• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MsMarmiteLover

  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
  • Travel
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Wine
  • Gardens
  • Supperclubs/Events
  • About
    • Press
    • Books
  • Shop
    • Cart

Guest Post: Professor Bryce Evans on rationing

March 27, 2020 4 Comments Filed Under: Food, Food history

  • tin cans tomato milan pic: Kerstin rodgers/msmarmitelover.com
  • tin cans tomatoes and sardines pic: Kerstin rodgers/msmarmitelover.com

Dr Bryce Evans is an Associate Professor in History at Liverpool Hope University who specialises in food history.

Hi! My name’s Bryce Evans – or ‘Traitor’, ‘Scum’, ‘Scaremonger’ or (my favourite) ‘Professor Dickhead’.

What did I do to earn these prestigious titles, I hear you ask? Well, it was my misfortune to have been misquoted in The Daily Mail recently about the possibility of a return to wartime-style food rationing in Britain as a result of the coronavirus crisis. 

It’s that word that’s the problem: rationing. As my email inbox will attest, it elicits knee-jerk responses in people. Why? I can only presume because it conjures up images of Soviet food queues; authoritarian North Korea; or thoughts of Dad’s Army. In short, it is the antithesis to the abundant and unfettered consumption we have all grown accustomed to.

To be clear, although coronavirus has sent shockwaves through the global marketplace, this is not yet a food supply crisis comparable to the Second World War. Ships loaded with supplies are not being sunk by U-boats, as many devotees of The Daily Mail have helpfully reminded me.    

But the crisis has exposed inherent weaknesses in our food system. The food bank system has creaked under the pressure and several food banks have collapsed. Panic buying has broken out at supermarkets, resulting in goods such as pasta and toilet roll disappearing from the shelves as consumers stockpile. Inevitably, there’s been a lot of profiteering. Meanwhile, the efficiencies of our ‘just in time’ food supply system have simultaneously been exposed as precarious.  

In response to these problems, and without wishing to catapult anyone back to the Blackout, I suggested that we could learn the following four key lessons from the war around food: 

1: Rationing

Although people don’t like the term, the panic buying of this crisis has ensured we are already seeing the return of rationing. In supermarkets, certain items are restricted to one or two per person. Meanwhile, vouchers are to be exchanged at supermarkets by parents of kids who usually rely on free school meals. 

The problem with this is that, firstly, people are still going to supermarkets en masse, worsening the transmission of the disease. Slots reserved for the elderly – while well intentioned – witness vulnerable people congregating together all in one place at the same time.

Worse, supermarket staff now find themselves on the frontline. Having to police and administer an ad hoc system of rationing, they are being exposed to violence and abuse as well as being in daily close contact with all number of infected people.

The government’s response? Shop online. But there are precious few slots online and there are weeks’ delays.

The wars show us that the government has to step in to help the retail trade and to work with them to ensure a system of fair shares for all. In particular, with the government urging people to stay away from supermarkets as much as possible, why can the government not work alongside the major supermarkets and online retailers to institute a form of online rationing – not for all goods, but for certain goods. These days there are sophisticated ways of tracking and managing supply and demand of goods – why, then, not a coordinated and collaborative system of online rationing for certain goods on a week-by-week basis?

All rationing signifies is a way of ensuring fairer shares – it is not just that a frontline health worker finishes a shift only to find empty supermarket shelves. An efficient online order system, centrally coordinated to ration certain goods in high demand would address this.     

2. Mobile feeding

This was a feature of the war. When communities were destroyed by bombing raids, food was sent out to feed people by courier.

We are effectively seeing the return of mobile feeding or ‘meals on wheels’ already via volunteers / the army delivering food to the doorsteps of the 1.5 million most vulnerable. 

Why not also use the now-empty school kitchens to produce food on a national scale? Perhaps it’s time for national kitchens.

This is effectively what the food bank model is evolving into – and we’ve been here before. There are clear wartime precedents.

3. Control of the Black Market

The war shows that the government needs to take tougher measures on those who profiteer during a national emergency. 

Hiking up the price of scarce essential goods to unreasonable levels is unacceptable.

