Why now is the time to start growing your own fruit and vegetables
When the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March 2020, governments across the globe ordered businesses to shut.
This has resulted in disruption to our supply chains made worse by the container ship being stuck in the Suez Canal in March 2021.
HSBC has written a piece in May titled:
Shipping trade disruption container freight rates soar, pushing up business costs
You can read the article here.
https://www.gbm.hsbc.com/insights/global-research/shipping-trade-disruption
Additionally food production was disrupted due to Covid-19 outbreaks in food processing plants with reports of hundreds of thousands of chickens being culled along with other "food crises" stories such as reported in the Daily Mail (among other outlets) in August 2020.
And if that wasn't enough we are now seeing a shortage of HGV drivers which is starting to effect supermarkets across the UK as reported in the Independent in June 2021.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/uk-food-shortages-brexit-lorry-drivers-b1873046.html
It doesn't seem we're out of the woods yet either.
The World Bank has just published an article titled
Food Security and Covid-19
here they open the article by saying:
July 2, 2021 -- An increasing number of countries are facing growing levels of acute food insecurity, reversing years of development gains. Even before COVID-19 reduced incomes and disrupted supply chains, chronic and acute hunger were on the rise due to various factors including conflict, socio-economic conditions, natural hazards, climate change and pests. COVID-19 impacts have led to severe and widespread increases in global food insecurity, affecting vulnerable households in almost every country, with impacts expected to continue through 2021 and into 2022.
Read their full article here
https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture/brief/food-security-and-covid-19
This is just a selection of articles to give you an idea of where we might be heading
into the foreseeable future.
If this has inspired you to start growing your own fruit and vegetables be sure to read more of our posts on this topic.