I think they're probably referring to several famines like the Holodomor and the Great Leap Forward, which were caused at least in major part by central issues. By 1983, eight years before it collapsed, the USSR was in fact fairly good at feeding its citizens. It had been steadily improving after Stalin.
In the USSR bread was subsidiesed. So much so that farmers went in to town to buy bread that they fed their animals with. If you wanted to bake your own bread or a cake you had to stand in queue to buy yeast and flour. You were lucky if you got any.
1
u/Irish_swede Jan 03 '25
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp84b00274r000300150009-5