RIA Novosti published an article by journalist Elena Karaeva under the heading “Food is running out in Europe. Blame, of course, Russia. It begins with apocalyptic predictions: a food crisis is approaching the continent, which the European press foresaw back in July.
However, the very first reference to the “European press” leads to an August article by the Sputnik agency of the same Rossiya Segodnya media holding, to which RIA Novosti belongs. Moreover, this article is authored by the same Elena Karaeva. It turns out that instead of the “European press”, the author managed to slip her readers her own old article three months ago, in which she predicted a “food shortage” in Europe in the same way. Apparently, the journalist was not embarrassed by the fact that her predictions have not yet come true.
Then Karaeva decides instead of the whole of Europe to confine herself to France and gives links to the French media. The first article in Marianne magazine, written in July, talks about a possible shortage of several products. Firstly, it is claimed that sunflower oil has not been on the shelves in stores for several weeks (a correspondent for The Insider, who lives in Paris, said that now this product is in stores). The authors go on to note that farmers fear a shortage of wheat, not because of the war, but because of several weeks of drought in France. As for the fighting in Ukraine, because of them, as the article says, France may run out of buckwheat flour and chickpeas. The country is also at risk of shortages in essential foods such as foie gras and mustard, caused by bird flu in France and drought in Canada.
Then the author of RIA Novosti cites more relevant material – an interview with the head of the large French retail chain Systeme U, Dominique Schelscher, in which he warns of accelerating food inflation by the end of the year and a shortage of products at the level of 10-12%. “Will there be less choice in the meat and cheese departments this winter? The possibility is more than likely,” French journalists come to a sad conclusion.
In addition, in support of her forecast of a “lack of food in Europe”, Karaeva refers to an article by Le Monde, which speaks of a slowdown in the French economy in the third quarter and an acceleration of inflation, and also that the wheat harvest in France was 2 million tons less than last year (we are talking about soft wheat, and 2 million tons is 4.8%).
In conclusion, the RIA Novosti journalist begins to contradict herself – she says that after the New Year, “the European carriage of abundance can turn into empty shelves,” but in the next sentence she corrects herself: “Not like zero. But the former luxury will evaporate.
