No , there is no lack of suply , but I find evident that if people are starving, then the market is not doing "a fine job of making them available".
And well , this thread is about discussing the future, I am not interested in nationalizing food production right now.
But only when and if the situation of the OP happens.
It is not evident. No one is starving because of lack of supply but because they have no money. That is not the market failing to produce or provide flour.
Discussing the future is fine. But Flour is a good real world example of your scenario of a cheap and plentiful product(s). If you cannot come up with a reason to nationalize Flour production and distribution today, that weakens the case for nationalization of all manufactured products tomorrow.
Ok , if some country produces 1 million cars per year , but has tu dump 500,000 cars , because people can't afford them then that is NOT a market failure ? Give me a break, that's the perfect example of an overproduction bubble.
They are different situations. Locally the flour production is almost ok, probably distorted by subsidies. On a global scale there is an over production ( more subsidies ) .
But, then , let's assume corn production for human consumption is nationalized and corn distributed for free via food stamps.
So , instead of spending 4.5 billions in subsidies it would invest 6 billion directly to produce corn.
Assuming the production cost per ton is $150 (see link ) . That would yield 40 million tons, enough to feed everyone, and it would stop squandering corn on biofuels.
Betting the Farm
Maize (corn) - Daily Price - Commodity Prices - Price Charts, Data, and News - IndexMundi