Here’s a snapshot of the state of the world in mid-August 2014: Last week, Russia imposed a ban on US and EU food imports, hurting its own people, while hours later, President Obama announced that we will drop emergency humanitarian exports from the air to help save the starving non-Islamic refugees in northern Iraq. The irony of the two moves shouldn’t be lost on the world community.
Of course, as with anything Russian President Putin does, the sanctions against food imports from countries he hates is a calculated chess move.
Although Russia imports about 40 percent of its food, Putin surely knows that world grain supplies, including those from Mother Russia, are expected to be extremely plentiful this year, with good harvests forecast pretty much around the globe.
As for 2015, who knows? Which is likely why Putin said his food-fight would only last for one year.
But if Putin thinks he will hurt the US with a knock to the breadbasket, he is sadly mistaken. While the Russian food ban will disproportionately hit European economies such as Spain and Poland, the agriculture industry here is one of the shining lights of the US economy.
Agricultural products and farm equipment remain our No. 1 export, with farming production overall topping $400 billion last year and exports rising above the $125 billion mark.
Lost sales to Russia would only make less than a 1 percent dent in that number, at best. And even as US farming has become increasingly tech-driven and efficient, the USDA estimates 15 percent of all American jobs created since 2010 were in the farm and forestry industry.
This so-called “industrial agriculture” often gets bashed by the environmentalists, but it has been a huge job creator and the kleptocrat at the Kremlin won’t have any more luck than the greenies in stopping it.
In the meantime, given how much Russian money has been smuggled out of their homeland, the oligarchs should have little trouble obtaining their Norwegian salmon, foie gras and Parmesan cheese.
So it’s the average Russian who will be hurt by Putin’s punitive diet. As for the average American farmer and our thriving agriculture industry, not so much.