The U.K. government is starting an investigation into just how badly labor shortages, Brexit and surging commodity prices are hurting the country’s food industry.

A lack of key workers such as truck drivers is pushing businesses toward losses and causing knock-on issues for consumers, said Neil Parish, chair of the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. In a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, he highlighted livestock stuck on farms due to meat-processing bottlenecks and lower chicken production closing some food outlets.

The committee set an initial Oct. 8 deadline for its inquiry and is seeking insight into issues including:

The outlook for labor shortages in the coming months and years.

What impact a timetable for physical checks at the border on food and live animal imports from the EU will have on current supply-chain problems.

Whether the government needs to take more action to support the food supply chain.

Food industry bodies have warned of panic-buying this Christmas unless action is taken to address labour shortages.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) called for an emergency visa to allow firms to recruit from outside the UK.

UK farmers, hauliers and shops have been struggling with shortages that have been made worse by Covid and Brexit.

The government said that the UK has a “highly resilient food supply chain”.

The head of the NFU, Minette Batters, wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday warning that the food and farming sector is on a “knife edge” due to a shortage of workers across the entire supply chain.

The letter, signed on behalf of a number of food and drink trade bodies, urged the government to introduce a Covid-19 recovery visa to open up new recruitment opportunities as a matter of urgency.

“Without it, more shelves will go empty and consumers will panic buy to try to get through the winter,” Ms Batters wrote.

“That is why we must have an urgent commitment from you to enable the industry to recruit from outside the UK over the next 12 months to get us through the winter and to help us save Christmas.”

Sir Ian Cheshire, chair of Barclays UK, will chair the RSA Commission. He will lead the Commission’s work on what a new system could look like.

It will look at protecting standards and securing food supply; reforming public investment and the livelihoods of rural communities, and making the most of any new trading opportunities.

The programme is hoping to develop a mandate for change for food, farming and the countryside for the UK, shape a system that is fairer and aligns more closely with UK population’s expectations, and demonstrate how national policy can achieve change at local level.

Sir Ian Cheshire said: “We will recommend how the UK should shape its food, farming and countryside policy and practice after Brexit, as a country which imports 40% of its food and where, until now, EU policy has defined the farming sector and our natural rural landscapes.

“Leaving the Common Agricultural Policy will mean we need a whole new approach to how government ensures rural land – about 70% of which is farmed – delivers the greatest long-term benefit to UK society. Our food system is at the centre of this debate, and there are significant implications for the UK’s nations, regions and communities.