Oh, for the 1950s and their simple concerns - nuclear fear, lack of access to tea:

Even in the nation's darkest hours, nothing has traditionally given so much comfort and succour to the British soul as a nice cup of tea. So much is the beverage bound up with the national character that recently declassified documents showed yesterday that British contingency planners worried there would be a dramatic shortage of tea in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.

The shortfall of the staple British beverage would be "very serious" if the country were to come under attack with atomic and hydrogen bombs, according to a memo drafted between 1954 and 1956 released under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Archives in southwest London. "The tea position would be very serious with a loss of 75 per cent of stocks and substantial delays in imports and, with no system of rationing, it would be wrong to consider that even one ounce [28 grams] per head per week could be ensured," it said.

This is not so much quaint but also speaks to a point in time when people were not so much in touch - and by that I mean our time. Are we concerned about the tea supply or even the grain supply or are we living in a la-la land of endless cheap supply despite of everything no matter what? Is that fair? Is the biofuel effect just a blip to you or do you need to set aside more for your fuel, your bread and even your beer because of the confusion it has thrown into the market? Will it take a run on tea?