China prepared for the global food crisis by actually preparing for a global food crisis, and are successfully weathering the current global food crisis. Just like how they prepared for a pandemic by preparing for a pandemic, then mitigated a pandemic far more effectively than anywhere else.

… but at what cost???

EU has paid farmers to leave fields uncultivated, a policy known as ‘set-aside’.

Bringing a fallow field back into productive use is a managed process, especially for land that has been out of production for several years.

While short-term set-aside land can be returned to production with a bit of extra weed control, long-abandoned fields require a significant investment of time, fuel, and inputs to become fully productive again.