>> host: focus on food shortages and their guests meredith lee from agriculture reporter and meredith lee i want to write to your latest story in politico urging the u.s. answer to russian blockade and ukraine could explain what's happening there and why that's impacting food and food prices around the world.

>> guest:d the war in ukraine russia's foreign ukraine has hampered the ability for ukraine to get any kindd of food out of the country. some major grain asof is russia and its destructive disrupted global supplies of food and the russiann military blockade in te black sea is hampering the ability for millions of pounds of grain to leave ukraine make to go to countries across north africa and the middle east that rely on those for food supplies. >> host: what can the u.s. do in howdy get this food out? >> guest: some lawmakers that i have talkedd to recently chris coons jason crowe from colorado have been talking with administration officials and others trying to push for humanitarian corridor the u.n. corridor from the port of odessa

and ukraine in travel out of the black sea and basically about those grain supplies to get to north africa and the middle east. that is a huge undertaking so they are trying to work through with the united nations and the biden administration to work through issues now hoping to establish that quarter. >> host: president biden it is true jalen i talked about this issue and i want toay show views a little of what he said today. >> ukraine is the world's largest of wheat and corn and cooking oil. ukraine said they have 20 million tons of grain in their silos right now, 20 million tons and guess what, those tons don't get to market an lot of people in africa are going to starve to death because they are the soleta supplier of the number of african countries. the point is this because of

what the russians are doing in the black sea putin has warships preventing accidents of the ukrainian ports to get this grain out, to get this weed out. a brutal war launched a new training site has prevented ukrainian farmers from planting next year's crop and next year's harvest and they are and not doing well in russia either. rush is the second-largest. we are doing something about it in their farmers to help ring on bothot fronts reduce the cost of the price of it at home in expanding production of a world in need. >> host: president biden yesterday in illinois could explain what the president was doing on that trip. >> guest: part of the administration's approach right now they don't have a ton of tools at their disposal but the one thingdo the president talked about this week is the high costs for farmers to produce

food and those high costs get transferred to the bills that americans see every day. in illinois he talked about providing funding for things like fertilizer which is a huge strain on farmers. they are expensive and we import a lot of fertilizer and there are supply crunches. that's's our main concern right now and the administration is hoping lifting the pressure from the high cost for farmers will help drive down high food prices. >> host: food prices in food shortages the house comes in at 10:00 a.m. eastern. if you want to chat about it food and agriculture reporter you can get that phone line democrats (202)748-8000. independents (202)748-8002. we found out yesterday inflation was .3% in april compared to the

year before. break that down and what those numbers mean when it comes to key u.s. food commodities. >> a lot of those prices are driven by at home grocery prices of things like meat, eggs are exponentially higher than we have seen in recent years and that kind of strain is hitting americans grocery bills. the administration on issues like meat they try to tackle consolidation in the market and also they are still trying to find their footing. >> host: we are hearing a lot about the infant food formulat shortage. explain why that happened and has a stake in the country buys the price and doe we know this s coming >> guest: we did know a littlet bit about this.

these specialty formulas the market is so consolidated that there is one brand or one company question he gets taken off the market and that's a huge to supply in general. the fda was slow to respond that they've been criticized for that but they were deciding if it was worth recalling these specialty formulas over this outbreak. two babies died and the fda issued a recall pulling the supply of the show. now we see parents grambling for these specialty formulas and it's hurting families right now. >> host: why is the production so concentrated and wide as one facility going off-line have such an impact? people that hardly seemed the infant formula or the shelves that are supposed to hold the event formula, empty. just go in and stays there only a few companiess that control te

production especially for specialty formulas and in recent years they have -- they are to come fewer and fewer those companies that hurts competition in the market and allows the few companies that control the market. one of the criticism in one of the thingss they have das trying to do now is they are trying to get more supply from other countries which is something that people have raised which is what we should have beene doing for the past o years. >> host: meredith lee covering food and the proof quotes are for politico. wee have 2020 minutes over the house comes in kim in toledo ohio democrat you are up first. >> caller: good morning. how are you doing this morning? >> host: very good. you are on.

>> caller: i'm tired of the democrats and republicans arguing back and forth. if you don't have a solution keep your shut. i look at it as we have the food shortage in this country and they think fdr came without the idea of a victory garden. i broke my neck in 2012 and i used to always have one. my daughter moved in with me tonight told her i cannot walk or anything. we grew tomatoes cucumbers green beans. i turn my backyard into garden. i'm trying to plant a seed to partner with you and maybe that would be a good thing. it's time for people to start planting victory gardens. grow your own food where you

came and lead to the supply chain by growing your own. >> guest: one thing the administration is done in general is provide farmers markets. here in d.c. they opened the usda supporting local on that local level. >> host: this is the market at fda headquarters right on the national mall. >> guest: right. they are trying to support local and i think that's a good thing especially when our food systems are local food. it's becoming more of a necessity and i think we will probably hopefully see some of more people growing their own food in the future. >> host: some of the shortages and attempts to address somehow much concern is there starting a food panic especially in the

last couple of days seeing so many stories about anthem formula and trying not to create runs onul things. >> guest: part of the administration's response the war in ukraine in the beginning they were careful because they didn't want to panic americans who are experiencing high grocery bills and supply-chain crunches over things like meat and other things over the past few weeks than few months. that is something they were cognizant of that they didn't want to create a big panic. i think they are leaning into they are isnow that not widespread produce or groceries items runs right now but it's important that they are leaning in to the fact that food systems are strained right now. post goes in nebraska jeff

