Europe may have a glut of steak, cheese wine and potatoes – but that shouldn’t make food a political weapon

Janet Street-Porter asks whether, post-coronavirus, we will feel like eating the all the food that’s been stockpiled

Some countries have found themselves with an abundance of wine (Getty/iStock)

Times are strange in coronavirus confinement. Flexibility is essential. My partner spends hours tending to his sourdough starter, and produces a delicious new loaf every two days.

He loves cooking, so I put up with more meat, more carbs and more comfort food than normal, because following a new recipe gives him so much pleasure. My kind of food – brown rice, grains and loads of leftovers turned into stir fries – has had to be shelved in the name of domestic harmony.

Thank God we don’t live in Belgium though, where people are being asked to eat an extra portion of chips each week in order to reduce the potato mountain. All over Europe, food and drink producers are stockpiling huge gluts as demand slumps.

There are mountains of butter and cheese, lakes of milk and reservoirs of wine. As for beef, in the UK we’re continuing to buy cheap cuts, but the more expensive joints produced for the restaurant industry are going unsold. The fishing industry has no outlets for shellfish like langoustines and lobsters.

Now, food is being turned into a political weapon, no longer something you just enjoy because it’s tasty. There’s a #steaknight on social media, and in France citizens are being told to “do what you can” for cheese.

Now that 95 per cent of the chilled and frozen storage space in Europe is full, can we expect any free food in the near future? Perhaps social distancing compliance could be rewarded with free legs of lamb and lobsters (only joking).