The Industry Strikes Back!

Befote I went to Morocco last week, an event occured in Spain which garnered a lot of internacional press. Truckers, protesting rising fuel costs – now so high that per-mile compensation doesn´t come close to covering the cost of driving their trucks – stopped all deliveries. They purposefully blocked the border to France, they created logjams on the interstates around major cities, and generally made a nuisance of themselves. One protest occured last Tuesday morning in my city of Granada, leaving one man dead.

Mom send me a few emails on the subject, in which I had a bit of diffulty ascertaining the tone. She seemed partially concerned... “oh dear, my daughter is in a country where the supermarkets won´t be restocked, she´s going to starve!”... and partially gleeful “look! This fulfills prophecies!! And this is why everyone should have at least a 3-day kit, or a 3-month supply of food, but preferably a year supply like me!”Considering how sick I was at the beginning of last week, I didn´t particularly care that we might run out of food; I wouldn´t eat it anyway.

But as I improved, I began to realize a few key things. In Spain, I´m not in Indiana. (Yes, I know, that´s obvious.) For my entire life I have never had the slightest sense of fear due to any sort of crises which could disrupt the food supply. Sure, I probably have a false sense of security regarding shipments to local stores, but I also grew up with my mother. My mother = the most prepared person in the state of Indiana. (I would say the entire country, but then I´d be guilty of hyperbole). I learned enough from her to have essentially a 3-day kit in Bloomington. Anything longer, and I would only need a ¼ tank of gas, or even just a bike, to get home to Fishers and our fortress of preparation.

In Spain, though, everyone lives in apartments, which while comodious enough, definitely don´t have space for entire rooms filled with emergency supplies. I realized that if this strike truly lasted a long time, my host family might not be prepared to tough it out. So I talked to them one day at lunch, and my grandma reassured me that everything would be just fine. Sure we might not have fresh fruits for dessert for a few days, but they had an extra freezer and an abundant pantry full of things to eat. Still, as I reviewed their inventory, I realized that they would be able to last, given a complete stoppage of food, maybe 3 weeks. Most homes, particuarly of younger adults, likely would fare much worse. One girl told me how they have a cook, and the cook simply buys the ingredients for the dishes every morning, and then makes them.

My favorite thing to do during this crises, however, was wander through the neighborhood grocery stores every day, just to see what was missing. I was actually a bit surprised to see how quickly my mom´s outlines of what-goes-first-in-a-crises were fulfilled.

On day one, the bread and milk shelves looked a little sparse...but by no means empty to a concerning level. Everything else was fully stocked.

On day two, bread, milk, and eggs were completely scarce, and the entire fruit and vegetable sections looked preyed upon. Also severely depleted was bottled water, and all of the side-counters (deli, raw meats, bakery, etc).

On day three, all of the previous mentioned items were GONE. I went to the store to buy snacks for my trip to Morocco, assuming that my sort of food should still be well-stocked. I was correct. Cereal bars, saltine crackers, applesauce, cookies...all of those were still fine. When I went to grab Gatorade, though, I noted that the soft drink section looked depleted. While checking out, all of the women in the lines were prattling away about all of the shortages. “There´s no bread! Or milk! Or eggs! Or Fruits! Or Tomatoes! Or beef! Or chicken! Or...”. After listening for a minute and realizing I comprehended everything, I joined in on the conversation. The women behind me in line actually had snagged one small quart of milk. I expressed my surprise she even had found that much. She responded she had already been in two different grocery stores, and hadn´t been able to find any...but here in the more expensive store in town, she´d been able to snag a few things already in short supply elsewhere.

When I came back from Morocco, the strike still hadn´t ended. So on top of everything that was already missing, I was intriguied to see the other items that had disappeared—toilet paper, paper towels, and especially diapers.

It´s over now, pending that the government does something to alleviate the transportation industry´s pain. Except the government won´t (and really can´t), so in a month or so we might have a round two. Ah, oil...every day as I read articles about the crises, all I can really think about is how if I were still in Lugar´s office, I´d be copying all of them, on befalf of Neil, for his binders on energy issues and policy.