Squeals of horror over price caps – but how are we going to fix our broken food system?

The news that the Treasury was asking UK supermarkets to cap price rises on essential foods was greeted with predictable squeals of horror this week. Supermarkets were reportedly “furious”, while luminaries from the former head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies to the former chair of M&S could be found harrumphing about the evils of price controls. But this caterwauling is a distraction from two unpleasant facts. Firstly, the food price surge over the summer and beyond is likely to be significant – and will come on top of a near-40% rise in the price of food since 2020 – due to a devastating combination of the Iran war and a forecast record-breaking El Niño, which will hammer global food production. And secondly, Britain’s food system is painfully exposed to such shocks. The long-held assumption that a global food system can be relied on to meet the nation’s needs, at a reasonable price, no longer applies. With about one-third of the fertiliser trade travelling through the strait of Hormuz, and about half of the world population’s food supply dependent on artificial fertiliser , the shock to global food systems will play out over the next year – regardless of how quickly the strait may or may not reopen. The strait of Hormuz isn’t the only chokepoint in the global food system. …