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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 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.

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.