Europe’s Brazil? How Ukraine could transform Europe’s role in global food supply

Ukraine is an untapped asset. It presents opportunities both nationally and for Europe as an engine of foreign policy in a century troubled by climate change and resources scarcity. Its 32 million ha of arable could easily become 40 million ha which would add 25% of new cropland to the European Union–from 160 million to 200 million ha–making Europe the world’s largest agricultural producer. And 65% of Ukraine is Chernozem: the best soil in the world for the arable crops that are crucial to water-short economies in Africa, the Middle East and Asia and, moreover, mainstay of the global corporate food regime. ‘Wheat is the currency of currencies’. Although most global breadbaskets are closed or constrained by climate change, Ukraine is an empty country endowed with fertile soil. Clever investment in AI-driven, post-human farming could create a new future: in any case, the minefields and war damage offer no alternative. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.