The answer is very simple: Food is what is called strategic interest for a given country.
Food is essential for live, you have no food, you die. If you or your children starve you will pay anything for food. Society's stability depend of the supply and price of food.
E.g It is said that "Arab's spring" was about "people wanting freedom". It was really about food being ultra expensive in the north of Africa and speculators hoarding most of the rice and cereal in the world so they could benefit from the situation.
We have seen recently what happens when countries ignore strategic interests. US companies that made face mask and ventilators like 3M sent manufacturing overseas to places like China. When the Covid emergency broke, China did this:
1. China has higher priority to any other country.
2. If your country criticizes China(and the communist party CCP) in any way, you must censor them or there is no face mask for the people in your country. No censorship, no masks.
3. If necessary, China will nationalize factories.
4. The surplus will be sold to the highest bidder. China will send already paid cargo for higher bidders.
5. You praise China, even when the virus came from it. You demand no investigation.
That was self inflicted damage done by the West ignoring strategy 101.
You can not let other countries control your basic food supplies or anything strategic. Europe can not send most of their food by sea because the US has the biggest navy in the world. So if you do something they don't like, they just can block your supply chain and make food prices skyrocket and change governments so they become puppy States.
In fact, one of the secrets of US' success was that it could expand from the East Coast to the West by land with no European interference.