Dave Carr, Newham and East London Socialist Party
Restricted food supplies and ever-rising food prices in the UK have been blamed on adverse weather conditions due to climate change; war in Ukraine leading to price hikes; global supply chain disruption; labour shortages and disadvantageous Tory-negotiated trade deals.
Underpinning all of these factors is the anarchic capitalist system – which has wrecked the global environment and pitted nation against nation, creating a dog-eat-dog, profit-driven dystopia. Consequently, billions worldwide live in food insecurity and are experiencing a cost-of-living crisis not seen in a generation.
Turnips
But while UK shoppers search empty supermarket shelves, environment secretary Thérèse Coffey has come up with a simple solution – ‘eat turnips’ instead! This modern-day equivalent of the famous quote “Let them eat cake” is the kind of out-of-touch idiocy which will help hasten the end of the toxic Tory government.
At the recent National Farmers’ Union (NFU) conference – once a bedrock of Tory support – delegates booed Coffey after she airily dismissed the current fruit and vegetable shortages as ‘beyond the control’ of the Tory government.
One year ago, Minette Batters, NFU president, derided the government’s “total lack of understanding of how food production works”, its “completely contradictory policies” on farming, and the likelihood of “repeatedly running into crises”, due to the absence of a food production plan.
A food production plan – produced by non-exploited labour, that guarantees plentiful, wholesome, affordable food, while protecting the land against environmental degradation – cannot be provided under either ‘protectionist’ or ‘free trade’ models of the capitalist system.
Ending food insecurity and price volatility means fighting for workers’ governments here and internationally, and the implementation of a democratically agreed and organised socialist plan of production.
Read more:
‘Food and a capitalist Brexit: No trust in Tory deals!’
‘Capitalist profiteering and competition – why are shelves empty?’
