UK 4 meals away from anarchy in a disaster?

[CharlesHarris]

I think it probably holds true for almost any apartment dwellers in any large city in the UK, the EU or even in the USA.

Restaurants, commercial food service and the grocery industry all operate on a "just in time" delivery system and any disruption in communications, banking or transportation will cause the flow of food goods to shut down within about 48-72 hours.

Almost all the US urban population buys food for just a few days and make trips to the market once or twice a week. Many have little or no food reserves. This preference is founded upon the public belief in the certainty that when they go to market it will be chock full of everything wanted.

Imagine if something happened to change their preferences to stock food reserves? Suppose a typical American wanted to store a two-month or six month reserve in anticipating of rising food prices or predicted scarcity? An increased demand for food would empty market shelves, further stimulating panic buying, which happens before every prediction of a hurricane or blizzard. Stores are picked clean almost instantly. People’s preferences could even change towards stocking a year's of reserve food to protect themselves from shortages.

Given that modern supermarkets have no warehousing and a fixed resupply capability, people would be looking at a PERMANENT condition of no food on the shelves, as is the case now in Venezuela.

There, armed guards meet resupply trucks when they arrive at the market. Martial law, price controls, and food rationing are enforced, as well as a suspension of our human rights...

Disruptions in the food supply are a precarious situation indeed. And the only way to protect oneself and family is to PREPARE, quietly and gradually, starting NOW.