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by Lenrod Nzulu Baraka
Unlike its European allies, the United States finds itself in the enviable position of both food and fuel self sufficiency. The US is blessed with large stretches of fertile land capable of producing enough food to feed America and an excess for export.
The American Midwest is considered to be one of the most productive bread baskets in the world. The US was responsible for 32 per cent of global corn exports between 2017 -2020. The US also ranks among the top three wheat exporters globally and could easily move to the top of that list if it cared to.
In 2018 the US surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading exporter of oil. The shale revolution which incorporates new techniques of oil extraction has considerably boosted US production of oil and natural gas.
According to the US Energy Information Administration approximately 2.64 billion barrels per day of crude oil were extracted from shale, sandstone and carbonate rock formations in 2021. Fuel sufficiency in the US means that the feet of the US cannot be held over a fire by any of the other major oil producers.
Europe, like the US, is largely self sufficient with respect to many agricultural products. The European Union like many other countries imports oilseeds, wheat, feed ingredients, and fertilizers from Russia.
Ukraine also accounts for 36 per cent of imports of cereals to the European Union. Russian and Ukraine account for 29 per cent of global wheat exports, 19 per cent maize exports and 78 per cent of sunflower oil exports. Russia’s ban on exports of grain and the uncertainty Ukrainian exports raises the question of food insecurity in Europe.
Unlike the US however, Europe is not fuel self sufficient. Disgraced US president Richard Nixon was very forthright in his book Seize the Moment when he wrote that America’s military shenanigans in the Persian Gulf were designed to keep oil from the Persian Gulf flowing to America’s allies in Europe.
The European Union imports about 40 per cent of its natural gas consumption from Russia. The dependency is even higher in Germany which improves on the European Union quantity by 15 per cent. Amounts may vary from European nation to nation but to some extent Russian oil and gas provide a fuel lifeline for much of Europe.
Sanctions against Russia were always going to be a tricky affair for European nations with both hands in the mouth of the Russian bear. President Biden could with great pomposity declare that he was imposing the mother of all sanctions on Russia to teach President Putin the lesson of his life. The mother of all sanctions’ rhetoric may have sounded impressive but it did not obliviate the Achilles heel of its European allies.
With winter approaching European leaders should have known that they would not have had enough time to make adjustments in the event of Russia playing the oil and gas card. The supply of oil could be made up by super tankers but gas supplies was another matter altogether. Natural gas is easily transported overland by pipelines but very difficult to transport by ocean. No wonder the European coalition in support of the sanctions on Russia is already falling apart and as winter’s breath begins to be felt, the coalition is likely to become more fractious.
Europe has once again followed the US on what can only be described as a fool’s errand. The US has very little skin exposed in the coming freeze but the entire corpus of Europe could end up frozen solid. American foreign policy concerns do not always dovetail with European necessity. As such therefore Europeans should be wary of blindly following America’s lead especially when doing so exposes Europe to consequences to which America is immune.
Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is the founder of Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center.
