There is a strong argument to be made that the call today for households to stockpile essentials in case of emergency represents the final failure of our society, of our economic model and of our place in the world.
Government is calling for all citizens to take the task of national security into their own hands. Rather than seeing it as a purpose of government to ensure food security, it is to be left to us. This is no different than if the defence review (there is always a defence review) were to recommend that we stockpile weapons and form our own militias rather than fund an army.
By comparison, while China keeps its strategic food reserves secretive, they are massive. We don't know exactly bow big they are but we know that its rice reserves constitute more than half of the total global reserves. It has massive frozen pork reserves as well.
China uses these reserves for three purposes; to ensure food security, to manage the food production economy and to manage prices. When demand is low and pressure on producers rises, Beijing steps in and buys produce and keeps it in reserve. When demand is high and consumer prices rise, Beijing releases food from the reserves to stabilise prices.
And any short term interruption of supply is easily manageable. Which is worth putting in context; China is not only food self-sufficient, it is self-sufficient in its two primary products (pork and rice). China has double food security because it has managed domestic production to ensure it can meet its own needs and it has reserves in case of interruption in supply.
In Britain we're being asked to clear out some space at the back of the cupboard to keeps some tins of beans. The flaws in this plan are immense. For a start, many people do not have adequate storage space to make themselves food secure in the event of an emergency. And then of course a lot of people are struggling to feed themselves today never mind also store for the future.
Lots of people simply won't stock food and many who do may not plan it well (if all your supplies are pasta and there is a loss of power, you may find you have no meaningful reserves). If there really is a major interruption in food, it may not be for just a few days or a week. Is 'what you can store at the back of the cupboard' a meaningful response to that?
There is so much this tells us about the state of our society. First and foremost, Thatcher just keeps winning. There is no such thing as society – buy your own beans and good luck. Second, our economic model is now so broken and the theories of free market economics so destructive to us individually that there is a genuine risk that outcome of 'never interfere in the market' is widespread death.
Third, there is something deeply wrong when your ideology says that the right of Nestlé's shareholders are more important than Britain's citizens (who you are supposed to represent). Fourth, there is a big question about how we became so food insecure in the first place – which is down to the dominant power of the Ultra Processed Food industry and Blair and Clinton's drive to offshore production in a globalised world.
Fifth, it also says a lot that there is now a clear, concerted campaign to create a climate of fear and doom – not to drive us to tackle it's causes (climate change, geopolitical gamesmanship by all sides, failing economic models, poor national planning, inequality and political corruption) but to give more money to arms manufacturers. It is the Defence Secretary making this announcement, standing next to a soldier.
Yet we at much, much more risk of being affected by food shortages than by an invasion. They're buying expensive jet planes so they can bomb the Houthis on behalf of Saudi Arabia, you're buying tuna so you can survive a week if next summer's weather is another disaster. And the public has been scared to death of a Russian invasion but not the calamitous risks of corporate greed and political weakness.
Yes, we need strategic reserves to protect us from our own stupid decision to off-shore our food production so corporations could make higher profits. But this silly, poorly-conceived and frankly pitiful Dad's Army-style response is not the way to do it. It is a national embarrassment.