I want to be very careful here, because multiple people have sent me a version of this outline asking for opinion. Basically, is David Friedberg correct?

The discussion in this video surrounds farming as a construct of global caloric creation.  Meaning, with all that is taking place in the farming system on a global scale, will there be dramatic food shortages?  It is a complex issue.  In the larger picture what Friedberg, a former scientist within the Monsanto organization, explains is accurate; however, I would inject some nuanced dissension as it relates to U.S. farm production specifically.

The first four and a half minutes of the video are an accurate representation of the global state of farming, albeit with a little too much weight on the Ukraine-Russia aspect.  There was a preexisting issue long before Russia entered the picture. The price of fertilizer was already skyrocketing, Russia-Ukraine has made that already looming issue, worse.  WATCH First 04:30 minutes:

https://youtu.be/1xtGTVWrw-M

The problem described, about farmers deciding not to plant, is weighted more heavily in less developed countries where access to the financing for a future crop is not stable {AP Article Here}.  For most of the developed world farming will continue; it is the end product where prices will reflect the additional costs of bringing a harvest to market.  Bottom line, as the futures market is showing, crops will be more expensive.

There is going to be a problem in the same areas of the world where food stability and dependency is already an issue.  Yes, the convergence of current farm challenges will make those areas more vulnerable.  We do not know, to what extent.

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Joe Biden was in Iowa today attempting to justify the massive Bidenflation his economic policies have created.  As a result of Biden energy, fiscal and monetary policy, rising oil and gasoline prices are contributing to pre-existing inflation and crushing the U.S. economy.

As part of the White House plan to blame anyone and everyone except the Joe Biden policy agenda, Biden took to the microphones to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin.  However, reflecting the synergy of human and avian opinion, a bird flew overhead and pooped on him.  WATCH:

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She did it again. Just like in February, when Psaki (seemingly out of the blue) gave a weird proactive statement about bad economic data that was going to be released the following day {LINK}. Earlier this afternoon White House spokesperson Jen Psaki gives another proactive justification for even worse inflation data that is about to be released from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics tomorrow.

In this brief soundbite, Psaki says the March inflation data that is going to be released tomorrow is going to show “Putin’s price hikes” on U.S. consumers.  However, even within the framework of her false justification, she attempts to blame Putin for gas price increases in January, when the Russian military operations did not start until February 24th.  The inflation news is going to be really bad tomorrow. How bad?  WATCH:

https://youtu.be/tNBvUq8e2Ko

None of this will come as a surprise to CTH readers.  We noted in the February inflation data (released in March), that things were going to be much worse in the April release.  The reason was simple, the massive gas price increases were not yet matriculated in the February data, and the massive food inflation was not yet captured by the USDA component. All of that preceded Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  None of it has anything to do with Vladimir Putin.

The inflation data that will be released tomorrow is the first visible data assembly of the second inflation wave now upon us.  Remember, inflation data lags behind the reality of the price increases. What the BLS will show tomorrow is the price results from the last half of Feb through the half of the month of March.  It will likely show the largest single month inflation increase in modern history.

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Against the backdrop of increased Russia-India trade {link}, and the BRICS discussions about new trade payment mechanisms to avoid being shackled to the dollar {link}, it would appear the people behind the White House operation to create/maintain conflict with Russia are scheduling a stern conversation with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

WHITE HOUSE – ” President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will meet virtually with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India on Monday, April 11 to further deepen ties between our governments, economies, and our people. President Biden and Prime Minister Modi will discuss cooperation on a range of issues.” …

“President Biden will continue our close consultations on the consequences of Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine and mitigating its destabilizing impact on global food supply and commodity markets.” (read more)

The message from the White House will likely be akin to: ‘Nice country of 1.5 billion hungry people you got there Modi.  With all this talk of global famine going around, it’d be a shame if you couldn’t feed them.’ Oh, and by the way, did you happen to catch what just rolled out in Pakistan?  Imagine that – what with common borders and such… 

For those unfamiliar, it appears the DoS/CIA were up to their old tricks again, because Pakistan was favorable to the position of China and Russia in the Ukraine conflict and would not take sides with NATO and western allied leaders.

