Free Trade and Free Economic War

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Posted: Sep 05, 2022 12:04 AM

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When the military action between Ukraine and Russia kicked off in February, experts began warning of food shortages.  Sanctions and counter sanctions have wreaked havoc on global trade, particularly in grain.  In the Middle East, there are food shortages because of this.Fortunately, Americans are not seeing any food shortages yet.The most important word is yet.The last two years, even before Ukraine, have shown the fragility of the international supply chain.  For Americans, we don’t have to worry about food shortages yet.  But depending on what Congress does next year, that could change. America depends on sugar as an essential part of foods from sweets to breads to sauces and sugar farmers support over 151,000 jobs in the United States.  Sugar is one of the leading crops in the United States. Sugar farmers employ over one hundred and fifty thousand people. That’s just the direct employees. That does not count the number of people employed in companies that support the sugar farming industry.Sugar is one of the most important components in America’s food.  The problem is other sugar producers around the world use “free trade” as an excuse to dump sugar and if they had their way, they would do it in the United States. Unfortunately, ther …