A recent remark on the radio was that the panic buying and stockpiling had led to toilet roll becoming the latest cryptocurrency. Part of me has to wonder just how accurate that may become – with the gap between those who can afford to build up massive stockpiles and those who can’t – the idea of bartering what we do have for what we need often seems the only practical solution. The reality is that people are automatically panicking despite the assurances that the supply chains are there and are stable. The empty shelves are a symptom of two issues – public panic over supplies and fear that controls on food and other produces may become tighter still if new measures are needed – and behind the scenes the ‘just in time’ nature of distribution. As it stands in terms of the logistics warehousing is less common today with things being delivered directly, with idea being they arrive just in time to be sold on again. This low inventory method of manufacturing and production is itself important – being originally a product of the rebuilding of the economy of Japan after World War II. While not unique to it Just-in-time manufacture is strongly linked to Toyota – and is sometimes referred to as the Toyota Production System – Taiichi Ohno is considered to be the main originator of this method within Toyota and is sometimes referred to as the ‘father’ of it. The system migrated to the west – where it was adopted by a number of companies and has become influential in how many firms operate logistically. In this country we rely on food imports and industrial scale farming which is becoming increasingly unsustainable both economically and environmentally. While the supply chain is strong – the reliance on imports is a risk factor which has been identified by food security analysts. I am reminded once again of conversations with my father recalling the very different agricultural world of the 1920s which he remembered. There have been many articles written on the so called ‘death of rural England’ – often noting the lack of services, for example the closure of bank branches and cash points in rural parts of the North West. Many in these communities feel politically abandoned. Multiple factors play into this – everything from employment and production issues, the increased use of automation, tourism, and the lack of restriction on second homes. I have often thought that the best summation of this situation, in England at least, comes from the band Show of Hands, and the song Country Life. These lyrics in particular have always stood out to me –
If you want cheap food well here's the deal
Family farms are brought to heel
Hammer blows of size and scale
Foot and mouth the final nail
The coffin of our English dream
Lies out on the village green
While agri-barons CAP in hand
Strip this green and pleasant land
Of meadow, woodland, hedgerow, pond
What remains gets built upon
The CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) had negative affects on smaller farms, while supporting larger scale enterprises, which led to fundamental changes in agriculture across the country – and tensions over this have been suggested by some as explaining the support in some rural areas of the UK’s vote to Leave the EU in the (consultative) referendum which led to the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Mentally as people we build walls between certain realities of life and distance ourselves from them. Unless it directly involves them at either a professional or personal level few people have time, energy, or perhaps desire, to consider the complex web of supply chains which provide their food and other products. This can be seen in numerous areas of life – for example the ethical problems of using technologies which rely on conflict minerals such as Coltan – the mining of which financed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The use of the word epidemic has often been associated with things other than infections – such as the media’s use of the term to speak of knife crime, or the misuse of drugs. In terms of health to many it will bring up images of other countries – often African countries, and often linked with the concept of foreign aid. This could be seen as a psychological defence and a form of distancing – these events do not take place in our here and now – they are distant events which do not affect us. Much of the anxiety leading to the current panic buying, stock piling, etc is the result of the shattering of this illusion of safety. This pandemic is here, and now, it is real. Even as this begins to sink in some still deploy distancing language or attribution – such as Donald Trump’s references to the virus by its point of origin. Some have argued that this is intended as labelling by origin, rather than the racist xenophobia which is clearly is ( - especially given that it fits within a wider pattern of behaviour by the individual in question - ), and some have gone so far as to remark that the 1919 flu pandemic has always been referred to as the ‘Spanish flu’. This is of course based on ignorance. The 1919 flu pandemic was caused by the H1N1 strain of flu viruses (a new strain of which would cause the ‘swine flu’ pandemic in 2009), and is identified by viral strain and year primarily. The reason the term ‘Spanish flu’ became commonplace was in fact due to wartime censorship – which meant that the press under reported cases in the belligerent nations of the Great War (including by that stage of the war the USA). The press in Spain, which was neutral in the Great War, were not under the same restrictions and as such the press reported in detail on the epidemic. This lead to the impression that Spain was disproportionately hit by the disease and to the use of the term ‘Spanish Flu’. Thus even this claim of accuracy is based on ignorance – or a deliberate misunderstanding of the realities of how viruses, epidemics, and pandemics are named.
These illusions are rapidly giving way to the reality that this pandemic – the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, is here, and now. To prevent the spread we have to continue to take the appropriate actions.
