“We will create a movement inspired by you, Mr. Putin.”
Dear Mr. Putin,
I’m sitting here thinking of you, so I thought I would write. I wonder, what was your master plan? Was it to destroy a country so that every night, headlines would focus on the unprovoked, horrific destruction of Ukraine while you quietly set the stage to starve and destabilize the developing world while the rest of us weren’t looking?
Your evil war isn’t only taking place on the battlefields of Mariupol, but you have sent millions of people to the brink of famine. Your invasion has led to serious risks to global food security in Afghanistan, Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and beyond. Thousands are taking to the streets, protesting in Sudan and Tunisia and Sri Lanka, all because food has become unaffordable. Was this your dream, Mr. Putin? To spread unprecedented levels of hunger and malnutrition?
You now have a grip on the Russian and Ukrainian breadbasket, which the rest of the world depends on. And yes, you’ve succeeded in using food as a weapon of war, by holding those wheat silos hostage in Black Sea ports when the World Food Programme depends on them. This is the food that low and middle-income countries rely on for their next meal. You’re forcing farmers to become soldiers, thereby limiting the planting of next year’s crops and agricultural output for years. Your strategic planning is impressive: You saw the perfect storm of climate change and COVID-19 conspiring together, then added a war, triggering inflated prices of food, fertilizer and fuel that the world has never seen before. This, on top of supply-chain challenges created the fear that has led to export bans and hoarding, further limiting supplies.
But perhaps you miscalculated. There’s one thing most of us want more than anything.
Peace.
Mr. Putin, we see what you’re doing and we’re preparing for battle with you. Not the kind you were hoping for. No tanks or missiles. Instead, we will start feeding the world. The best weapon we have is food, and food brings peace.
As peacekeepers, we too can take decisive, bold action. As I have been face-to-face with a starving mother and her child, I know we don’t have time to spare. You see, I have a factory. One that makes a food that is the antidote to war and malnutrition — a fortified, ready-to-use food (RUTF) that not only saves lives, it delivers the micronutrients needed for young children’s brains to develop, allowing us to nurture and care for the next generation of leaders to grow up and become nothing like you, sir.
We are part of a community of factories around the world that produce enough RUTF to feed 25% of severely malnourished children. Imagine if we could increase global production so that we could reach all of them. We could grow the next generation of warriors — ones who’ll use their power to fight for peace.
We had made so much progress before the attack on Ukraine. But thanks to the supply-chain issues you created, Mr. Putin, you reversed these efforts in a matter of months. Still, in a way, I want to thank you for creating a crisis that we can all disagree with — a common enemy. May history remember you as the man who craved power so deeply that he let millions of young children slowly starve to death.
May history look at the rest of us as those who stood up in protest, who together, stood up for humanity and took action: for Ukraine, for Somalia and for all children suffering from the consequences of conflict. Now that we know this crisis sits upon our shoulders, we cannot turn the page, or look away. We cannot say it’s too hard. Instead, we will create a movement inspired by you, Mr. Putin. A movement to feed those who are suffering unimaginable pain, due to extreme hunger and malnutrition. Because without food, there will be no peace.
Navyn Salem is the Founder/CEO of Edesia, a non-profit with the mission to eradicate hunger and malnutrition on earth. Edesia is part of a worldwide network of RUTF producers and works with UNICEF, WFP and USAID.
