The government’s response to farmers’ warnings on food security is staggeringly complacent

We’ve already had egg rationing in supermarkets. What next? Is the government hoping the cost of living crisis will reduce demand through people skipping meals, asks James Moore

The National Farmers’ Union has warned that Britain’s food security is under threat (PA)

The most troubling thing about the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) warning that Britain risks “sleepwalking into a food crisis” was not the statement itself or even the press conference where it warned of the risk of (more) empty supermarket shelves. It was the government’s response to it.

“Our high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes,” a spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

In other words: move along, nothing to see here. But, tell you what, we’ll trot out a minister to go and chat to egg producers. You may recall that supermarkets recently limited the number of those that customers were allowed to buy. It’s a strange sort of “high degree of food security” when grocers start imposing rationing on staples.