Posted on 09/21/2021 6:01:47 PM PDT by karpov
London (CNN Business)UK supermarkets could face shortages of meat and other fresh food within weeks after soaring gas prices prompted a major US fertilizer manufacturer to suspend production, turning off most of Britain's supply of carbon dioxide to the food and drink industry in the process.
Illinois-based CF Industries (CF) said last week that it would halt operations indefinitely at its two UK plants because of the high price of natural gas.
Underscoring the pressure on the industry, another European fertilizer producer, Norway's Yara (YARIY), said Friday that it was cutting its production of ammonia in Europe by around 40% — including at a UK plant — because of the "record high natural gas prices." "Right now, it's unprofitable to produce ammonia in Europe," Yara CEO Svein Tore Holsether told CNN Business on Monday. He said the company, which is monitoring the situation daily, would temporarily rely on ammonia production in other parts of the world. Yara's Hull plant does not produce CO2.
Those plants supply 60% of the United Kingdom's food-grade CO2 as a byproduct of fertilizer production, according to the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), which warned on Friday that the supply shock could cause food shortages within 14 days once current stocks of CO2 gas run out.
The gas is used to stun animals for slaughter, as well as in packaging to extend the shelf life of fresh, chilled and baked goods, and in the production of carbonated drinks.
BMPA CEO Nick Allen told the BBC on Saturday that he has been "inundated" with calls since the factories shut. "Retailers are really concerned about it," he added. "This crisis highlights the fact that the British food supply chain is at the mercy of a small number of major fertilizer producers
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
CO2 is vital and there’s far too little of it in our atmosphere.
Quick.....buy food! Empty the shelves!
This is not a “food shortage” it is an energy shortage. UK has gone green to the extent that it cannot provide enough power unless it uses extensive natural gas. But the supply of natural gas is constricted by high demand on the continent, where Russia has restricted supply. With a wind drought all over northwestern europe and cloudy weather over Germany, renewables are failing Europe. So they all must resort to gas and coal for electricity, leaving insufficient supplies for other uses.
In the UK recently coal has provided more energy than renewables. Germany has reignited plants using lignite, the dirtiest and lowest quality coal but the only supplies available. So much for the greening of europe.
Hope they have blankets and hand warmers for all the little green einsteins
coming to COP26 in November.
We’ve had high fuel prices before and it didn’t cause food shortages. Sounds like an excuse to cover over deliberate mismanagement by our betters in DC and elsewhere.
Isn't that the stuff some sheep rebreathe when wearing a mask?
It was $7.01 per gallon in the UK on 20-Sep-2021. Yikes!
F*ck ‘em. Let them starve or freeze to death this winter. That’s the price for buying into “climate change” bullish!t.
Yep. War on beef.
You will have nothing but Soylent green and you will like it!
Aside from having no sody pop there are simple workarounds here
how about a bullet to the head or slitting the throats of the beef cattle? naw thats too inhumane, so guess its beyond burger tonight, mates!
I was a Late-Stage Teenager in The Carter Years and while I remember not having gasoline for The Family Car, and waiting in line for HOURS if and when and where you COULD get it, and interest rates on mortgages and credit cards being THROUGH THE ROOF, I don’t remember starving to death. ;)
However, I DID join the Army to get my education paid for because my folks were going BROKE trying to keep a roof over our heads, and to DO something to thwart the Socialism that was pervading America at the time...
Sorry! Guess I wasn’t as effective as I’d thought I’d be at thwarting Socialism. :(
Great, more refugees.
The world’s plant kingdom doesn’t think so.
I’ve never seen natural gas priced that way. You must be mistaken.
Remember the ice sculptures of Al Gore? Maybe Greta Thunberg will get similar attention this winter.
I guess they are going to freeze and starve this Winter in support of the Climate Change Conspiracy theory.
We have had shortages of everything lately. Now we will have shortage of Co2!
I don’t know how “food grade” differs from “regular” CO2 (if at all). But if the UK dry ice manufacturers run out of CO2 stock, their ability to make dry ice will stop. And the lack of dry ice would adversely impacts many things in a modern economy.
The article is about natural gas, not gasoline ("petrol") for cars. Of course, "yikes!" is fully correct when it comes to European hyper-taxed gasoline prices.
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