Ryan Bridge: You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone

We're learning a few hard truths this week and the old saying rings true - you don't know what you've got 'til its gone.

Parties on the left and the right all crying out for more oil. Turns out, it's actually still quite important.

A decent supply of it at a stable price.

And we're a long way off from that strait opening and running at full capacity again.

Trump's talking victory. Winston told me this week the war will be over before people think. But there are sea mines and rocket launchers and drones hitting that strait. No shipping company, or insurer, is going near there for a while yet.

The uprising we were told would happen hasn't happened. We've go the old boss' son in charge, and they've just killed his mum, dad and most of his family.

He's not giving up anytime soon, is he?

More important than oil is food. We've got the Wattie's plant closures.

The frozen vegetables are grown here. Peas and beans. Like peaches before them, there'll be some cheaper imported alternative filling the shelves.

The farmer's complaints? Regulation. They're drowning in it. Paperwork up the wazoo.

It was the same story with pork.

Again, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

So once this crisis is over, perhaps we remember how important food and oil are to our daily lives and stop demonising the very people trying to keep our tummies and gas tanks full.

Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.