This morning Dr Sean Beer was much in demand on BBC radio discussing the impact of the snow and storm Emma on food supplies in supermarkets. Sean maintained that pictures from across the UK of empty supermarket shelves were just another example of the vulnerability of our food supply chains. This was hot on the heels of ‘nugget’ shortages and problems with meat supply to other high street eateries. Sean described a food supply chain that was long, complicated and therefore at risk of disruption, with half of a supermarkets food on the shelves and half in lorries on the way to the shops.
Having said this by the end of the week consumers will have forgotten the shortages, just as they have forgotten foot and mouth and the horsemeat scandal. What is needed is a wholesale review of the food systems that underpin our lives; from economic, social and environmental perspectives, but people have short memories and do they really care? After all, as Sean Says, if he came up to you and asked to put his fingers in your mouth you would call a policeman; yet every day we put food into our mouths without a second thought as to where it has come from!