let's say if the shortfall makes up 30% of supply..
surely those 70% other farmers would just need to raise by 140% or so to FULLY make up the difference? everyone pitch in a little, shouldn't be THAT big of a deal surely....
They rotate in other crops for soil balance but YMMV in terms of wheat profits.
https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/blog/2021/11/03/farm-subsidies-...
Here is the reality, not only the grains but the inputs like fertilizers etc are sky-rocketing. Every body wants to piss of Fossil Fuels with out even understanding how foundational they are to Modern Civilization (I welcome the downvotes but I will not stop advocating).
Say, with me, N P K - Nitrogen Phosphorous Pottasium. Belarus is a major Potash supplier, Natural gas is important for Fertilizer production etc. These inputs are now expensive.
But the policy genius, LOVE Price Controls, so what prices do these guys love controlling, they target staples .. grains, rice etc.
Now if you are farmer, who has to invest more money given the increased cost of fertilizers etc. and the government will come and take away the grain below market rate -- are you going to play the game? That is the game in much of the developing world.. and to some extend even developed world.
So your AWS style solution of spinning another EC2 instance for Food does not work in the real world.
Everyone shits on fossil fuels with no idea how crucial they are. No fossil fuels. No modern society. Turn it off and death will follow.
Biofuel production puts a spanner in things because previously we were swapping some form of consumable calories for another form of consumable calorie. But now you've got fuel production competing with food production, and their prices will begin to compete similarly. That inevitably leads to either cheaper fuel (spoiler: still not great for emissions) or significantly more expensive staple foods.
So any kind of squeeze on fossil fuel pricing leads to a down-stream increase on food pricing, one greater than just the energy use for production/transportation.
First, that rate is below what the market rate would without government farm supports. Second, the government doesn't confiscate grain. At least not in western countries.
It is quite a big deal.
This is not a "just spin up more AWS instances" kind of thing.