What will we eat...?

Food Doesn't Grow on Shelves

I was beginning to think nothing would make UK farmers protest. Most of us have no connection with the land any more. I would like those who do to go on producing fresh food for us. This poem asks what will happen if they don’t.

WHAT WILL WE EAT?

What will we eat when the meat’s been banned?
When the herd’s been culled and the land returned
to wilderness, just as planned
by some distant autocratic hand
to tear each family farm apart,
declare a fake battle against cattle farts.

What will we eat when the wheat’s been chopped?
Production stopped till the only crops
will be biofuels, grown as a sop
to an ideology used as cover
for the rich men’s global takeover.

What will we eat when the beets and the beans
and carrots and greens have nowhere to grow,
supplanted by row upon row upon row
of windmills, still when the wind won’t blow,
and photovoltaic cells that go slow
on all those days when the sun’s a no-show?

What will we eat when Pete and Mike
trade their tractors for electric bikes
to qualify for their government bribes
as our food and energy prices are hiked?

What will we eat when the fleet’s held in port?
As the half of our food that we usually import
is caught in red tape as trade’s distorted
to meet the goals repeatedly reported
as “sustainable” – that “virtue” we are taught
must replace the life for which we once fought?

What will we eat when there’s sweet FA?
When the only treat will be crickets sautéed
in seed oils treated with toxic sprays,
served neat on a ration of GM maize.

What will we eat? Will we beat a retreat
to our snug little cells and just “eat ze bugs”
with a helpless shrug? Will we cower before
those thugs whose power is ours to grant –
will we be such mugs?

What will we eat when our feet are cold?
When the heating’s off since we’ve all been told
to beat ourselves up “to save the world!”
by a media machine that’s been bought and sold.
Will we just repeat our meek compliance,
download the apps and “follow the science”
that follows the story that follows the money
that pays for the politics and honey traps?
They lied to us all the yesterdays
so why would they start telling truth today?

What will we eat when the teat of the state
lactates no more? The supply run dry
as the corporate whore that is government
slams the door on the truly poor,
while comfort suckers become newly poor
and queue for food in a perpetual war.

What will we eat when that plan’s complete?
As the Treasury axe of inheritance tax
hacks the family farm estate
into packs of land to confiscate
and sell out to Government’s corporate mates.

Will we wait too late to see we’ve all been screwed?
It’s beyond debate – we need farmers to grow food.

Peppy Scott