Quite simply, these people are not entrepreneurs, they are spivs.

4. Land Army

A big shift is underway in terms of what people are buying – beans, legumes, for example, undergoing great demand. 

Meanwhile, it is likely that we will see a drop-off in air-freighted foodstuffs like avocados. (This will undoubtedly come as devastating news to a certain ‘type’ of person which sections of the tabloid media like to dismiss as the avocado-on-toast brigade).

To cope with potential shortfalls in labour and a shift towards greater production of legumes, fruit and veg in Britain, as well as mounting unemployment, why don’t we institute a government-led scheme reminiscent of that seen during the war to get people working the land? More of our available hectares need to be turned over to fruit, veg, and legumes. 

Conclusions

As Corporal Jones of Dad’s Army would urge “Don’t Panic! Don’t Panic!” Panic buying and hoarding food is a selfish activity, as ministers have insisted. 

At the same time, the government can’t very well tell people we are in the biggest crisis since the war and then expect people not to stock their larders accordingly. What is needed is government action and oversight – as this crisis is showing, you can’t leave everything up to the market.

The overriding point is that we must all shift our consumption habits to adapt to this emergency, but that we need the government – perhaps in the form of a new Ministry of Food headed by retailers and promoted by celebs – to help manage this transition. It should not be drab and statist, it should be informed by history, yet also creative.

It’s not just me that has mooted the possibility of rationing – it’s a number of experts on food policy, some of whom have called for a national scheme of vouchers that can be redeemed for fruit and vegetables.

The coronavirus may be the long-overdue moment that we address the waste and inequality in our food system – and the war provides a decent blueprint, in some respects, for how to do that.

Follow Bryce on Twitter @drbryceevans

His blog: https://drbryceevans.wordpress.com

Recent posts

Dr Saira Hameed pic:Kerstin Rodgers

The Full Diet: interview with obesity expert Dr Saira Hameed

July 5, 2022

Hostile environment training. Me in front with our kidnappers.

Hostile Environment Training

July 1, 2022

Air Fryer recipe: aubergine sticks with yoghurt, tahini sauce

June 20, 2022

Previous Post: « The Long Lunch Interview: Bee Wilson, The Way We Eat Now
Next Post: My Corona lockdown and cupboard essentials »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Margo

    March 29, 2020 at 6:01 pm

    A prescient blog. If all this goes on a long time them there will be a reduction in food from abroad. Younger people will have to help farmers the way they are helping the NHS . Well done Kerstin. Age 81 so I know what can happen.

    Reply
  2. John Stolarczyk

    April 16, 2020 at 8:43 am

    The current problem has exposed a serious deficiency in our society. the “shortages” have only been caused by greed, selfishness and over buying. We can cope at Xmas because it is an expected demand and planned for. The corona issue was totally unexpected and therefore not planned for.Rationing, albeit on a small scale, is occurring as the supermarkets limits purchase to 2 or 3 individual items. Yes I agree we have not learned the lessons from WW2 when about 70% or the food was imported, The war ended and we did nothing about it. Worse still, we have created an environment where everyone expects everything all year round. When I was a kid we did not see tomatoes, celery,lettuce,grapes etc in winter. There has to be a fundamental change as our current system only works when there is peace or no other underlying problem like a pandemic.

    Reply
  3. Annie

    May 11, 2020 at 9:05 am

    Thanks for posting this, an important discussion to get us all used to the idea of what my well be coming.

    Reply
    • msmarmitelover

      May 11, 2020 at 9:46 am

      Absolutely! I met Bryce at a food conference in London. At the time we discussed the whole food banks issue. Also, by the way, he’s kinda hot.

      Thanks for commenting Annie.

