© Centre for Systems SolutionsSlides of fictitious events from simulation videos shown to officials, food security experts and industry representatives at the 'Food Alert' event in Brussels on Feb. 1. A group of people came together last month to tackle the worst-case scenario for one of the best-fed regions in the world.
The year is 2024. "Food shortage in Europe? The only question is when, but they don't listen," says an unidentified voice in a video broadcast. The audience sits quietly — listening.
The dramatic collision of events, of course, hasn't yet come to pass. But over two days in central Brussels last month, some 60 European Union and government officials, food security experts, industry representatives and a few journalists gathered to confront the possibility of something barely on the radar a few years ago: a full-blown food crisis.
The plush co-working space was hardly a bunker or secure basement in a warzone. But the video images of drought, floods and civil unrest to the pounding beat of ominous music created a sense of urgency.
"Expect a level of chaos," warned Piotr Magnuszewski, a systems modeler and game designer who has worked with the United Nations. "You may be confused at times and not have enough information. There will be time travel."
To watch one of the best-fed regions in the world stress test its food system underscores a growing level of alarm among governments over securing supplies for their populations.
Comment: If that was so, why are European governments openly working to reduce the number of cattle farmers can keep? Bearing in mind that's just one of a litany of examples of how the food supply is quite literally being destroyed.
In the space of four years, multiple shocks have shaken up the way food is grown, distributed and consumed.
The coronavirus pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and disruptions on key shipping routes have disturbed supply chains and sent prices soaring.
Comment: The US forced Russia to begin its SMO; the US then forced the sanctions regime that accelerated the energy crisis; it, along with its allies, blew up Nord Stream II.
Erratic and extreme weather now regularly disturbs farming. Against that backdrop, officials are no longer asking when a food crisis may arrive, but rather how many crises they can deal with at once.
Asia's palm oil export limits are now reducing supplies of daily staples from margarine to bread. Allegations of corporate greed, disinformation and conspiracy theories are spreading.
Comment: Or, more likely, people begin to realise that the establishment has been hiding, and actively contributing to, the conditions that resulted in widespread hunger: 40% of Germans mistrust mainstream media, cite fake news as a concern - study
"The timeliness in terms of the topic was incredibly on point," said Katja Svensson, a senior food systems adviser to the Nordic Council of Ministers who participated in the simulation. She now wants her region to hold its own. "When it comes to movies, it's engrossing. You really become part of it, and it has a far greater impact," she said.
Stress testing has been a common feature in the banking industry since the financial crisis, while government officials and policymakers in the US have done so-called wargaming from time to time, even one involving a pandemic just months before coronavirus struck.
Comment: A rather ominous, if surprisingly honest, admission.
In Europe, government-led exercises are rare, let alone one focused on food, according to Magnuszewski, science director at the Centre for Systems Solutions in Wroclaw, Poland.
Seemingly, Europe is in an enviable position. It's one of the world's biggest suppliers of foodstuffs from grains and dairy to pork and olive oil, with some of the lowest levels of food insecurity.
On average, just 14% of household spending went toward food in 2021, compared with some 60% in Nigeria and 40% in Egypt. The Global Food Security Index regularly ranks European countries as the most secure in the world.
Comment: And yet Europeans are increasingly malnourished, greater numbers are going hungry, and because its people are unfamiliar with food crises, it's more likely that there will be societal unrest. Lest we forget the fighting over toilet paper during the lockdowns. This unrest poses a direct threat to the establishment which is already overstretched on multiple warfronts abroad: UK food shortages 'alarmingly likely' next year, University of Belfast warns - malnutrition cases tripled in 10 years
But there are vulnerabilities. Weather and climate events are hitting farmers regularly, costing Europe more than €50 billion ($54.3 billion) in economic losses in 2022. The cost of fertilizers and energy needed to grow crops and keep glasshouses running soared in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Things unravel further later in 2025. Thieves are looting supermarkets. Police struggle to contain riots spreading in cities. People in Germany can't find fish and meat at grocery stores. Livestock farmers are going bankrupt.
Meanwhile, the public's focus shifts to profiteering by commodity traders. Small farms fall like dominos, while attacks on immigrants begin to become more widespread. Is the EU a sinking ship, someone asks in the video? It's all the fault of "liberal elites," someone else says.
Comment: There's much more going on in this scenario than just a 'food crisis'. It appears to be the crescendo of the establishment's incompetence, and intentional scheming, over the past 2 decades and more. One could infer that they see the food crisis as the trigger.
Longer term, there are questions over how to curb Europe's concerning overreliance on imports of crops like soy needed to feed its vast meat and dairy industry. So a taskforce, attended by this reporter, pushed to cut subsidies for livestock farming. Wine and crudités ended the day.
Day two started with a mindfulness session before focusing on policy proposals and any conclusions. There was little objection to the idea that diets need to shift toward healthier options and away from meat. Questions loomed over how best to manage food reserves and monitor the level of stockpiles.
Comment: How exactly does cutting subsidies for European farming help its farmers and its food supply? Notably, Europe's farmers see such an attack on the horizon: Traffic chaos in Madrid as Spain's farmers vow to continue with protests, dismiss EU concessions as 'deception'
Participants singled out other topics for future exercises, from food safety and bioterrorism to countering disinformation and preparation for animal-borne diseases, the latter being "a huge issue and it risks becoming even bigger," Svensson said.
Comment: Note the eurocrats current efforts to counter disease is (unsurprisingly) having the opposite effect: France detects bird flu outbreak on fully vaccinated duck farm
In truth, few governments in Europe are prepared for managing future food crises, according to Chris Hegadorn, a retired US diplomat who co-organized the workshop.
"We've been living in crisis for the last three years," said Hegadorn, adjunct professor of global food politics at Sciences Po in Paris. "There's a lot more to be done on every level. Crises are only going to come faster and harder."
Comment: Bearing in mind that there is sufficient evidence that a food crisis is upon us, and officials from across the planet have been warning the public of its approach for at least the last few years. Furthermore, there's also reason to believe that factions within the establishment have been actively working to ensure that the crisis is particularly dire; recall the spike in fires and explosions at energy and food suppliers.
And so, taken together, as revealed in the wargame, it's not a question of 'if' it's going to happen, but when; and what follows threatens to be unfathomably dire for anyone not prepared: