Who knew flour could be such a valuable commodity? This lockdown has brought into sharp focus how much I (for one), have previously taken our plentiful food supply system for granted.
These last few weeks have seen a major shift in food shopping habits that many suppliers have (understandably) struggled to adapt to quickly enough. I am ever so grateful to all of those people that are working tirelessly in these challenging times to ensure that our communities can still access the food that they need. I bet they never previously considered their jobs as a frontline service.
Unfortunately, if we look at our current virus crisis it gives us just a small glimpse as to what climate change will do to our food supply systems. At the moment, we are very lucky that the empty shelves are due to not being able to get the food onto the shelves fast enough rather than there not actually being enough food. However, if the climate change science is right, it is worryingly going to be the latter that will be the problem in the future. My hope is therefore that this period of time teaches our communities, providers and government some valuable lessons so that we can become more resilient for the future.
Local suppliers have played a very important role in keeping my local community fed during this time and this will definitely be something that we will need to do more of in the future. I am also especially grateful to the refill and zero waste shops in my area that have quickly adapted their businesses so that they can continue to provide their essential service to the community. Just because we are in the middle of this virus crisis doesn’t mean that the climate crisis is on hold. Not only have I still been able to get all of my refills but I can even get the most in demand items like flour and hand wash! So thank you Bare & Fair, Kate’s Eco Shop and Noel’s Farm Shop for your dedication.
Only 4 weeks ago I didn’t fully appreciate how lucky we are as a society to have a seemingly endless supply of food available to us on the shop shelves. Let’s hope that some good can come out of this and it can be a catalyst to develop a more robust and less wasteful food system, as well as a more considerate mindset for the future. Judging by the empty flour shelves in all of the shops, there will at least be a lot of people that will be more self-sufficient at baking by the end of this!
I (for one) have even expanded my bread making efforts to rolls, as nearly all of the supermarket rolls come in unrecyclable plastic! (Takes time, but very easy.)