This article first appeared in the Isle of Man Examiner of September 27.

As we all survey, with increasing alarm, the challenges our island and the West face in the months ahead following eye watering increases in global energy prices, it has emphasised an issue that existed before the shocking invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s Russia and that is, the fragility of extended supply lines.

Globalisation has opened up trade over vast distances, driving down costs and spreading wealth, albeit inequitably.

The global pandemic had already highlighted the fragility of supply lines; war in Ukraine has exacerbated it.

Unfortunately, when those supply lines become disrupted, countries realise that allowing the demise of their domestic energy, manufacturing and agricultural industries and the surrender of these to countries far away, leads to a global scrap for resources and goods.

Examples include the disruption caused by a world shortage of semiconductors and huge increases in fertiliser prices, driving up costs that global trade was meant to, in theory, reduce.

German reliance on Russia for approximately 40% of its energy needs seemed like a good idea at the time, with the Nord Stream 1 pipeline maintaining Germany’s dominant position as the industrial powerhouse of Europe.

Hindsight is, of course, a wonderful thing.

The current energy crisis is not just about the amount of oil or gas available globally.

Whilst supply has always been ‘controlled’ to a certain extent by, for example, OPEC, the crisis at hand stems from the inaccessibility of sufficient amounts of energy to Western economies.

Whether for energy or food, we have allowed these supply lines to become increasingly extended, allowing ourselves to sleep walk into many of the problems we see today.

The Ukraine crisis has without doubt supercharged matters but the fundamental issues have been hiding in plain sight for decades.

Ensuring security of supply for energy and food must be a top priority for our government, and whilst it may be challenging in the short and medium term for our island to become fully self-sufficient in energy, a great deal can be done to make renewable energy a key part of our overall energy supply and help reduce our exposure to volatile international energy markets.

Food security must also be a key priority.

Relying on extended supply chains, with expectations of year round availability of what was once considered seasonal produce, will become harder to justify, environmentally and politically.

Our farming industry keeps us self-sufficient in many staples but self-sufficiency is not the same as food security.

We have become reliant on imports to satisfy our diverse tastes and budgets, but more could be produced here and more could be done to recognise and value our local food producers, but there has to be a genuine public and political will.

We are very much at a crossroads for the future of our farming industry.

With an average age of over 60 combined with a lack of investment, we are effectively in a managed decline.

For our food security to become merely an extended supply line would be a grave mistake.