Food that comes from afar is subject to disruption from several sources. With stored grain worldwide at historic lows, it doesn’t take as much to cause a disruption. Spikes in fuel costs cause a surge in faraway food costs, which hits the poor the hardest. A country that supplies our food could decide they don’t like us and refuse to sell us their goods, like OPEC did with oil in 1973. Trucker strikes can disrupt the flow of food as well. As more of the world becomes desert because of climate change, current sources of food can dry up, and climate change destroys crops in other ways, including increased storms and flooding. And currency exchange rates can imperil food as well; a recent drop in the value of a pound caused grocery prices to go up 40% all across England. Food grown in the neighborhood or in the countryside around town is still susceptible to weather risks, of course, but is nearly immune to the other risks of faraway food. And if a local crop fails due to weather we can always buy food from far away, but if food from afar fails or gets really expensive and we’re not set up to grow food nearby, there’s a good chance of people going hungry.