It is a dangerous fantasy to think that future market economics will maintain the profusion of foods in your local supermarket, especially as your life may depend on it in the absolute sense. The supermarket has now come to represent the prime food source at the heart of almost every community.
It is the end of our conveyor belt of food; all we are required to do is fetch more of what we need every few days. Nothing could be easier. With our collective and active encouragement, supermarket chains have created a super efficient delivery system that keeps us fed and happy. The supermarket carries an excess of everything and gives us an outward illusion of stability and permanence, concealing the fragility of the wheeled infrastructure that keeps shelves fully stocked.
The electronic wizardry of the checkout records every transaction at a central base, so that the stock of every store is known to the last item and the last minute and can be replenished precisely to meet demand. Just in time delivery means no stock is lying around in warehouses that could otherwise be paid for and in the customers shopping trolley.
We may think of our civilization as the most advanced and sophisticated in the history of mankind, but it is also the first to have a deliberate policy of maintaining insufficient food reserves to bridge the gap between one harvest and the next. We fill that gap thanks to the prosperity that allows us to take advantage of the global flow of imported foodstuffs. Our affinity with the internal combustion engine allows us to follow the seasons of the planets rotation and pick every crop at its best.
The reserve stock of much of our food supply system is effectively carried in the endless moving columns of trucks that arrive at every store throughout the day and night. They have become warehouses on wheels; think of that every time you overtake a truck destined for one of the main supermarkets.
In terms of food storage that truck, and thousands like it, represent a large proportion of our food stocks.
Food moves from the farm through the processing plant as fast as possible; everybody wants maximum speed at every stage because speed means fresh produce at low cost for the customer, and happy well fed customers keep coming back to the store.
The aim is to keep your food supply on the move until you eat it; while its stationary its dead in marketing terms; retailers lose money the longer it sits on the shelves.
They want the food in your trolley and out of the door as fast as possible. As consumers, we had no choice but to welcome this system with enthusiasm because reducing the price of food relative to the working hours necessary to pay for it was an irresistible deal."
Norman Pagett, The End of More (2013)