British meat processors have become the latest casualty of the growing energy crisis that threatens to result in a dire shortage of carbon dioxide gas, which is widely used throughout the food and drinks industry.
Carbon dioxide is a by-product of fertiliser production that is used to stun animals before slaughter as well as for the packaging process that prolongs the shelf life of all meat, and in fizzy drinks and beer.
However, soaring gas prices have brought about a slowdown at some chemical factories in Europe that produce fertiliser, with a major US producer being forced to halt operations at two manufacturing complexes in the UK for an uncertain period of time.
“This crisis highlights the fact that the British food supply chain is at the mercy of a small number of major fertiliser producers – four or five companies – spread across northern Europe. We rely on a by-product from their production process to keep Britain’s food chain moving,” Nick Allen, the chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) told the BBC after emergency talks with the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
According to British Poultry Council chief executive Richard Griffiths, some 20 million birds per week are slaughtered, but abattoirs are running out of carbon dioxide.
“If CO2 supplies become tighter and more unpredictable then supply chains will have to slow down. Ultimately, no CO2 means no throughput,” Griffiths said, highlighting that the sector is already facing mounting labour shortages.
Moreover, the Cucumber Growers Association has expressed deep concerns over the effect that high prices of natural gas are having on crops.
Gas is commonly used in the heating of greenhouses and, along with carbon dioxide, “are both critical factors in growing and achieving the yields required to survive in the modern industry”, the association said.
The British food industry has been fighting for full shelves and stocked menus over the past months amid a lack of workers that is partially attributed to Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. Meat processors, in particular, have reportedly been facing a shortage of lorry drivers as well as recruitment problems at abattoirs.
Some food shops across the country have been low on such items as bacon, milk and bread. Meanwhile, McDonalds has said it ran out of milkshakes last month, and other farmers warning of a backlog of pigs due to the labour shortfall.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler assured the Senate that the regulator is working overtime to create a set of rules to take control of the volatile cryptocurrency markets.
Democrats and Republicans are united in their stance that the government needs to act in order to protect investors.
Boom Bust co-host Christy Ai is joined by Jeffrey Tucker of the Brownstone Institute to explore when and how the US government plans to regulate the world of crypto.
Gold production in Russia in January to June decreased by 1.9% compared to the same period last year, amounting to 135.51 tons, the country’s Ministry of Finance said.
The figures are based on raw materials supply data from Russian refineries.
Production of mined gold in the reporting period amounted to 112.61 tons, against 116.38 tons in January to June 2020, while production of by-product gold stood at 7.42 tons against 8.27 tons last year. Production of secondary gold in the first six months of the year increased to 15.48 tons, against 13.45 tons in 2021.
Meanwhile, silver production increased in the reporting period by 1.8%, rising to 445.18 tons, compared with 437.3 tons in 2020.
Russia’s Ministry of Finance has been publishing statistics on the country’s production of precious metals since 2014. However, it does not provide data on gold-bearing concentrates that are exported for processing and are not returned to Russian refineries.
Chinese real estate developer Evergrande has reportedly begun repaying investors in its wealth management products with property, as the giant appeared to be on the brink of collapse.
Investors interested in redeeming wealth management products for physical assets should contact their investment consultants or visit local offices, a unit of the company’s main Hengda Real Estate Group Co Ltd unit said in a WeChat post dated Saturday.
The embattled corporation reportedly has an estimated 40 billion yuan ($6 billion) in outstanding Evergrande wealth management products.
Proposed methods of payment and details are subject to local conditions, a customer service representative told Reuters, while the earlier outline seen by the agency revealed that wealth management product investors can choose from discounted apartments, office, retail space or car parks as a form of repayment.
Evergrande repaid nearly 220 million yuan ($34 million) in overdue debts due to supplier Skshu Paint Co in the form of apartments in three unfinished property projects, a stock exchange filing revealed earlier this month.
Evergrande, China’s second-largest real estate developer by sales, is currently in the midst of its worst liquidity crisis. The company’s debts have reportedly ballooned to more than $300 billion. Last week, the property group had vowed to repay all of its matured wealth management products as soon as possible.
The world’s top cryptocurrency, bitcoin, is set to consume some 95.68 TW/h (terawatt-hours, or one trillion watts per hour) by the end of the year, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.
That’s about the same as the power consumption of the Philippines.
According to a Bloomberg report, the bitcoin network will have consumed 91 TW/h by the end of the year, and it has already consumed more than the 67 TW/h estimated for all of 2020.
A separate study by Science Direct found that bitcoin miners “cycle through a growing amount of short-lived hardware that could exacerbate the growth in global electronic waste.”
The Science Direct report also suggested that “bitcoin could produce up to 64.4 metric kilotons [64,400 tons] of e-waste at peak bitcoin price levels seen in early 2021.”
E-waste generally refers to discarded computer equipment and electronics.
Bitcoin accounts for about 0.11% of the estimated global total for e-waste in 2021, which is 57.4 million metric tons, according to Statista. As a percentage of the total global electricity consumption, bitcoin mining accounts for just 0.43%. That is less than the estimated 104 TW/h used by refrigerators in the US alone, according to Cambridge University.
