Patricio DellaGiovanna, affiliate fellow in the agrarian studies program at the Yale MacMillan Center and professor of international relations at the Argentine Catholic University in Buenos Aires: “The situation facing agricultural production in Argentina has been quite complex. To the macroeconomic problems–inflation above 100 percent, restrictions on imports, budget restrictions and a shortage of U.S. dollars—has been added a drought that is unprecedented in recent times. This drought has mainly affected the core area of cereal production in the Pampas region, known as the zona núcleo. This is equivalent to the Corn Belt in the United States. There are few places in the world that have large reserves of ‘black’ soil, that is, with a high humus content. We find the granary of the world in Ukraine, the Midwestern United States and the Pampas region of South America. The main supplier of dollars (genuine resources) of the Argentine economy is…”