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CBS has released their latest YouGov Poll [DATA HERE], again showing the top priorities of the American people are not even on the radar of the American government.  The DC beltway disconnect is stark.

Interestingly, the recent survey of Pennsylvania voters done by Reuters, turned up this almost identical priority list, only Rusia/Ukraine did not even appear in the top five.  The economy, inflation, gas prices, crime and immigration are the top five issues across the board, in almost every poll.

Russia/Ukraine is a non-existent issue. Yet, that is the actionable priority -with questionable importance for U.S. security interests- for a totally out of touch government and media to focus on.  Sending $14 billion to help Ukraine’s border fight, while our borders are crushed with illegal aliens, is a sharp stick in the eye for every American.

Unfortunately, our opinion doesn’t matter, and frustratingly, the people using Biden as a tool to achieve their goals do not have any concern whatsoever about political fallout.  Biden is a disposable tool for a program of rapid single-term advancement of the democrat-communist agenda.

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Loretta Mester, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, appears on CBS Face the Nation to discuss inflation, the economy and monetary policy.  Ms Mester is in a tough place, because she cannot admit the influence of federal monetary policy is far outmatched in the era where Joe Biden energy policy is limiting oil and gas development and creating massive inflation.

Mester does admit the supply chain crisis will extend well into 2023, but blows hopeful unicorn wishes by projecting that price inflation will temper by the end of this year.  From the perspective that 20 to 50% price increases on critical goods (housing, food, fuel, energy) are unsustainable in repeated cycles, she is correct; the rate of inflation will lower. However, that’s only because the baseline prices will have increased so high the rate of increase measure falls.  WATCH:

A $4 item that gains a $2 increase holds a 50% rate of inflation.  The next year that $6 item again has a $2 increase, but the rate of inflation drops to 33%.  The price increase is the same, but the rate of inflation drops.  That’s what is going to happen in the second half of this year.  FUBAR

The White House is doing this on purpose in order to chase their ideological dreams of sustainable energy and climate change.  Energy prices underline the entire economy, because oil and gas prices touch everything.  Insofar as they continue the war against coal, oil and gasoline, there’s nothing monetary policy can do to combat inflation.  The Fed must however, pretend not to know things.

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This is not some grand conspiracy, ‘out there‘ deep geopolitical possibility, or foreboding likelihood as an outcome of short-sighted western emotion.  No, this is just a predictable outcome from western created events that pushed specific countries to a natural conclusion based on their best interests.

You can debate the motives of the western leaders who structured the sanctions against Russia, and whether they knew the outcome would happen as a consequence of their effort, but the outcome was never really in doubt.  Personally, I believe this outcome is what the west intended. The people inside the World Economic Forum are not stupid – ideological, yes, but not stupid. They knew this would happen.

The finance ministers of the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have decided to create their own financial mechanisms to continue trade between nations of similar disposition.  Once the internal issues inside the BRICS alliance are resolved, and once the mechanisms are created, then other nations will be able to decide to join or not.  The great global cleaving will commence.

(Reuters) – Russia, hit by Western sanctions, has called on the BRICS group of emerging economies to extend the use of national currencies and integrate payment systems, the finance ministry said on Saturday.

[…] On Friday, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told a ministerial meeting with BRICS, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, that the global economic situation had worsened substantially due to the sanctions, the ministry’s statement said.

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Last weekend, it was the Hungarian election that surfaced as the first contest between globalism -vs- nationalism in the “post-COVID” era.  This weekend, it is the election in France that will indicate how the French people feel about similar issues of the totalitarian, fascist or corporate state, i.e. “globalism.”

There are a multitude of parties and coalitions in France represented by multiple candidates.  However, if no candidate wins 50% of the total vote tomorrow, only the top two candidates will advance to the second round national election on April 24th.  Those top two candidates are likely to be current French President Emmanuel Macron (globalist wing) and Marine Le Pen (nationalist wing).

