The Collapse Report: Food Is Set to Become the New Automobile in a Collapsing Industrial Civilisation

Germany, the world’s third largest economy, is spearheading the collapse of global industrial civilisation as its GDP is set to continue its contraction into next year with no end in sight.  This comes as no surprise given that Germany is the poster child for the most resource-intensive and old-fashioned industrial production model in operation: a model which is finally running its course after three whole centuries of bountiful raw materials, cheap energy and unlimited labour supply.  None of these are cheap anymore as industrial manufacturing, the country’s main revenue maker, is being hit from both ends: the world’s consumers don’t want Germany’s expensive cars and gadgets, while the German model of industrial production crumbles under the new global energy prices.  As a measure of comparison, BASF, the country’s largest chemical industry, uses as much energy as the entire country of Switzerland.  In a world of finite resources, it was only a matter of time before industrial civilisation would eventually limit itself.

Germany became a wealthy country by following an export-driven economic model.  In doing so, it made itself highly vulnerable to global economic headwinds such as the climate crisis and the inflation this has caused on a global level.  Car sales are collapsing globally as people limit big purchases.  Food is becoming the new automobile, until that eventually becomes completely unaffordable too.  McDonalds has just reported its greatest global drop in sales.  Who would have imagined that food would get so expensive that McDonalds would become a luxury brand.  The effects of the climate crisis on food production have only just begun.  Welcome to the unravelling food apocalypse.

As German ministers are split three-ways on how to solve their country’s existential crisis, those who are in denial will point to Chinese competition – Chinese automobile manufacturers embraced AI, electric vehicles, and of course have lower labour costs.  But the long-term macroeconomic story is one of a contraction in global industrial output, whichever country you live in, driven by both dwindling raw materials and disappearing consumer demand. 

This is not just a temporary recession.  This is the final stage of industrial civilisation winding down on itself, after having exhausted everything on this planet for centuries.  Everything is becoming more expensive, everywhere, and this is only the first symptom.  The next episode in the collapse of industrial civilisation is when goods actually disappear: from cars to food, everything will be difficult to access.

Volkswagen will be closing 3 of its 10 factories in Germany, throwing on the street tens of thousands of employees.  It is just the tip of the melting iceberg in an economic chain which will reverberate well into the latter stages of the Anthropocene.

George is an author, researcher, molecular biologist and food scientist. You can follow him on Twitter @99blackbaloons

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