Britain's scorched fields mean a food crisis – and the government is ignoring the one measure that would help | George Monbiot

<p>This summer’s extreme weather and wars in Iran and Ukraine have made our need for food stockpiles more pressing than ever</p><p>When a business makes long-term plans, they call it prudence. When a government makes long-term plans, they call it communism. Any sustained state intervention attracts the prefix “Soviet-style”, and triggers vicious attacks across the billionaire media. So governments have developed a bias against long-term thinking. This may explain why we no longer maintain strategic food reserves.</p><p>In Britain, where <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/02/britain-food-shortages-drought-continues-farmers">soils have parched</a>, market analysts warn that we’re facing the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/11/britain-faces-worst-food-security-crisis-in-decades/">most severe food security crisis</a> in decades. In normal years, crop failures at home don’t threaten our security, thanks to global trade. This is one of the reasons why hunger and famines are <a href="https://www.monbiot.com/2023/10/04/the-cruel-fantasies-of-well-fed-people/">rarer and less deadly</a> than they used to be. But this is not a normal year, because the problem is now global.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/13/britain-food-crisis-government-summer-weather-war-stockpiles">Continue reading...</a>