Saturday, 7 June 2008

Nine meals from Anarchy

Apparently this is the phrase used by the head of the Countryside Agency, a quango set up by Tony Blair, to describe the true state of the food supply in the UK.

The claim was dismissed by most people when he first made it but it is now reportedly being taken more and more seriously. As oil prices reach another record high, and show every sign of going even higher, the reliance this country has on road transport is becoming glaringly obvious. Everything moves by road! Imagine if the oil supply was badly disrupted and the petrol stopped flowing even for a few days. The shopping trips to the out of town supermarkets would become impossible, perishable foods would spoil in the lorries when their refrigeration plants stopped working and in these days of “just in time” deliveries it wouldn’t be long before the supermarket shelves were empty. It is estimated that most homes would run out of food after just three days or nine meals. Bread and Milk would be gone even sooner than that!

If your children are crying they are hungry and your next door neighbour has a vegetable plot in his back garden then surely he can’t begrudge you a few potatoes or a turnip or two to keep you going can he? Unfortunately of course it is a small minority that now grow their own food so it’s not just you looking with covetous eyes at your neighbour’s veggies. Once people start to get hungry than law and order would be the next to go. This was exactly what happened in New Orleans in the USA after the hurricane. When aid was slow in reaching people and they got hungry then looting started and fights broke out over scraps of food!

Never happen here of course. Not in a civilised country like ours!

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