The Day When Food Ran Out

This is a science fiction story. Nothing in it refers to the real world unless you want to think it does.

As a Western citizen, you never thought you could have a problem with food scarcity. Not at all; famines are things of the past; they are about medieval peasants scratching the ground with wooden plows, about farmers exterminated by communists in the Soviet Union, about religious fanatics praying for rain. Things that others have to worry about; that mass of dark-skinned people who wear kaftans and turbans, who hate Western freedom and abundance. Those wretches who refuse to accept the rules of liberal democracy. They are those likely to experience famines.

For you, instead, the preoccupation with food is that you have too much of it and you are overweight. You have to diet, even though no matter what you do, you seem to keep gaining weight. But such is the price of prosperity.  

Yet, not everything is well in the best of words. You may have noticed something was wrong when the COVID scourge swept the land. At that time, all of a sudden, everything that looked normal changed into something you wouldn’t have imagined before. A new normal, where the government locked you inside your home, forced you to wear a face mask, told you where you could go and where you couldn’t, what exact distance you should maintain from your fellow human beings, and more. Fortunately, Western science found a solution with advanced vaccines, and now the COVID-19 plague is a thing of the past. At least, this is what everyone says, although sometimes, you wonder whether it is true. You tried discussing that on social media, but you were told your post went against the community rules.

Yet, the COVID-19 story tells you that crossing from complacency to panic takes very little. And something ominous is mounting. You noted that the cost of food was increasing, but so far, that was nothing more than a minor inconvenience. As a Middle-Class Westerner, food never was a large fraction of your budget. The increase in food prices just made a dent in your disposable income.

But food prices keep rising. And they are now large enough that you can’t avoid noticing the effects. It is not just your disposable income that’s being affected. You have to cut on some foods you used to be able to afford. Less meat, for instance. Then, you discover you can’t afford the fancy foods labeled “natural” and “additive-free.” The Sunday trip to the restaurant with your family suddenly seems to have become something of the past. Too expensive. You also notice that many restaurants are closing, especially those fast food joints that once offered cheap food that even the poor could afford.

Your checking account now goes into the red by the end of the month. You have to be careful while you wait for your next paycheck to come. You have to buy smaller packages; a pint of milk, rather than a quarter gallon. It is not that you go hungry during the last days of the month, but you have to be careful.

Then, your credit card won’t let you get more into the red, and during the last days of the month you just can’t buy anything. Those days, the kids are whining that they are hungry and there is nothing they like in the refrigerator. Not even anything you like. A dinner on stale bread only? It is the best you can do on some days. You try to discuss this matter on social media, but you are told that your post goes against the community rules and is erased.

Then, the switch occurs. Food scarcity ceases to be a background problem that everyone tends to ignore. It suddenly becomes the centerpiece of the daily news. Words such as “famine,” “denutrition,” and “starvation” are no longer taboo. The government spokespeople openly say that drastic measures are necessary to fight the new threat to Westerners’ well-being. It is caused by evil foreigners who hate our freedom, and so they make it difficult to supply food to our great nation. However, the government is working hard to solve the problem by increasing military spending and developing new genetically modified food. We have to trust science. A solution will be found soon.

The government enacts a series of measures that look eerily similar to the “Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions” of COVID-19. You are not forced to wear a mask this time, but you must stay home. You have to “save calories” as much as you can. Exercising by running in the streets is forbidden. Gyms are closed by government decrees. Schools are also closed — it is a way to save calories. Your office tells you that they are closing down for a while. You’ll still receive your paycheck, but you will work only by telepresence. Using your car is not forbidden, but the government forces gas stations to close. We need to save gas for our military, you are told. You can keep the gasoline you have in your gas tank, but you can use it only for emergencies.

