Last Friday, the FAO released its monthly Cereal Supply and Demand Brief, with the headline: “Ample cereal production sustains stock recovery”.

It makes for joyful reading for anyone worried about whether we have enough staple crops.

Remember those hysterical headlines in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of which said: “World just has 10 weeks’ worth of wheat left after Ukraine war”?

Even after they were debunked by lots of people – including me, here – that fear of food shortages continues to be used to justify the status quo or the failure to reform our food systems.

In Europe, farm lobby groups and right-wing politicians and parliamentarians have pushed back policies ranging from reducing pesticide use to keeping some land fallow to protect biodiversity, on the proviso that every square inch of land is needed and every possible input should be used to keep producing more food.