U.S. and Soviet Agriculture: The Shifting Balance of Power. Worldwatch Paper 51.

Analysts of U.S.-Soviet balance of power usually focus on relative military strength. But other factors determine a country's overall power and influence. Among the most basic is a country's capacity to feed its people. By this measure the Soviet Union appears to be in deep trouble. Massive spending has increased Soviet military strength in recent years, but the country has become weaker agriculturally. While the two superpowers now appear roughly equal in military strength, the advantage in agriculture has shifted dramatically toward the United States. The U.S. exportable food surplus is climbing, while Soviet dependence on food imports is growing. The dramatic shift in the agricultural balance of power between the two countries has been decades in the making, but contrasting food surpluses/deficits have been highly visible only in the last decade or so. As deterioration of Soviet agriculture continues, the need to import food will become even greater. The relationship between grain flow from the United States to the Soviet Union constitutes a new economic tie between the two countries, one that could eventually transform their political relations as well. (JN)