Food, Glorious Food!

The 'cost of living crisis' has elevated food into becoming today's hot topic! The UN claim the Ukraine war has, by producing shortages of grain and fertiliser, 'stoked a global food crisis'. The UN maintain that this food crisis could last for a very long time (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/19/ukraine-war-has-stoked-global-food-crisis-that-could-last-years-says-un). George Monbiot is not convinced the 'food problem' is quite so simple. He thinks the food supply chains have systemic problems, reminiscent of those that caused the banking collapse. Monbiot clearly feels that, having food production and supply concentrated into the hands of a few mega companies, is a weakness. The decisions (e.g. 'just in time' provision) of these 'big food' conglomerates could, Monbiot feels, lead to a collapse of the whole, interrelated system. He makes an analogy with the impact of the collapse of Lehrman Brothers on the financial crisis (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/19/banks-collapsed-in-2008-food-system-same-producers-regulators). Everyone is aware of rocketing food prices. It's not, of course, just down to the availablity of fertiliser and grain. Transport and storage costs are climbing, because energy provision costs more. Extreme weather events (such as the impact of the recent Indian heatwave on wheat production) are making food production less reliable. As poor people pay a higher proportion of their income on food, a cost of living crisis hits them particularly badly. We now seeing a bizzare situation where some Welsh supermarkets reportedly security tag baby milk, to prevent its theft (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/18/a-view-from-the-checkout-now-its-people-stealing-everyday-things ).