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Valencia’s floods are a reminder of Europe’s food chain vulnerability
We’ve had an unwelcome reminder of the fragility of the food chain this past week thanks to the devastating floods in Valencia, Spain, where my husband and I have been living for the past two years.
The floods that swept through towns and villages just to the south of the city have killed over 200 people, and with hundreds more still missing that number is likely to increase substantially. The pictures we’re seeing on local news and social media are hard to fathom; houses have been flattened, thick layers of mud cover everything, and roads we regularly drive along have crumbled and been washed away.
It’s an unimaginable natural disaster, exacerbated by a political response that has been so slow and limited that people from across Valencia have come together to launch rescue efforts. ‘People save the people’ has become the rally cry here; amongst the sadness and anger people are feeling it’s incredible to see the way everyone’s focus is on helping those affected in any way they can.
One of the first requests for help we saw on social media was for food and water: As you might have seen from news reports, supermarkets and shops have been destroyed, and people have been left picking through the mud to find undamaged things to eat. Most people drink bottled water in Spain and few…
