We need a narrative where ‘food security’ means sustainability, not indulgence - Dr Jason Aldiss

Simultaneously, flames ravage Canada with authorities having to evacuate residents in the north-eastern part of British Columbia, a stark reminder that our planet is literally burning while we continue to gorge ourselves.

Our ravenous consumption mirrors a swarm of locusts, leaving nothing but barren fields in our wake.

Yet, instead of restraint, we’re fed more ways to consume, more reasons to justify our appetites and more distractions from the inferno at our doorstep.

Then, there’s the cherry on this dystopian sundae: a ‘Farm to Fork’ forum at none other than No. 10 Downing Street, where the Prime Minister called for the UK to reduce its reliance on overseas fruit and vegetables and back British producers.

The PM speaks of ‘food security’, a term that apparently translates to our divine right to strawberries in winter and bananas whenever the whim strikes.

Under the guise of ensuring we never feel the pang of an unfulfilled craving, we're actually securing the chains that bind us to a cycle of endless consumption.

The term ‘consumers’ has never sounded more vile, reducing our identity to mere gluttons at a feast that’s going out of style.

But here’s the kicker - we dress this gluttony up as ‘choice’, the sacred mantra of free markets and free will. Yet, is it truly a choice when it’s leading us, lemming-like, off a cliff?

The juxtaposition of these stories paints a grotesque picture: on one side of the world, we battle obesity with high-tech pharmaceuticals; on the other, children starve.

It’s a macabre parody of Marie Antoinette’s ‘Let them eat cake’, only the cake is a lie, a lure leading us further into decadence while the world crumbles. We need a new narrative, one that isn’t about consuming more, but about consuming wisely.

We need a narrative where ‘food security’ means sustainability, not indulgence; where being a consumer means being a caretaker of resources, not a devourer of them.

It’s time we redefine what it means to live well, measuring quality not by the abundance on our plates, but by the health of our planet and the equity with which its bounties are shared.

As we face the looming consequences of our choices, let us choose to no longer be part of a feast that starves the very world we live on.

Let’s not find ourselves dining in the glow of wildfires, celebrating pharmaceutical breakthroughs while half the world holds its belly in hunger.

Hypocrisy may be humanity’s legacy, but it doesn’t have to be our future. Let’s change the menu before it’s too late.

We can start by realising that the greatest security lies not in the abundance of our choices, but in the wisdom of them.

Dr Jason Aldiss BEM is the former chair of Pudsey Conservative Association.