Produced by Australia’s largest hunger-relief charity, the “Foodbank Hunger Report 2022” estimates that around 21 per cent of Australian families are deeply food insecure; that is, in the past 12 months, they went without food for at least a day, having been unable to afford it. The COVID pandemic meant many lost formerly stable incomes and were either reliant on JobKeeper (for those who were able to keep their job titles), JobSeeker (for those who weren’t) or the screaming void that was Australia figuring out how to cope in an age of chaos. Lockdowns, border closures, supply-chain disruptions, a war on the other side of the world that disrupted fuel supplies, and a host of other random but connected butterfly events – you can see the patterns. Households with children appear to be more susceptible, as do those without stable work, renters and those under 24. Being food insecure is becoming ever more common and ever present for roughly a fifth of households nationwide.

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The situation becomes one in which good food is only accessible to those who can afford it. While fuel and freight prices soar, and climate change ravages food production, the impact of increasingly expensive food will only deepen as people become more desperate.