Samantha Power says 'catastrophic' food shortages are an opportunity to implement left-wing policies

A Biden administration member said that "catastrophic" food and fertilizer shortages caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine are a great opportunity to implement left-wing policies.

Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, made the comments during an interview with "This Week" on Sunday.

"We're seeing global food shortages all around the world," said anchor George Stephanopoulos, "as the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, what more can be done to address those shortages?"

"Thank you for posing that question, it is just another catastrophic effect of Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, I mean as if the harms in Ukraine weren't enough, you have countries like in subsaharan Africa and the Middle East who get maybe eighty, ninety percent of their wheat or their grain, overall, from Russia and Ukraine, and you see massive spikes in food prices," said Power.

"Food prices, right now George, globally are up 34% from where they were a year ago, aided substantially, again, by this invasion," she added.

Power said they were working to increase food production from farmers, but also wanted to use the opportunity to make farmers choose green energy alternatives to fertilizer.

"Fertilizer shortages are real now because Russia is a big exporter of fertilizer. And even though fertilizer is not sanctioned, less fertilizer is coming out of Russia. As a result, we're working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure and compost. And this may hasten transitions that would have been in the interest of farmers to make eventually anyway," Power continued.

"So never let a crisis go to waste," she concluded.

She went on to defend the Biden administration against criticism that its policies led to high food prices.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is in its tenth week, with some estimates claiming civilian casualties as high as 2,685, and the U.S. State Dept. estimating that more than 10,000 Russian soldiers have perished in the brutal war.

Here's the video of the interview with Power: