When I saw this headline yesterday, it included “in the next 50 years”.
Sure enough:
Just over 40% of the food experts surveyed believe that civil unrest in the UK in the next 10 years was either possible (38%) or more likely than not (3%). Over the next 50 years, this increased to nearly 80% of experts believing civil unrest was either possible (45%), more likely than not (24%), or very likely (10%).
The participants were then asked, if disruption to the food system was to cause the unrest, was it likely to be due to not enough food being available overall, or problems with food distribution, preventing it getting to the right places and creating isolated pockets of hunger. They were asked to consider both questions over the two time frames, 10 and 50 years.
The results show that 80% of experts believe logistical distribution issues leading to shortages are the most likely food-related cause of civil unrest in the next 10 years. But, considered over a 50-year horizon, they said catastrophic failure resulting in insufficient food to feed the UK population, rather than distribution problems, would be the most likely cause.
“Currently just under 50% of the UK’s food is imported including 80% of fruit, 50% of vegetables, and 20% of beef and poultry, while the UK is almost completely self-sufficient for wheat, barley, lamb, and potatoes.”
I did not want to imply that the UK doesn’t have or is in any way incapable of aquiring vegetables, but I still think vegetables are more of concern than fruits like mangoes to the UK and people in general, because vegetables are important ( My head: Eat your vegetables, child… ).
I mean... the title is pretty clear; it's a 'warning' of a 'risk', not an announcement of the current situation. A risk is a possibility, and a warning of a risk must come before it is unfolding.
I disagree, “Experts warn of oil shortage due to Hamas-Isreali conflict” seems like a perfectly reasonable headline to see today and would certainly imply a timely concern.
There’s not a shortage in stores, to my knowledge, but I directly know a large number of people struggling to make ends meet. Multiple people being made homeless due to gas and electric bills, or building their life schedules around opportunities to get a free or cheap meal because even people with jobs are feeling the pinch.
So mostly what many others elsewhere in the world are experiencing, it just feels extra grim because much of the problems can be directly attributed to the Tory government who are currently in power. They’re almost certainly going to be voted out next year, but I wonder whether it’ll be possible to repair the damage that’s been done since 2010.
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