Food stamps were once only for the poor, but now everyone has them in the form of an electronic card called a “Green Card.” It gives you a limited allowance of bread, biscuits, vegetables, fruit, and a little meat for 2000 calories per day. It is not forbidden to buy food beyond your allowance, but prices are rapidly skyrocketing, and supermarkets now store the “extra” food on partially covered shelves so high to be difficult to reach, just like once it was done for porn magazines. A black market for forbidden food appears. Shady figures appear on the streets, selling t-bone steaks and pastrami at high prices. 

The government cracks down on wasteful food, mainly meat. Restaurants reduce their menus to a few items, and many simply close. It is said that fancy restaurants are still open for the rich, but they do not advertise, nor are they visible from the street. You have to ring a bell to enter. You heard that from your neighbor, with whom you can still chat over the fence. But if you try to mention that on social media, your post is blocked, and you are told it is against the community standards.

The government enforces stiff penalties on the black market of food. Eventually, a drastic decision is made: cash is abolished, and all monetary transactions are allowed only using one’s green card. The government gives 48 hours to people to convert the cash they keep at home into an allowed electronic form at a bank, with the proviso that no more than $1000 can be converted in each transaction. Long lines are seen in front of banks, with people desperately trying to save at least some of their cash. Your neighbor tells you over the fence that, while standing in line, he saw people collapsing because of exhaustion and stress. Fortunately, you didn’t have that much cash at home. But you are told by your bank that from now on, you won’t be able to spend more than 50 dollars per day. And they also tell you, confidentially, that if you do that every day for a long time, there could be consequences. These stories are not reported in the media, and if you try to discuss the matter on social media, you are told that your post goes against the community standards and it is erased.

Next, the government cracks down on food hoarding. “Prepping” becomes a bad word. The police can now enter your home anytime to check what you have in your kitchen and refrigerator. Those preppers who keep more than their allowance are designated as “enemies of the people,” punished by stiff penalties, including disabling their green card for a certain period. During that period, they can’t buy anything anywhere. It is said that many preppers die of malnutrition or kill themselves because of depression. Some are said to have exchanged their family jewels for a sandwich. If you mention that on social media, you are told it goes against the community standards.

The new-new normal is firmly in place. It is accompanied by slogans such as “don’t starve granny,” “trust science,” and “together we’ll make it.” The times are especially tough on the elderly. Your neighbor over the fence tells you that he heard from a neighbor that there was an old couple in a home not far away. They died of starvation together in their bed, and they were discovered only when the stench of their decomposing bodies became impossible to ignore. The media doesn’t mention anything like that, and it is against community standards to say that on social media.

The government announces promising new discoveries in the field of GM food. The war overseas is in full swing and surely victory is just behind the corner. More than once, you see from your window armored columns of tanks and trucks passing on the street. Where they are going, what they are doing, you cannot say.

You are still allowed a daily trip to the mall to stock up in the food you can buy with your Green Card. There, the supermarkets now act only as distribution centers for green card holders, at least those that remain open. You stop going there using your car: you have to save gas. Instead, you laboriously push a supermarket cart all the way home. Those carts have become rare. People don’t have gasoline anymore, and they use them in place of cars.

In your trips to the mall, you note that the quality and amount of food your green card can provide seems to be decreasing daily. Shops selling food have disappeared, and restaurants, too. Maybe there are still some open for the rich behind closed doors. But you cannot know, and if you try to ask the question on social media, you are told that your post goes against the community standards. Coffee shops are still open, and they sell you a black liquid that tastes like coffee but doesn’t give you any more the kick that it once did. Your green card will buy one cup, and it comes with a single sugar packet — sometimes they will give you two; a little miracle. Outside the shop, you often see young women standing. They are giving themselves to strangers for one sugar packet. Those who are especially good-looking want to have two. But you need that sugar to give you that little extra bit of energy you need to push the cart all the way home.

