Why the current food system is vulnerable

Supermarkets and big chain food stores hang by a thread. Yes, lots of people depend on them for food and even shop in them daily, but one hiccup in the supply chain and supermarket shelves go empty and "one item per person" stickers appear everywhere.

The average person depends on a supermarket more than they depend on their job, we need food to live, and yet people choose convenience over supporting a stable local supply chain of food.

So how can we decrease our dependency on supermarkets, and therefore the risk that we have to go without while the big companies sort things out? The answer is local. But how do we keep a local supply healthy and robust forever? That's what we're going to cover in this article.

Importing vs local

Politics, wars, and natural disasters all play a huge role in a supermarket's supply chain, often relying on the customer to pick up the added costs of import fees, delays, or other issues that cause food to cost more to get delivered to your local store.

Thankfully, your local farm shop isn't affected by a large broken supply chain, you can pick up meat, and farmers stay well stocked.

Of course there may be fewer options, but you aren't helping shareholders fill their pockets. Instead, you are supporting a local farm that can go on to buy new machinery, land, or cattle and keep on farming another year.

Food miles are of course an important topic, we should buy as close to home as possible, and that often means from your own country. It isn't just about creating a more stable food system, it's also about supporting the local economy.

Feeding the nation vs feeding the community

Supermarkets are concerned with making as much money as possible and getting everyone to shop at their store and their store only. Farmers, on the other hand, are often just trying to make ends meet, a large profit is rare for most farmers, and for many, even a profit after a year of farming is rare.

But the difference is that we have many farms that can supply to those in their local area, as things used to be. When we outsource our food and choose imported meat and produce, we undercut farmers, expecting them to do things cheaper to match those abroad.

Instead, we should prioritise putting our money into local farms. You may not get everything you need from your local farm shop, but all that you do get is a massive boost to farmers. You strengthen the future of that farm and cut out the middleman - supermarkets.

Endless variety vs "I'll have what you've got"

Supermarkets offer endless variety, we are spoilt for choice, but often that means we eat out of season and out of touch with nature. Eating seasonally is very important for our health, despite the fact it may not feel like much.

Farm shops do not stock strawberries and tomatoes year-round, so we are forced to change our diets accordingly. Eating ancestrally means eating seasonally too. Our bodies need this change and thank us for it, rather than eating the same thing year-round just because supermarkets allow us to.

Eating nose to tail also reduces waste, a farm shop won't stock just ribeyes, as that would be wasteful of all the other parts of the cow. Changing our diets throughout the year in touch with nature helps us heal in ways that modern medicine hasn't discovered yet. Eating seasonally was the default when many illnesses simply didn't exist.

Panic buying vs knowing

If you shop locally, you'll most likely hear from your farmer what's growing well, how stocked they are on meat, and whether the chickens are laying like crazy or not.

But letting the television and news tell you that shelves will be empty next week isn't always fact, and the panic buying this induces often causes more issues than what would actually have played out. So knowing your local farmer and how they are doing gives you the knowledge you need to decide whether to buy ahead or not. 

We've become so out of touch with our food supply that we now listen to the news to tell us how much we should stock up.

Prioritise a relationship with your farmer, or at least support a local independent farming operation, and you'll be far less stressed and better prepared for empty supermarket shelves.

Summary

As I've said many times, buying local isn't just about supporting farmers now, it's about supporting future local farming. When all your food comes from abroad, the supply chain is weak and food can cost double in an instant. But when food is grown on home soil, things are less likely to dramatically change and shift people into panic buying.