Going organic will drive imports (Scottish Farmer) 

Scottish Farmer published an article on how the EU’s Farm to Fork program, which emphasizes organic agriculture, could lead to reduced domestic production and require increased imports from Latin America and Africa. According to Senior research fellow David Laborde, while the food supply is tightening globally, humanitarian organizations such as the United Nations World Food Program are still able to find food to distribute, but their costs are much higher. Laborde called on donor nations to raise their contributions but admitted this was complicated as some countries were unwilling to provide money to humanitarian organizations if the UN were then going to buy grain from Russia. The shock to global food markets looks to have eased in some areas, with Indonesia appearing to stop its export restrictions on palm oil, but there are concerns that India is keeping restrictive export taxes on wheat flour, broken rice, and rice export taxes. Senior research fellow Joseph Glauber, said shipments through the Black Sea from Ukraine were only 30% of pre-war levels despite the agreement with Russia. Furthermore, the high global cereal prices are struggling to get back to Ukrainian farmers since the price of shipping and storage were being fed back down to the primary producer. IFPRI also noted that in some markets, such as in Southern Africa, the price of grain is set by local buying power which has not grown in 2022. Farmers in these regions are suffering higher input costs with little swelling of farmgate prices, leading Laborde to indicate area’s sown might fall, further exacerbating the global picture. The old saying that the best way to alleviate high prices is with high prices, doesn’t appear to be holding true in the global food market as the cost of food appears to be on a firm footing.