All Economic Activity is Dependent on Grain Production

Lately I have been in a few discussions — about the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, the economic crisis in Pakistan, and about the general ongoing economic stagnation of the African continent.

All the different factors and complex reasons are brought up in the discussions, but for me, after all the pondering of the various factors subsides, this one understanding keeps coming up again and again: "All Economic Activity is dependent on grain production."

I go back to the theme from my previous article — the things that stay with you. This understanding was given to me by Srila Prabhupada in his book The Laws of Nature. He hammers home the fact — and makes someone like me really think on it — that even your office job in the big city, sitting in front of the computer, like me, in the factories, everywhere — all of it is dependent on grain production.

It is indeed a great organizing perspective to have.

Whilst I can't recall exactly when I read it, it has always stayed with me ever since and comes to the fore whenever I hear about financial meltdowns, fears of recession, depression, and what not.

One of the interesting facts that became known to me with the Russia-Ukraine conflict is that between them, Russia and Ukraine are significant producers of wheat — and not just significant producers, but significant exporters of wheat. Putting two and two together.

When discussing the situation in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the argument comes up that the west is trying to effect changes in government in these two countries by causing these crises. In Africa, the same argument — that the west has always been sabotaging economic development there, the latest example being threats to sabotage the Grand Renaissance Hydroelectric Dam project in Ethiopia, which has the potential to electrify the African continent.

Again I come back to this understanding: the foundation goal of any economic development activity is to achieve self-sufficiency in grain production. Everything else will flow from that. When you stop and think about it, the real nations — the strong nations — in the world are those that are self-sufficient in grain production. If you are not, you need to ally yourself to it.