Currently Macron holds around 25% and Le Pen around 23% (individually) for the first round, with multiple candidates holding smaller percentages of the remaining vote.  Therefore, it is almost certain that Macron and Le Pen will advance to a head-to-head matchup on April 24th.  That’s when things will really become important for the larger battle of globalism v nationalism.

The two candidates have faced off before, however, this time the pandemic response by Emmanuel Macron could likely tilt the election in favor of Le Pen.

SIDEBAR – I predict we will see Barack Obama enter the French presidential election again, as an influence agent, between Monday of next week and April 24th, just as he did the last time in order to try and convince the French people to stick with Macron.  Foreign interference in national elections (think Russia interfering in U.S. elections) is a horrible thing, a terrible threat to democracy, except when the U.S. globalists need it.

When the U.S. leftists, Democrats, need to influence the Canadian election, suddenly election interference is a good thing.  When the Democrats need to influence the Mexico election, no big deal. When the U.S. leftists need to influence the French election, or Egyptian election, or Israeli election, or U.K. election, no biggie, no biggie, no biggie.  Their hypocrisy is boundless when they know the media will let them pretend not to know things.  Watch for it, I’ll bet one donut the U.S. will pull out all the stops to support Macron. I digress…back to the point of current France.

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The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reported on Friday they are recording the highest Food Price Index since they started recording thirty years ago. With record highs in prices for cereals, vegetable oils, dairy and meats

This issue has been a slow burning fuse toward the biggest powder keg in modern history, and it is about to get very serious.  We have been warning about it since last fall {Go Deep}.  In the most deliberate and painstaking ways possible, we have been urging everyone to take this issue seriously.

The background cause is complex and started with the 2020 government response to the pandemic.  U.S. and international government intervention in the food supply process has been FUBAR from the beginning. Every action taken since early 2020 has been one bad policy after another; building failure upon failure, crisis upon crisis, bad decision upon bad decision, bringing us to a precipice summed up by saying “the absence of food will change things.”

Some will say the food prices we are about to experience –and the crisis it will create– was deliberate.  Others will say this was the cumulative outcome of major failures on the part of the government.  At this point the former makes more sense, and the latter looks like a justification and excuse, because if government entities were really serious about food prices and shortages, they would be taking pragmatic steps to mitigate the problem; they are not.

There are simple things government could do, such as helping farmers offset targeted fertilizer costs, providing relief for diesel fuel and energy costs, and taking other simple steps that would help the agricultural industry.

Instead of responding with the urgency this would demand, the collective government action has been to ignore the problem (talk soundbites), and give speeches about using subsidies to offset the end result (consumers) – without ever addressing the root cause.  All this while fueling conflict in Ukraine and chasing radical energy policies under the guise of global climate change.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) keeps track of food prices and projections using a global index [SEE HERE].  What they are calculating, and what they are projecting based on the current calculations, is a major increase in food prices combined with a major increase in food scarcity due to the unaffordability of food products.

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In Chapter 1, sub-section 1.4 of the 2022 Canadian budget, there is a rather remarkable new rule that bans foreign ownership and investment in housing for a period of two years.  [LINK HERE]

“To make sure that housing is owned by Canadians instead of foreign investors, Budget 2022 announces the government’s intention to propose restrictions that would prohibit foreign commercial enterprises and people who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents from acquiring non- recreational, residential property in Canada for a period of two years.”

Two points about this issue.  First, can you imagine the media outcry if a conservative prime minister would ever make such a proposal?  Quite a leftist change from the previous mantra “diversity is our strength”?

Second, considering the issue of foreign investment that creates housing, there is a likelihood this could backfire.  The new position of Canada will certainly put more upward pressure on the U.S. housing market.  Every action tends to have an equal and opposite reaction.  It will be interesting to follow this and see where it leads.

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