Why Are We Worried About Food Security, And Not About Food Purity?

What’s worrying French supermarket bosses should be prompting British ministers to action. On Sunday, hackers forced up the temperatures of refrigerators in hundreds of food stores across France to as high as 50C, resulting in waste and fires. Beyond the immediate destruction and inconvenience, it raised the prospect of other malicious actors finding new ways to play havoc with the food chain.

 Well, how stupid is it to sync all your fridges together and not password protect them?

Only weeks before, 150 experts together warned the British government that it does not have a plan to feed people in a crisis ­– and that the west is entering an era in which not only disruption but the weaponisation of food is a real possibility.

If so, the government has opened the door when they sanctioned actions like these.

The Covid pandemic was a salutary reminder of how vulnerable modern systems are – a shock for consumers used to strawberries in October.

i remember no lack of strawberries in the first lockdown, or the second. In fact, no shortages of anything, even the infamous toilet rolls. 

One issue is overall supply in the UK, which imports about 40% of its food. But affordability, logistics, distribution and nutrition are also essential components of food security.

But not knowledge of whether your meat is religiously slaughtered, of course. Or whether it contains an additive you don’t need and would rather not consume. 

The government has encouraged households to stockpile several days’ worth of tinned goods and bottled water in case of an emergency.

As long as you have the room to store it all in, of course.  

Real improvement requires a structural shift away from the “leave it to Tesco” approach decried by Prof Tim Lang, a leading food-policy expert.

Why wouldn't we want to leave it to them? They know what they are doing, after all -who else should we leave it to?

Geographical distribution – including relocalisation of food production – is also central. Almost 95% of retail food comes via 131 food-distribution centres. Disruption to just one supermarket chain’s infrastructure could have a mammoth impact.

Experts have rightly called for food supply shortages and disruption to be included as risks in their own right in the national security risk assessment. There is also a strong case for a dedicated national food council to focus on food security.

Oh, the State? Well, I think you can imagine how much I think of that idea!