Food in a time of crisis: what will we learn from this?

Medium

April 2, 2020

Farm employees on a Pacific Northwest farm planting berries. Now government officials are recognizing documented, undocumented and guest farm workers as “essential,” something farmers have known for a long time.

Someday soon, we all hope and pray, the pandemic will begin to ease and life will return to some form of normalcy. After a crisis, there are things that return to pre-crisis conditions but many things are changed. One of those may very well be how we all think about food and how it is produced, distributed and sold. It is almost certain that new concerns about food security, both on the local and national level, will arise and with it an improved policy climate for farmers.

When basic assumptions of everyday life begin to be challenged, such as whether we can leave our homes and under what conditions, we start thinking about what we have, what we need and what would happen if we couldn’t get what we need. Toilet paper seems to have become the icon for this evaluation of essentials. Why would so many rush to the stores to load up on what surely must be a year’s supply or more of tp? Mob mentality is definitely at work here with stories of empty shelves driving even those with more than adequate supplies to wait in early morning lines for a shot at the possibility of a few rolls re-stocked overnight.

Panic buying is affecting food as well, with many stores displaying eerily empty shelves and signs in nearly every aisle indicating which items were subject…