Welcome to the President's Inbox, a CFR podcast about the foreign policy challenges facing the United States.

I'm Jim Lindsay, Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

This week's topic is Global Food Insecurity.

With me to discuss the issue of food insecurity. With me to discuss the issue of food insecurity in light of Russia's decision last month to withdraw from the agreement that allowed Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea is

Caitlin Welsh.

Caitlin is the director of the Global Food and Water Security Program at the Center for

Strategic and International Studies. Before joining CSIS, she served as a director for global economic

engagement on the staff of the National Security Council. Her research examines the impact of

Russia's war in Ukraine on global food security nutrition,

food insecurity in the U.S. security in the coherence of U.S. global water security policy

and U.S. global food security policy. Caitlin, thanks for joining me. Jim, thanks for having me.

Caitlin, concerns about global food insecurity spiked in the wake

of Russia's February 22 invasion of Ukraine. Can you explain the link between the war in Ukraine

and concerns about global food insecurity? Absolutely. Russia's invasion of Ukraine could not have

come at a worst time in the context of global

food insecurity.

What we had seen leading into 2022 was that food insecurity had been rising for at least five

years or so globally, but had spiked upon the onset of the COVID pandemic

and remain elevated at the beginning of 2022. The framing that UN agencies were doing to describe

the causes for rising food insecurity was the three Cs. It was COVID and the supply chain

and economic disruptions due to the COVID pandemic. It was climate change

due to the impacts of climate change on all aspects of food systems and also conflict. And in that

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