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‘We are in serious trouble’: The other crisis – our food supply

9 points by Kaibeezy 7y ago

piker 7y ago
Seems opportunistic and unrelated to the current pandemic. The author is discussing things such as food being "the biggest driver of NHS spending as a result of obesity, diabetes and heart disease." And food's "unsustainable costs elsewhere". Title is borderline irresponsible at a time like this.
- Kaibeezy 7y ago
  Could just be timing. It's an interview tied to a book release. Presumably he's been writing it for a while, studying the issue long before that. He could have meant we were in "serious trouble" even without a pandemic. I had to talk my elderly dad down from attempting to mow the lawn for a while. A hospital overloaded with pulmonary distress that also has to deal with you cutting off a toe will put you and the virus patients at much higher risk than normal. I go multiple directions with your concern about the title. On one hand, as another comment pointed out, there's a troubling sense that it's using panic to sell clicks. On the other hand, if it's a real issue in-and-of-itself, then it's a real issue people should know about. On the gripping hand, if it helps join up two separate problems in our minds now rather than us only noticing once it is already well underway, that's got to be a plus. Climate is another one that has this quality in this moment, or at least pollution. I'm thinking about the nitrogen dioxide over China data visualizations https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22634955 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22634955
Kaibeezy 7y ago
the big food companies were briefing the government about just how fragile the food supply chain is Article is specifically about the UK situation. Anyone know the status elsewhere? I’d guess it generally varies from somewhat better in low density countries to a lot worse in highly urbanized countries, but with exceptions where the supply has been diversified.
- chris1993 7y ago
  The commonly reported figure in Australia is that we produce three times as much food as we consume [1], so the panic buying is completely unwarrented. [1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-19/coronavirus-distribution-problems-for-supermarket-suppliers/12066684 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-19/coronavirus-distribut...
- paganel 7y ago
  > Anyone know the status elsewhere? Don't have the exact link right now but I remember reading an Italian newspaper article a few days ago saying that Italian agriculture is going to be massively impacted by the fact that approximately 300,000 East-European workers had returned to their countries because of the virus. I actually found something similar, it's this article [1] (in Italian) which is in fact an interview with an Italian agricultural "imprenditore", where he says that there usually are 370,000 seasonal foreign workers working in Italian agriculture, that's 27%. One can imagine that many of them have by now returned to their countries of origin with no possibility of easy return. [1] https://it.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-lagricoltura-italiana-rischia-il-collasso-prandini-coldiretti-non-abbiamo-abbastanza-lavoratori-stagionali/ https://it.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-lagricoltura-ital...
- bryanrasmussen 7y ago
  I'm supposing the thing about fruits and vegetables is partially caused by climate conditions, some fruits and vegetables grow better in certain seasons in certain environments, in the North citrus fruits, bananas, etc. are obviously coming from elsewhere. Many things we want available year round and it isn't actually available year round without artificial growing conditions - for example tomatoes. I would suppose those could be grown anywhere but as a general rule I don't think they are.
AdrianB1 7y ago
The second propaganda article from The Guardian today; it makes an analysis on the food supply and it throws social inequality for a good measure - is social inequality driving food production? Really? What is next, Pravda articles? Russia Today?
- flr03 7y ago
  If people have less and less money in average to spend on food, it is obviously going to impact the production. All the production/delivery chain will try to pull down the costs and, as a consequence, the quality all together.
  - AdrianB1 7y ago
    No matter how much income inequality people have, the production is meeting an aggregate market need where the very few rich people have no significant impact. If all the rich people would disappear, the food market would not change a bit, so why throw inequality in the analysis? Yes, if everyone would be rich the situation would be different, but a world of all rich people is a matter of purchase power and inflation, it will never exist, the million dollar will be the new thousand dollar.
pjc50 7y ago
Yes, the UK isn't self-sufficient in food and cannot be. Much of the animal pasture land is unsuitable for arable farming (e.g. the few remaining sheep herds on the Yorkshire Dales). That isn't a problem if we remain open to the world economy..

