[vidarh]

This is a big one for Norway as food security has been a big strategic focus for Norway ever since the British naval blockade against Denmark-Norway during the Napoleonic wars, reaffirmed by the hardships during the Nazi occupation.

It's still largely politically untenable in Norway to oppose agriculture subsidies.

[jacquesm]

There is something a bit sad about having present day policy be determined by the Napoleonic wars.

[vidarh]

At this point it's more of a curiosity than something most people are aware of. It was the starting point of a realisation that choking off just a handful of trade routes could starve the country.

Today the main reminder is that Norwegian school children still tend to learn the epic poem "Terje Vigen" by Ibsen, about a man who braves the blockade to feed his family and is captured - coupled with food security being a talking point in other subjects. It's not pushed very hard, and many probably at this point don't even make the connection.

The main modern justification is WW2, where the subject of food security gets reinforced with stories of bread made with bark etc., and post-war rationing.

Couple that with the constant fear of the Soviet Union (to the point that when growing up, we had regular air raid siren tests - today they're so rare the newspapers write articles to explain what they are) only reducing to unease about Russia, and food security is still a political topic.

[jacquesm]

We still do the air raid tests here too, every 1st Monday of the month at noon, but they are more for other kinds of disasters (pollution, gas leaks, large fires and so on). That system is about to be phased out completely, because mobile phones are a much faster way to reach people.

Personally I don't mind the sirens, they tend to work pretty reliably and every time the mobile phone network was used to indicate something was up for some reason I totally missed the message, never received it or received it more than a day later.