republican, good morning. >> caller: this administration is a day late and a dollar short on every single food. they knew seven months ago that putin was going to pull this and what did they do? they should have started planning a long time s ago. there are 107,000 people dead from fentanyl and they have done nothing at the border. all this stuff keeps piling up and they have got no answers. this is absolutely the saddest thing that i've ever seen. our government is in so much trouble it's unbelievable. >> host: that's just than the cornhuskers did on the history of this and how the biden administration is tried to address this issue is the war in ukraine is unfolding in taking viewers back to march story of yours toos big to fail by those

careful not to target food companies is a precious putin. explain what they were trying to do.n >> guest: essentially there has been a call for the united states and other companies to pull out of the russian market and ukrainian president zelensky has called for u.s. and international companies to pull out of russia and try to choke off putin's war chest that way. there are a number of large food companies large green trading still a rating in russia and the administration has been careful to pressure those companies essentially arguing they are operating on humanitarian terms that providing food to the russian people in thea administration says the united states were with putin they don't want to pressure is the russian people that way and

putin and t russian officials in general have tried to use that war and food shortages scares about price spikes and things like that against united states and developing countries and other places the world telling them this is the united states fault and food price inflation and that the shortages. that's something they are trying to push back on. >> host: in south carolina this is linda on the line for democrats, good morning. >> caller: i am not democrat and republican and this the only number i had. wise and she mentioning the cost of diesel? i talk to you before about the high gas prices and you told me you pull that your big chart showing how biden would lower the price and that hasn't happened. a lot of it is the cost of diesel and that includes our

fishermen the food industry the truckers. why don't we say what's really going on here. >> host: let's talk about it. >> guest: that is an excellent point you food prices are part of the input that farmers have spend money on and consider in their budgets and if fuel prices are high the ability for them to harvest and plant the crops is strained and those costs are passed on to consumers so that is definitely an issue right now on farmers might. >> host: the price of gas hitting historic highs this week. this is one of those charts gasbuddy.com. this is the average price of a gallon of gas the united states and to seek and see it rises

from 2020 to where it is today in 2022. this has been crystal river florida, good morning you are next. >> caller: good morning. i hope you guys can hear me. before it began just for us uneducated people who is politico that you work for? >> guest: it's a media company a digital media company based here in d.c.. we are an international news organization. a study about question about foodes prices and shortages the? >> caller: yes i did it again i'd like to get a level playing field and find out who i'm talking about as far as that's concerned to my question is looking at these as a multitude of dominos. covid was one, stopping of the oil drilling was another in go

on and on with this. what do you see as the outcome from today to the near future for us? shells being restocked and companies being able to produce food. we have seen the of the food shortage yet. both russia and ukraine are the food producing business where do we go from here? we have universalized our old countries production to the extent that we can't even feed their ownol people. this is a scary situation. >> host: are things going to get before they get better? >> guest: i will say in united

states we are an agricultural agricultural giant and are in price so we produce for major grain and food and other farmers in the state even export our commodities that we have enough wheat, corn and things like that to keep people. there are supplies chain crunches on fresh food that are working over the past few months that in general we do have enough food in the united states defeat people. we are very lucky in that regard and that the united states americans aren't going to be as impacted as other vulnerable countries in the warn you claim that you are right. crunches are lingering. >> host: going back to the infant formula issue saying that issue sounds more like it may

need safety and health regulations on manufactures. >> guest: my colleague is written about this. basically there has been criticism of the fda in democratic and republican frustrations that have been slow in less than satisfactory on regulating food in particular. the >> to real outbreak at a michigan plant is one of those things that people are looking out and taking potentially the fda could have, there could have been better oversight and the response could have been better there.be .. are overcharging consumers. guest: the president spoke about this in his state of the union address.

the big four meat processing companies, those conglomerates are really controlling a lot of the market. >> . >> in the administration has been trying to work on pockets of funding for local producers on the local level to help spur competition in the market. >> and the national be on —- beef packing and cargo? >> . >> you seem very knowledgeable so what is worse starvation

for the world and those going down with nuclear weapons? with people having shortages of food? >> touching on nuclear weapons and concern of what that might do to food supply in the world. >> saber rattling over using nuclear weapons? >> . >> have not dug into that very much. and in general things like the war of other kinds of markets and that will have an impact on food prices.

>> they can put chavez in jail that have any of the pharmaceutical people then put in jail? second, what about if you thank you by 5 pounds of sugar and you are only buying for but the pricefi goes up if you thank you have a 16-ounce can of tomatoes it is only 14 ounces but you need 16 ounces for the recipe so they have to buy two cans. why does the price go up and we getst less? >> if you are talking about shrink inflation where companies when costs are raising they make their

packaging smaller and charge the same or more. we see companies doing that with rising cost for sure. spec the houses getting ready to come in for one or two more questions. >> specifically to say there is no proof. none. and then we import a lot of formula from china.

>> now one infant formula again. >> there was an outbreak at the plant in the united states and that is what the ripple effects are. >> what about the chinese manufacturers quick. >> i don't know. that's a goodd question. so who is held at the border? like the governor in texas they don't help the food chain

spent the texas governor had a policy for all intents and purposes. and then to get into the united states a lot of food spoiled that was a self-inflicted supply chain. with the work on ukraine. understand about the green new deal for years and years but for the time being america is

suffering because we want to go down the pipeline so i don't understand why at least to open temporarily so to take care of america first. >> bringing up the green new deal with your coverage impacts on the agriculture industry in this country. >> obviously republicans have been quick to criticize about plans. the plans now what congress is looking at they think that's in the package is currently stalled but that wasn't propose before but things like billions of dollars for conservation program and

agriculture. >> a topic we can discuss further another time but from the food and agriculture reporter from politico. thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you.