Global South must break West’s starvation engineering now

Populations in Caracas, Nairobi, and Jakarta face severe, artificial food scarcities. Grain markets, fertiliser depots, and shipping lanes are breaking down. This happens by design. Western leaders use food distribution to force compliance and maintain global dominance. They treat basic nutrition as a political tool. They want a single global order, but the world has already split into multiple power centres.

Our current food crisis grew out of old colonial empires. European powers forced entire continents to switch to single-crop plantations. They ruined local farming to feed European factories. Years later, the Green Revolution boosted crop yields. However, it also left developing nations trapped. They became completely dependent on Western corporations for patented seeds and petrochemical fertilisers. Today, whoever controls grain shipping routes, pricing, and insurance holds the power of life and death over billions of people. Recent sanctions against Russia, combined with military conflicts in the Persian Gulf, put this exact power into action.

You can see the real impact of this crisis play out in the Strait of Hormuz. Joint military aggression by the United States and Israel against Iran, and its following consequences, have effectively blocked this narrow waterway. It's a massive crisis because a huge chunk of the world's liquefied natural gas and fertiliser ingredients travels right through it. Since the blockades started, fertiliser prices have jumped 60%, energy costs are climbing, and shipping fees have skyrocketed.

At the same time, the European Union has cut back heavily on global aid. The EU used to be the biggest backer of humanitarian and agricultural development programmes, but now it is shifting those funds into heavy militarisation and using a manufactured Russian threat to justify the move. This leaves the Global South facing a double blow. They have to deal with a sudden price spike for essential farming supplies while their west-dependent development safety nets disappear, all because of decisions made in the West.

Cutting off natural gas drives up fertiliser costs, which then spikes food prices. This sequence destabilises governments until they are forced to beg the West for bailouts that come with heavy policy strings attached, like the recent reciprocal trade agreement signed with Bangladesh under the interim government of Dr Yunus.

This policy comes down to cold math. The United States produces enough food to feed itself, so its farms do not suffer from the soaring fertiliser prices that its own foreign policies trigger. The European Union profits from the war. European nations claim solidarity with Kyiv, but they buy Ukrainian grain at prices far below the global market average. This cheap grain feeds European livestock and food factories. This practice drains the reserves that once sustained North Africa and the Middle East. As western nations profit from this engineered shortage, they turn regional hunger into an economic advantage. Developing nations pay the real cost through malnutrition and poverty, all because of a geopolitical conflict.

This unequal setup is the result of a long-term strategy to keep developing nations dependent on exporting labour-intensive materials and importing food. This dependency keeps an old colonial division of labour alive. Western banks, trade rules, and patent laws block these countries from getting the technology they need to become self-reliant.

Outside of economics, the military control of shipping straits like Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb gives Western powers a long-time tool to control resources and force political obedience. The current crisis shows how energy and food operate as a single weapon system. Cutting off natural gas drives up fertiliser costs, which then spikes food prices. This sequence destabilises governments until they are forced to beg the West for bailouts that come with heavy policy strings attached, like the recent reciprocal trade agreement signed with Bangladesh under the interim government of Dr Yunus.

Countries in global south with their global north allies must stand together and refuse these conditions. With robust diplomatic coordination, Bangladesh and similar global south countries have to put their own food security ahead of global political alliances. They must demand that the global trade of food, grain, and fertiliser stay entirely out of politics. They should use every available international platform. This means taking their case to the United Nations General Assembly, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the G77 plus China. Through these groups, they must declare that sanctions on agricultural supplies violate the basic right to food. 

Concretely, the Global South should refuse to enforce secondary sanctions that target the Russian agro-industrial complex and energy sector. Instead, these countries should set up practical payment channels using local currencies. They can expand on systems already tested by BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and regional clearing unions. This allows them to bypass the dollar-based financial networks that Western powers control and use for geopolitical pressure. They should welcome Russian humanitarian shipments of grain, fertiliser, and fuel without apology, recognising them as lifelines rather than as vectors of influence. 

For the future, Global South countries must build their own fertiliser plants and invest in nuclear as well as renewable energy. This keeps farming costs independent from unpredictable oil and gas markets. They also need regional grain reserves to protect themselves from price manipulation on Western commodity exchanges. Securing food is just as critical as building a strong military defence. If a nation cannot feed its own people, its authority means nothing. Western corporations currently hold a near-monopoly on agricultural technology. Global south must break this control over tools like drought-resistant seeds and modern farming methods. They need to make these tools available to everyone. The growing shift toward a multipolar world offers the necessary support. BRICS-aligned development banks and shared networks can fund and organise this entire transition.

Two paths lie ahead. First, global south could remain divided. This allows Western powers to force individual states to obey, tighten sanctions, and use food systems as weapons. The choice leads straight to widespread famine, collapsed governments, and mass migration toward the North. Eventually, countries will fight regional wars over water and arable land. Western leaders think they can manage this chaos from a distance, but they are wrong. Starvation ignores borders. The resulting instability will breed pandemics and lawless spaces that bring danger right to the West.

The second path looks entirely different. Developing nations could unite to protect their own food supply, refusing to become casualties in a conflict driven by the West. They can use their large populations, vast resources, and new international organisations to force a diplomatic deal. This agreement would permanently protect food and fertiliser from all sanctions. Such an outcome prevents a massive humanitarian disaster. It also shifts the global balance of power, creating the multipolar world that most people actually want.

History will judge leaders harshly if they choose political compliance over stopping a man-made famine when they have the power to act. Nations like Bangladesh have the right and the immediate duty to speak up. They must take back control of their own seeds, soil, water, and harvests. By acting now, they protect their people today. They also secure a decent future free from the destructive power struggles of a dying global order.