The grocery stores are low on stock because of selfish people panic buying, not because there's not enough food. The supply chain is still functioning normally.
The supply chain is functioning normally, but "normal" means ~40% of food consumption in urban areas occurs via restaurants. The supply chain isn't designed for 100% of folks buying groceries at the supermarket and preparing their own food.
And that's sort of the problem. The normal centralised supply chain optimises for normal usage patterns, and adapting to abnormal usage patterns causes widespread issues in the short term.
A decentralised supply chain is (at least in theory) better able to adapt to local distrubances.
How do you imagine a de-centralized supply system, with each urban area's cell optimized for 40% of produce going to restaurants, would respond differently?
You're absolutely right. De-centralized systems can definitely respond better to local disturbances. Conversely, they're sometimes more vulnerable to larger scale disturbances that can more easily overwhelm the capacity of smaller systems to absorb shocks.
