File:Prosperity for Ukraine - Flickr - Don Komarechka.jpg

In most regions of Ukraine, the crops have been sown for the growing season ahead. I thought this image of a tomato seedling would be a way to commemorate those efforts. In the face of an invading force with zero respect for human life, Ukrainian farmers bravely set the stage to feed large parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

With many farmers fighting in the war, the crop yields are expected to be lower this year. There’s no way to know how much lower, but it’s important to try to visualize this impact. Here’s a great resource that illustrates where Ukrainian crops get distributed across the world: ourworldindata.org/ukraine-russia-food . Match that data with global GDP per capital values ( www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-per-capita/ ) and you start to see some worrying trends.

Smaller countries with lower GDPs – such as Yemen, ranking 160th in the world for GDP per capita – will not have the ability to pay higher prices when food supplies are less available. Larger countries that are highly dependent on Ukrainian agriculture with higher GDPs such as Turkey would be able to pay higher prices, leaving other nations without sufficient purchasing power. When there isn’t enough to go around, some go without. It is critically important that Ukrainian farmers can do their good work for the benefit of many other nations. All countries should be prepared to grow more food locally this year as well.

The world has come to rely on peaceful globalization, where one country can provide an incredibly abundant resource to another. The problems begin when this resource cannot be replaced with anything produced domestically, and the transitionary period to find alternatives takes longer than your commodity reserves will last. This is true of food, but also oil and gas – where many countries are still heavily dependent on Russian oil.

Turning off the taps could mean societal collapse. Here in Bulgaria we are a net exporter of agriculture, but 95% of oil and gas comes from Russia. I feel guilty when I fill up my tank of diesel to complete more refugee aid runs; I’m paying Russia for the privilege. Thankfully immediate actions are underway to expedite the completion of a gas pipeline connecting to Greece, which is expected to be completed by the end of June. I feel like the world is moving quickly to compensate for everything, but it’s never quick enough.

I’d like to echo a further reminder that we can all help in various ways. You can create artwork supporting Ukraine – if you want to see a photo of the setup that created this image, it’s incredibly simple: donkom.ca/bts/IMG_1573.JPEG . The water droplet was placed with a hypodermic needle, and it was lit with a flashlight off to the side. But there’s more you can do: write to your politicians. Participate in rallies. Donate to charities capable of offering humanitarian aid; we have enough funds donated to us to continue doing supply runs for roughly another three weeks. We’ll keep doing it as long as we are able.

And to further amplify the signal, this image is also being dedicated to the Public Domain. Do with it what you want, no permission / license / credit / etc. required.