The third horseman

“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.”

For some of you, the above quote will be very familiar. For others, such as myself until a while ago, not so much. It is from the Book of Revelation, the final book in the New Testament, whose other name, interestingly, is Apocalypse, which is ancient Greek for “revelation”. Isn’t language wonderful?

Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to preach about the end of times, first, because I am not religious, second, because Saint John has put it beautifully already and one can hardly beat that, and third, because I’m not good at preaching. Curiosity is more my forte and there’s been a curious increase in news reports about a certain topic recently. Food.

British supermarket chains are rationing certain vegetables. Food insecurity is about to rise in Washington state. Food shortages loom over Ireland. And of course there are all the dire warnings of global food insecurity because of rising energy costs. If only that was all there was to it.

Energy costs certainly have a lot to do with the current shortages in the UK and Washington, but the Irish shortage of certain farm produce is being blamed on extreme weather because apparently this winter happened to be cold in Spain, where a lot of that produce is grown before getting exported north. Tough luck and a great chance to step up the apocalyptic climate change rhetoric.

An even better chance to step up that rhetoric is around the corner, however. Because fertilisers may be about to become a luxury, possibly an illegal one.