      Reply

Leave a Reply to Annie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

Subscribe to my mailing list

msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
On a very steep street in siena, Tuscany. They’v On a very steep street in siena, Tuscany. They’ve had to be creative with the table legs. We went to the Palio horse race in the shell-shaped piazza where the passion & downright enmity of the different contrada or districts, each represented by an animal or mascot, was on display. The riders go bareback. It’s the horse that wins not the jockey. A riderless horse can win. There are many false starts, a massive explosion going boom in the square each time which led kids to cry. We waited for hours in the cheap seats- the burnt ochre brickwork of the centre. While tourists at windows paid 600 euros for the privilege. I loved the singing, like football chants but operatic- lots of finger pointing at each other. After I went to a contrada dinner on the streets of Siena, a rare opportunity. For 35 euros you attend the largest ‘supper club’ ever- 800 people, 4 courses, generous helpings of chianti. The servers are local teenagers. I wore my ‘Oca’ or goose scarf around my shoulders, looking like a girl guide. A bucket list item ticked off. I only wish my daughter @siennamarla was with me. #travel #food #italy #chiantishire #siena #palio #supperclub #oca #contrada
Looking at vegetables in Italy. Photo by @loredana Looking at vegetables in Italy. Photo by @loredanaparisi72
My piece in the @hamandhigh about the 3 day @heat My piece in the @hamandhigh about the  3 day @heathostile training course. Incredibly interesting & challenging. Link: https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/things-to-do/hostile-environment-training-9037980 to read more #hostileenvironmenttraining
Supper club dishes from Saturday: pickled beetroot Supper club dishes from Saturday: pickled beetroot eggs, cheeseboard, stracciatella & cucumber, tomato/strawberry/peashoot salad with real balsamic & spruce oil, home cured dill gravlax, smoked salmon, homemade sourdough crisp bread, potato salad with wild fennel & lots more! #supperclub #midsummer #eattherainbow (miss you @linnsoederstroem)
Last nights supper club. My first supper club in 2 Last nights supper club. My first supper club in 2 years was great fun. I’m pleased with my food, the guests were lovely, it looked magical in the garden. But the weather! I even had to bring my duvets from the bedroom out. They looked like refugees. But this brought even more laughter! Next event September
My first supperclub in two years will take place t My first supperclub in two years will take place this Saturday 18th June starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are £50 byo you can book here: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsommar-supper-club there are still a few places left. Pescetarian menu. Scandi and botanical influences. #gettingbackonmyfeet #postpandemic #smallbusinesses #supperclub #london
I recently completed the 3 day @heathostile train I recently completed the 3 day  @heathostile training course. On the last day I was kidnapped by ex-special forces for a few hours & learnt how to deal with compliance training & a hostile environment. It was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. 3 intense days of combat first aid, navigation & how to survive in a war zone. I handled short, long guns, mortars, grenades, bullets, and tourniquet & bandaged an amputee. I learnt where to sit in a car, where to hide from a bullet, where to protect myself if in a car. It was brilliant. Highly recommended for any journalists, photographers, cameramen, charity workers, paramedics going into any difficult environment say a disaster or war. The stories from the tutors & the other participants were so interesting. My piece on it out soon. Book a course: https://hostile-environment.co.uk/  They also do jungle & desert training. I’d love to join the Antarctic expedition. Anyway that’s me hooded in the front. #adventures #het #hostileenvironmenttraining #experiences #travel
Bundoran beach, Donegal. I spent a week knocking o Bundoran beach, Donegal. I spent a week knocking on doors, going to libraries, searching through graveyards for my Irish forebears. It’s really hard to find information prior to 1850. I found this in last years trip to Arbroath in Scotland. Headstones wear out, records are lost or burnt in a fire, everybody has the same name and are known by nicknames, successive children have the same first name, that usually means they died and the next one is called by the same thing. Women did have children out of wedlock, and people remarried more often than you’d think, plus families fall out & never see each other again. I learnt that my Irish great grandfather michael went to Glasgow & met a woman who came from a similar place: somewhere wild & beautiful by the sea. Then they and their children came to london. Chasing the work & the money always. Politics and economics matter for they push people around from rural to city. And now we rodgers are Londoners. #ireland #scotland #family #travel #roots
