Ukraine crisis fuels calls to open US, European conservation acres (Agri-Pulse)

Agri-Pulse published an article on how the war in Ukraine is threatening to cut global grain supplies and worsen food insecurity, leading to proposals to ramp up agricultural production in the United States and Europe by planting crops this year on conservation acreage. Ukraine, a major global supplier of wheat, corn, and vegetable oil might lose its winter wheat crop and its spring planting season of corn and sunflowers. But the biggest hit to the global food supplies could be the crisis on fertilizer supplies, said senior research fellow James Thurlow. Fertilizer prices were skyrocketing even before the crisis, and the Russian government last week moved to suspend exports from its fertilizer manufacturers. “What happens next season when the fertilizer is far more expensive and productivity begins to fall? I think that’s when we’re going to start worrying about broad-based impacts on the global food system.”