Is the Covid-19 pandemic turning into a European food crisis?

Italy was the first and hardest-hit Western nation by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The identification of the first case, on 20th February, created widespread panic as residents in Italy began stockpiling food. Social media posts pictured near empty supermarket aisles. Soon after, this rush to hoard food spread across many other European nations. But those rushing to the supermarkets were the fortunate ones who could afford to do so. On 30th March, Pope Francis noted: ‘We’re beginning to see people who are hungry because they can’t work’,1 and pleaded for help. COVID-19 and the lockdown have placed the global economy under tremendous strain but are also increasing the threat of longer term food insecurity. Notwithstanding problems of cross-national data comparability, it is clear that food insecurity is already widespread in many high-income countries.2 In the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008, an estimated 13.5 million European households were tipped into food insecurity,3 while the current recession is already much deeper and is expected to last longer.4,5,6