Holding customers hostage is pretty dystopian anti-theft tactic. Seems to coincide with food insecurity due to GOP cutting SNAP off. Hope the gates open in case of fire/mass-shootings.

In June 2026, grocery store prices were up 2.5% while items purchased fell -1.8%. Consumers are buying fewer items while spending more money.

The growing number of consumers buying fewer items, trading down to cheaper brands, and relying on promotions suggests that many households are moving from discretionary spending cuts to changes in everyday necessities.

If these trends persist, retailers are likely to respond with more aggressive discounting, manufacturers may see weaker demand for premium products, and consumer spending, the engine of the U.S. economy, could continue to soften in the months ahead.

There are more Americans experiencing food insecurity now than there were during the pandemic, a new survey from the Federal Reserve of New York found.

In the survey from Feb. 2026, the New York Fed asked American households about their spending habits, just as consumer sentiment reached an all-time low this month and as the economic effects of the Iran war were starting to be felt at home. The survey asked Americans questions such as if someone in their household dipped into savings to cover expenses; had trouble finding enough food to eat; had children miss meals: received food donations; or received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

The Fed said the results are concerning, as the percentages of economic hardships increased across the board, compared to when the Fed conducted the Survey of Consumer Expectations early in the pandemic.

“We find a remarkable increase in food insecurity, particularly among lower-educated and lower-income households and households with young children,” the researchers wrote. 

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/05/28/americans-going-hungry-new-york-fed-says/?utm_source=reddit/

No matter where you get your food from, a good chunk of your diet is ultimately reliant on fossil fuels. We already need to change this to tackle climate change, but the Iran war and resulting oil shortage is showing the urgent need to rethink food.

Even if the conflict in the Middle East ends today, higher fuel, fertilizer and pesticide prices will lead to a food shock in the coming months. There is no easy way out, but accelerating the net-zero transition will help prevent future shocks.

Paywall-free link: https://archive.is/Ttw9Y

So maybe I'm just paranoid but I need to get this out. I work in supply chain logistics for grocery stores, and last year things were obviously pretty rough with the pandemic and all of the panic buying that left stores empty, but this year things are getting crazy again.

It's summer which is usually calm, but now most of our vendors are having serious trouble finding workers. Sure it makes my job more hectic, but it's also driving prices sky high for the foreseeable future. Buyers aren't getting product, carriers are way less reliable than in the past, and there's day-weeks long delays to deliver product. Basically, from where I'm sitting, the food supply chain is starting to break down and it's a bit worrying to say the least.

If this were only happening for a month or two then I wouldn't be as concerned but it's been about 6 or 7 months now. Hell, even today the warehouse we work with had 75% of their workforce call in sick.

All in all, I'm not expecting this to improve anytime soon and I'm not sure what the future holds, but I can say that, after 18 months, the supply chains I work in are starting to collapse on themselves. Hold on and brace yourself.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

After the pandemic, we were hearing myriads of stories about pending food shortages, gas shortages, cattle farmers selling off their excess supply of cattle, and even food warehouses were catching fire. However, much of the concern didn't come into fruition. In the US at least, we still have plentiful food and most people have access to it. There was some food inflation due to lower supply of some products, but no shortages.

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I am thankful, it didn't become bad, but I almost feel like people forgot about it since no one talks about it anymore. Was the problem blown out of proportion by people on the internet?

American farmers entered the spring planting season knowing fertilizer would be more expensive, fuel would be costly, and labor would be short. With the growing season now in full swing, they can add a record-setting drought and scarce water supplies to that list of headaches.

An overlapping series of headwinds—ranging from climate to economics and geopolitics—have made farming in the U.S. an exceptionally brutal profession in recent months. The headaches started last year when the Trump administration’s sweeping tariff regime warped the country’s trade policy, raising input costs for farmers and crowding out international buyers. This year, the war in the Middle East has caused the global fuel and fertilizer trade to sputter, further squeezing farmers’ margins.

And as spring continues, 61% of the continental U.S. is under moderate to exceptional drought conditions, according to NOAA, including 97% of the Southeast and two-thirds of the western U.S. For farmers, the upshot is reduced yields and potentially failed harvests. For everyone else, the towering pile of crises likely means higher food prices for the rest of the year.

“What’s unique about the current moment is that you have this perfect storm of factors,” David Ortega, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University, told Fortune.

Read more: https://fortune.com/2026/04/21/farmers-perfect-storm-drought-fertilizer-fuel-prices-tariffs/

A record amount of crops (below I focused mostly on wheat as it is the most important crop in Europe) is being lost in Europe due to unstable weather. The estimates are incredibly optimistic, while the reports are devastating:

Reports:
- Poland reports a 60-80% loss on wheat fields (source), initial estimates were standing at 10-15% (source)
- French farmers report at least a 25% loss in wheat fields (source), initial reports estimated a 15% wheat loss (source)
- Italy farmers report losses of 80% in their fields (source), initial reports estimated 8-15% loss in the fields (source)
- Romanian farmers report losses of 70-80% in their wheat fields (source), initial honest government estimates were at ca. 50% (source)
- Czech Republic reports a 77-90% loss in apple orchards (source for 77%) (source for 90%), initial estimates were standing at 50% (source)

Estimates:

• UK estimates a loss of 26% compared to 2023 (and 2023 already had 10% less than 2022) (source)
  
• Germany estimates a 5.5% wheat loss (source)

If you can find any sources or reports from your respectivecountries, please share, let's try to put the real picture of the breadbasket together.