing 50 million metric tons a year of corn and wheat, Scott said.
Much of that is destined for poorer countries in Africa and Asia.
“The other issue we are extremely concerned about is the global food supply and the potential for widespread hunger throughout lower wealth counties in the world,” Scott said. “Without that corn and wheat coming into the global food supply, we are very concerned about world hunger.”
Scott said it shouldn’t have much effect on Americans, aside from higher prices. But the effect elsewhere could be enormous.
“I still think we, as Americans, are going to pay more for a loaf of bread,” he said, “but we are still going to have food on our shelves. I’m worried from a global standpoint what happens to lower income nations, where people are dependent on that UN food program to eat.”
Scott also said the Biden administration’s decision to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and give the go-ahead to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline running from Russia to Germany has hurt the U.S. and benefited Russia.
Scott said the U.S. should never be dependent on other nations for either food or energy.
“There has been a tremendous amount of inflation from the bad energy policy that was put in months and months ago,” he said. “Those two things will be seen as historic blunders that led to increased cost of fuel, which in turn gave Vladimir Putin the money he needed to carry out his actions he’s carrying out in Ukraine.”
In a rare instance of bipartisanship, majorities in both parties on Capitol Hill have called for support for Ukraine and further punishment for Russia and its leader. Scott also said members of Congress are watching what China does.
“We want China to stop supporting Russia financially,” he said. “We want to make sure that China understands that if they provide weapons to kill innocent people, there will be significant consequences, not just from the United States but from a unified front against authoritarianism that is being represented right now by Vladimir Putin and the Chinese.”
Scott said the case against Russia in its invasion of Ukraine has been helped by U.S. intelligence. Much of that information, which often is kept under wraps, has been shared across Capitol Hill and globally.
“I think everybody around the world is watching in disbelief at how aggressive Russia has been in their actions in Ukraine,” Scott said. “It is something our intelligence community had done an exceptionally good job of advising us on and warning us about in Congress. I think it was very smart to declassify a lot of that intelligence going back into December so that the world could see what Russia was up to.”