Empty shelves signify product scarcity, staggering shipments of products and less workers. Grocery stores aren't recieving as many products because of the pandemic as well. Covid-19 impacted the globe, some food companies never recovered from it's impact.
Along with the pandemic, we are suffering from the climate crisis. Empty shelves are signifying that we are feeling the effects of population overgrowth as well. With the population steadily growing, we are in some reigons having too much demand and not enough supply.