At home, the children are whining all the time. They don’t go to school anymore, and they seem to spend most of their time in their room, watching cartoons on TV. You do the same, slouched on the sofa in the living room. Discussions about the war and about Genetically Modified Organisms have now completely taken over the time slots on TV that once were used for advertising. The war is going well, our troops are winning. The enemy are still fighting, but victory is at hand, and then the world will be different. About GMOs, large amounts of money are given to the pharmaceutical industry to develop new methods of modification of the genome of plants in order to create more productive crops. They are said to be obtaining spectacular results that will soon be implemented in the form of food for the people. It is now called “'One Food Policy.' Doubting that goes against the community standards.

Looking out from your window, sometimes you see people running in the street, chased by policemen wearing body armor. More than once, you heard shots being fired not far away, but you understand that it would not be a good idea for you to investigate in person. In TV, you hear that any form of riot will be rapidly quelled by the army – if it ever happens. Discussing these matters goes against the community standard.

And then the day comes: the government announces on TV that the “One Food Policy' bore fruit. The GMO foods are ready. The news is all over the TV channels and the press. Images show trucks carrying boxes and boxes of the new foods, and the most exciting news is that they will be distributed for free. No need for your green card, just show up at the distribution centers, and you will have GM food for your family. GM foods are good, they are nutricious, they are what you need to return to the normal world.

People crowd again in front of the distribution centers; those who still have gas come with their cars, many come pushing old supermarket carts, others simply with empty plastic bags. The lines don’t seem as long as they could have been, since so few of these centers are left. And they move fast. People emerge from the shops with boxes labeled with the “GM” letters written in bright green characters. They load them in their cars or in the supermarket carts, or carry them home in the bags.

You push your cart all the way home and open the boxes. GM food comes in the form of solid bars, slightly sweet, with a curious aftertaste. Thereare also small plastic containers of a sauce that vaguely reminds the old barbecue sauce - a little of a strange aftertaste, too. There are also cans labeled as “GM cola.” Very sweet stuff, again with that weird aftertaste. But better than tap water, recently it didn’t smell so good.

The kids are happy. They had been abulic, doing nothing but watching TV, and they had become thin and even a little gaunt. Now, they can eat to their satisfaction. And they say on TV that schools will soon be reopened.

Certainly, you can’t expect from GM foods the same quality you had before the crisis. A vague sensation that what you eat is not exactly good for you. But saying that on social media would go against the community standards.

Days go by. You get more GM food from the supermarket, and you eat it with your family. You feel satiated but a a little tired. You notice that for days, you have been doing nothing but watching TV while slouched on the sofa. The office should reopen someday, just like the schools. But nothing is happening. There is nothing to do but eat those strange GM bars and watch TV.

You decide to take a walk. You know that walking is not encouraged: it wastes calories. But now that you have GM food, maybe you can try. You need to walk, you have spent too much time sitting on the sofa.

You emerge into the street. The quiet is eerie. Nobody is walking. An armored car passes by, running fast. It has darkened windows.

The silence is disquieting. Where is everybody? On the sidewalk, half hidden behind a bush, you see something. It is a body lying flat. It is your neighbor, you recognize him. He has his mouth open, his vitreous eyes looking at the sky. The body has a curious gray color and it smells of something that you can’t exactly identify. Something that’s a little like. . . a little like. . .

You turn around. You have to go home. You want to walk fast but, strangely, you feel exhausted. Every step takes an incredible effort. Strange, you are not so old to need a deambulator. And, yet, you have the sensation that walking without one is nearly impossible.

You manage to get back home. Even walking the two steps to the entrance door seems to require a superhuman effort. You get inside. Silence is total; where are the kids? Where is your wife? You don’t know, but you don’t really care. You pass in front of the mirror of the living room. You look strange, and you hadn’t noticed that your skin had taken that weird shade of gray.

You stumble onward until you fall heavily on the sofa. The TV is off—no, it is on. You push the buttons on the remote control, but nothing appears on the screen. All the channels show only noise, and the audio is just a faint hiss. What’s happening?

You suspect that asking that question would be against the community standard. But you don’t care. You lie flat on the sofa, looking at the ceiling. Your sight is blurred; a certain grayness invades your field of view. Gray, all is gray. Darker and darker. And then, black.