Nine meals from anarchy | Andrew Simms

A cold snap shows how fragile our supply of food and fuel is. We need a more sustainable system

'Man has lost the ­capacity to ­foresee and forestall," wrote Albert Schweitzer. A colossal banking crisis and a big freeze in the middle of what was meant to be a mild winter don't encourage confidence to the contrary.

Reassurance is fine as long as it's well founded. And in the midst of fears about gas supplies and the panic buying of food Gordon Brown is hardly likely to scream that we are all...