by Agata Bachórz, Natasha Bunzl, Eszter Kovacs, Diana Mincyte, Fabio Parasecoli, Simone Piras, Mihai Varga.
In Central and Eastern Europe the strain of providing for the refugees from Ukraine is affecting not only large cities but also rural areas near the Ukrainian border and beyond, exacerbating existing supply chain and food access problems.
While new sanctions are introduced as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, these same sanctions, summed to the impacts of the war, have immediate and long-term consequences on food systems in the region and beyond. The anti-Putin international coalition needs to urgently develop strategies to ensure food security and avoid a long-term disaster with incalculable geopolitical consequences for Europe and the world. The EU and its allies should launch interventions that include countries outside of the Union, with a specific focus on supporting smallholders farms for their role in the resilience of vulnerable, mostly rural communities.
The attention of the world has been focused on food and agricultural issues in Ukraine, with good reason. Ukraine must deal with crippled supply chains due to the destruction of its production infrastructure. Ukrainian products cannot reach world markets because of a combination of fuel scarcity and attacks against the country’s ports. The conflict is laying waste to vast swaths of agricultural lands while working-age youth leave food production sectors to join defense efforts. Farmers are abandoning their fields to move to safer areas in western Ukraine, right as the spring sowing season approaches. These trends will not only lead to significant harvest losses this year but will also jeopardize food production for the foreseeable future. The impact on the global food system is already being felt, with futures of wheat and sunflower oil rattling stock markets and prices for agricultural inputs and fertilizers skyrocketing.
Against the background of this looming economic and humanitarian catastrophe, it is easy to forget that Ukraine is part of a larger region that is being directly and indirectly affected by these events. In less than three months an unprecedented over 5 millions of Ukrainian evacuees have poured into neighboring Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, and Slovakia. Individual citizens, businesses, groups of volunteers, local administrations, and NGOs have generously provided food to the displaced, mostly women and children. However, the emergency need of feeding growing numbers of refugees is straining those communities. Their efforts cannot continue indefinitely without the organized support of international organizations targeting food security, such as FAO, WFP and IFAD, as well as national governments in the region, which in the case of Poland and Hungary are basking in international praise without doing much in terms of grounded operational logistics or funding.
The strain of providing for refugees is affecting not only large cities but also rural areas near the Ukrainian border and beyond, exacerbating existing supply chain and food access problems. This is partially due to the rise of energy prices: in Poland, gas costs have plateaued around $6 per gallon; Hungary has brought in price caps to shield customers at the pump and introduced informal rationing. Moldova had already introduced a state of emergency in January and has now banned the export of maize, wheat, and sugar – which met with farmers’ opposition. As energy prices increase, it becomes more costly for those living rurally to reach the nearest towns for their grocery shopping, or to run their tractors. Small, poor villages are often cut off from main distribution networks, with many facing unknown delays and waits for supplies to reach them. Existing practices of gardening, foraging, and other forms of informal food provisioning, although widespread in rural areas of Central and Eastern Europe, are not enough to ensure food security to rural citizens.
The countries that are fielding the largest influx of Ukrainians were either part of the socialist block or of the USSR itself. They have experienced over thirty years of social and economic upheavals that in some areas have worsened inequalities between urban and rural citizens and more generally between those who were able to take advantage of the changes and those who were left out. The outcomes of these long-term transformations have been compounded by the effects of the Covid pandemic in terms of supply chain failures, inflation, and overall uncertainties regarding the viability of smallholder and family farming as units that have been feeding the region during times of crisis. Moreover, these areas are suffering the consequences of climate change in terms of violent and destructive weather events and prolonged droughts.
To minimize the economic shock of the war and the sanctions, and their wider human cost, the EU needs to increase its already-existing funds directed to rural areas in its eastern members. A strong emphasis should be put on smallholder agriculture, which has been a reliable source of food during times of crisis in the area and has also been deeply intertwined with industrial commodity production, filling the gap in the gaps in terms of output, labor, and environmental niches.
The EU should review its Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion Policy to benefit not only entrepreneurial farmers and large landowners, but also smallholders and rural households that provide socially resilient and environmentally sustainable food systems. However, to be effective, such measures must be expanded to include associated countries such as Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. A robust and inclusive economy in these countries constitutes the first line of defense against any Russian attempt at territorial expansion. Much depends on their survival, and long-term food security is crucial to achieving this goal.
These topics will be part of the discussion in the upcoming panel discussion organized by MOFAD on May 13th at 12:30 EST, in which some of the authors of this piece will participate.
Authors: Agata Bachórz (Sociology, University of Gdańsk, Poland), Natasha Bunzl (Nutrition and Food Studies, New York University, USA), Diana Mincyte (Sociology, CUNY City Tech, USA), Eszter Kovacs (Geography, University College London), Fabio Parasecoli (Nutrition and Food Studies, New York University, USA), Simone Piras (Agricultural and Food Economics, The James Hutton Institute, UK), and Mihai Varga (Sociology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)