Time to stockpile the tins of spam

It would be fair to say that I have been very critical of the present and past few governments for their inept policies (or complete lack of policies) around national food security.

I have also been unequivocal in my views on DEFRA, a department that has striven to make the D stand for Dysfunctional. I have written about the potential future shortages of food driven by the madness that is Brexit, by our ever-worsening climate crisis and by the rapidly changing geopolitics of the world.

Now I must add another causal factor and that is war…..

Europe and NATO are coming to the conclusion that the world order is reaching its most dangerous state since World War II. The US can no longer be viewed as a trusted ally and it is likely that Vladimir Putin has his sights set on invading other countries after Ukraine. Large-scale conflict in Europe and beyond is more likely than not; a sobering thought based on recent history and current world events, and on a worrying article that quotes the NATO chief as seeing a ‘real risk’ that Putin will attack other countries after Ukraine. In another article closer to home, the former chair of the House of Commons defence select committee, Tobias Ellwood – a politician who I have a lot of respect for – warned we must be more prepared for ‘grey-zone’ warfare, which includes cyber warfare and disruption to critical infrastructure. He went on to say, “the era of complacency is over,” claiming that Britain must wake up and start preparing now by stockpiling emergency items. To my mind this must include food.

This brought to my mind spam of all things. Not the junk email variety but the food – a mixture of salted pork and sugar laced with sodium nitrate. This had been described as one of the ‘heroes of World War II’. In the absence of fresh meat, many relied on this canned product with a very long shelf life as an important source of nutrition. So should we all be stockpiling spam now? It seems quite apt to quote our wartime leader Winston Churchill who wisely said, ‘Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’

When history is examined, Britain was not prepared, in many ways, for either of the world wars and our national food supply was no exception. Leading up to World War I Britain imported around 60 percent of its food. Due to the large empire at the time, the attitude was “We can always bring in what we need.” U-boat warfare certainly showed this to be false and shortages and price hikes were a real issue as the war progressed. As World War II commenced things were equally bad, with over 50 percent of all food consumed being imported, necessitating the implementation of rationing early in the conflict. This prompted the famous ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign, which encouraged people to grow their own food.

So where are we now? Based on DEFRA statistics we now import over 40 percent of all we eat and due to extreme weather events and major crop failures, this is likely to increase.

Our national food security is currently in a very precarious state and all the warning signs are clear. Why is our government actively decimating our food and farming systems rather than supporting their resilience to the major shocks that lie ahead?

We are in a situation where farmers must take to the streets to protest about the insanity of government policy. Important voices of the food industry such as Dr Clive Black call for the appointment a Minister of the Food System. However, it seems that our Prime Minister is more minded to follow the thoughts of Marie Antoinette, who stated ‘let them eat cake’ during food shortages before the French Revolution. He may think that in our case it should be spam….