9 points by Kaibeezy 7y ago

Seems opportunistic and unrelated to the current pandemic. The author is discussing things such as food being "the biggest driver of NHS spending as a result of obesity, diabetes and heart disease." And food's "unsustainable costs elsewhere". Title is borderline irresponsible at a time like this.

Kaibeezy 7y ago
Could just be timing. It's an interview tied to a book release. Presumably he's been writing it for a while, studying the issue long before that. He could have meant we were in "serious trouble" even without a pandemic. I had to talk my elderly dad down from attempting to mow the lawn for a while. A hospital overloaded with pulmonary distress that also has to deal with you cutting off a toe will put you and the virus patients at much higher risk than normal. I go multiple directions with your concern about the title. On one hand, as another comment pointed out, there's a troubling sense that it's using panic to sell clicks. On the other hand, if it's a real issue in-and-of-itself, then it's a real issue people should know about. On the gripping hand, if it helps join up two separate problems in our minds now rather than us only noticing once it is already well underway, that's got to be a plus. Climate is another one that has this quality in this moment, or at least pollution. I'm thinking about the nitrogen dioxide over China data visualizations https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22634955 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22634955

Kaibeezy 7y ago

the big food companies were briefing the government about just how fragile the food supply chain is Article is specifically about the UK situation. Anyone know the status elsewhere? I’d guess it generally varies from somewhat better in low density countries to a lot worse in highly urbanized countries, but with exceptions where the supply has been diversified.

chris1993 7y ago
The commonly reported figure in Australia is that we produce three times as much food as we consume [1], so the panic buying is completely unwarrented. [1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-19/coronavirus-distribution-problems-for-supermarket-suppliers/12066684 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-19/coronavirus-distribut...
paganel 7y ago
> Anyone know the status elsewhere? Don't have the exact link right now but I remember reading an Italian newspaper article a few days ago saying that Italian agriculture is going to be massively impacted by the fact that approximately 300,000 East-European workers had returned to their countries because of the virus. I actually found something similar, it's this article [1] (in Italian) which is in fact an interview with an Italian agricultural "imprenditore", where he says that there usually are 370,000 seasonal foreign workers working in Italian agriculture, that's 27%. One can imagine that many of them have by now returned to their countries of origin with no possibility of easy return. [1] https://it.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-lagricoltura-italiana-rischia-il-collasso-prandini-coldiretti-non-abbiamo-abbastanza-lavoratori-stagionali/ https://it.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-lagricoltura-ital...
bryanrasmussen 7y ago
I'm supposing the thing about fruits and vegetables is partially caused by climate conditions, some fruits and vegetables grow better in certain seasons in certain environments, in the North citrus fruits, bananas, etc. are obviously coming from elsewhere. Many things we want available year round and it isn't actually available year round without artificial growing conditions - for example tomatoes. I would suppose those could be grown anywhere but as a general rule I don't think they are.

AdrianB1 7y ago

The second propaganda article from The Guardian today; it makes an analysis on the food supply and it throws social inequality for a good measure - is social inequality driving food production? Really? What is next, Pravda articles? Russia Today?

flr03 7y ago
If people have less and less money in average to spend on food, it is obviously going to impact the production. All the production/delivery chain will try to pull down the costs and, as a consequence, the quality all together.
- AdrianB1 7y ago
  No matter how much income inequality people have, the production is meeting an aggregate market need where the very few rich people have no significant impact. If all the rich people would disappear, the food market would not change a bit, so why throw inequality in the analysis? Yes, if everyone would be rich the situation would be different, but a world of all rich people is a matter of purchase power and inflation, it will never exist, the million dollar will be the new thousand dollar.

pjc50 7y ago

Yes, the UK isn't self-sufficient in food and cannot be. Much of the animal pasture land is unsuitable for arable farming (e.g. the few remaining sheep herds on the Yorkshire Dales). That isn't a problem if we remain open to the world economy..