How some of us celebrate the Queen’s jubilee! My How some of us celebrate the Queen’s jubilee! My sister & a random Irishman come for the Rory Gallagher festival in ballyshannon. Sis has pulled already!  #getyourcoat #sexpistols #ballyshannon #rorygallagherfestival #ireland
Tullaghan, county Leitrim, Donegal, where my grea Tullaghan, county Leitrim, Donegal,  where my great great grandfather john Rodgers was a postman, then a tailor, then a pawnbroker. #irishheritage #donegal #myancestry #irish #rodgers #travel
I’ve taken down the previous post as it’s poor I’ve taken down the previous post as it’s poor timing considering what’s happened over the last 24 hours. Being British I’ve not grown up around guns. It’s interesting to be on this course and find out more about the reality of them, although my focus is learning the ‘golden triangle’ of first aid, communications and navigation. But at the same time It’s depressing how in America nothing will ever change regarding gun law. RIP.
Me as a punk. #pinkhair @caplanmelissa Me as a punk. #pinkhair @caplanmelissa
Sniffin’ glue: Me n @Jaybladesmbe at the Loctite Sniffin’ glue: Me n @Jaybladesmbe at the Loctite pop up yesterday. I’m all about repairing and upcycling my brocante finds: this time a beautiful pale wood lamp shade stand which had broken off at the bottom. I’m going to rewire it with 2 core sky blue twisted fabric wire, pop on my hand sewn pleated lampshade I learnt to do @workshopminerva and it shall be beautiful. Don’t chuck out your chintz: repair it! #therepairshop #selfie #interiors #popup
in June I’m having my first supper club in two y in June I’m having my first supper club in two years: here is the link to book: https://msmarmitelover.com/product/midsommar-supper-club £50 18th June  Saturday night. Byo.
#chelseaflower coming up. Last year I bought these succulents and planted them in a vintage zinc garden sieve. Now they are flowering. My balcony is like a little greenhouse: I can grow aubergines & other plants that usually need to be under glass. #londongarden #may #plants #succulents in the garden
Lemon drizzle cake. The trick is not to stint on t Lemon drizzle cake. The trick is not to stint on the citrus. I used 7: 2 Italian lemons (from Lidl):some ordinary lemons and some limes (18p) at Lidl. Don’t be afraid to mix and match your citrus. I also used buttermilk from @fenfarmdairy in Suffolk from their honesty shop. Last night we ate it still warm from the oven. #cake #lemondrizzle #homebaking #citrus #buttermilk
A Simple tomato, goats cheese and basil salad, spa A Simple tomato, goats cheese and basil salad, spanking fresh asparagus / fried in olive oil, season, then add a little boiling water, not too much, put on the lid, dressed with lemon zest & Parmesan, @fenfarmdairy baron bigod cheese, good bread. This is how I like to eat. Claire’s plates found at the beccles brocante. #suffolk #suffolkfood #supper #dinnerwithfriends  #vintageplates
Can’t wait to see what they will be like when th Can’t wait to see what they will be like when they are fired. All my favourite themes: gingham and scallops. Thanks to @clairebelljar for a wonderful weekend and pottery workshop. Such fun! #workingwithyourhands #playtime #creativity #ceramics #pottery #suffolk
Making plates with talented potter & old South Ham Making plates with talented potter & old South Hampstead girl @clairebelljar in Suffolk. She has the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen. Such a joy to be reunited with her. #friendsreunited #makers #potters #scalloped #wildflowers #cowparsley #pottery
Another budget gourmet recipe, the Sicilian capona Another budget gourmet recipe, the Sicilian caponata, which is like a more interesting ratatouille, in which you add capers, olives & vinegar. £2.50p. I was asked to develop a series of recipes which were delicious enough to serve at a dinner party but also cheap. I shopped at Lidl. #costoflivingcrisis #budgetgourmet #recipe #vegetarian #vegan #lidluk
Mackerel pâté, a recipe that cost under £2.50. Mackerel pâté, a recipe that cost under £2.50. Lemon & herb smoked mackerel fillets from @lidl (take off skin)3 big scoops creme fraiche from Lidl and juice of half a lemon. Blend. Plenty of black pepper. Serve with bread. #budgetgourmet #costoflivingcrisis #eatorheat
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Archives

Copyright © 2022 msmarmitelover