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☆ Wild weather turns up heat on EU debt stragglers
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Meanwhile, record-high temperatures and dryness triggered devastating blazes in Greece, forcing thousands to flee popular summer destinations such as Rhodes. The extreme weather may be limited to southern European countries, but its fiscal repercussions make this a Europe-wide emergency. Reuters GraphicsAgriculture accounts for just 4.4% of GDP in Greece, and less than 3% in Spain and Italy, according to Moody’s. Letting Greece, Italy and Spain deal with such climate nightmares, on top of other economic challenges, risks landing them with a Sisyphean task. As climate risks intensify, the EU will need to consider widening its joint borrowing plans.

Persons: Nicolas Economou CATANIA, Rhodes, heatwaves disproportionally, Francesco Guerrera, Oliver Taslic Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Cogeca, Reuters Graphics, European Environment Agency, Union, Copa Cogeca, Thomson Locations: Rhodes, Greece, Italy, Sicily, Europe, Spain, EU, Corfu

Pig prices soared in Europe last year as output was cut by farms squeezed by high grain and energy costs. The EU pork industry has been buffeted in the past decade by a Russian trade embargo, the westward spread of African swine fever and the COVID-19 pandemic. "We're continuing to add costs to the overall pork production chain," Justin Sherrard, global strategist for animal protein at Rabobank, said. That may mean EU pork exports, whose share of production more than doubled to 21% between 2000 and 2020, have peaked. But an inflationary economy may make consumers less ready to accept rising pork prices and deepen a shift towards chicken as a cheaper, more convenient option.

Persons: Carole Joliff, Joliff, Jean, Paul Simier, AKI, We're, Justin Sherrard, slaughterhouses, Klaus Kaiser, FICT, Rabobank's Sherrard, jamon serrano, prosciutto, Tim Koch, Gus Trompiz, Forrest Crellin, Michael Hogan, Johannes Birkebaek, Emma Pinedo, Toby Sterling, David Evans Organizations: European Union, Commission, Rabobank, BLE, Danish Crown, AMI, Thomson Locations: PARIS, Brittany, Europe, Russian, Hungarian, China, Japan, Denmark, Netherlands, Danish, France, Brazil, United States, Germany, EU, Paris, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Madrid, Amsterdam

☆ Southern Europe braces for climate change-fuelled summer of drought
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Kate Abnett | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

As climate change makes the region hotter and drier, years of consecutive drought have depleted groundwater reserves. CLIMATE CHANGE TRENDSouthern Europe is not alone in suffering severe water shortages this year. The Horn of Africa is enduring its worst drought in decades, while a historic drought in Argentina has hammered soy and corn crops. "In terms of the climate change signal, it very much fits with what we're expecting," said Hayley Fowler, Professor of Climate Change Impacts at Newcastle University. Some 90% of the mainland is suffering from drought, with severe drought affecting one-fifth of the country - nearly five times the area reported a year earlier.

☆ A food fight is raging over what we can and can't call 'meat'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Morten Toft Bech, the founder of a startup that makes plant-based meat alternatives, brought the animals in protest. Meat lobbies argue that plant-based products have stolen the concept of meat without matching its taste and nutrition standards, tarnishing the integrity and cultural importance of meat. It tends to argue that plant-based meat alternatives shouldn't be allowed to use meaty terms at all because, put simply, they aren't meat. Meat bodies want startups to come up with new terms for plant-based food that imitates meat. Both meat organizations and plant-based companies told Insider they encouraged a healthy, balanced diet.

A farmer spreads nitrogen fertilizer in his wheat field in Blecourt, France, May 27, 2021. Russia, under financial sanctions, is a major producer of fertilizer and natural gas, key in making nitrogen products to boost yields of corn and other crops. Since Russia's February invasion of Ukraine, Europe started weaning itself off Russian natural gas and a pipeline transporting ammonia from Russia to a Ukraine port shut down. European countries typically buy most of their imported urea, a form of nitrogen fertilizer, from North Africa, but are now purchasing it further afield, Wallace said. EU nitrogen prices eased in mid-October as some European plants resumed production due to softening natural gas prices, he said.

☆ Some farmers in Europe are shutting operations and reducing production because of the energy crunch, adding to the global food crisis
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-08 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Europe faces a potential energy shortage this winter as Russia slows its natural-gas supply. The surge in natural-gas prices is hitting farms that rely on energy to produce food. A top Swedish tomato producer is halting winter plantings and Dutch greenhouses are scaling down. As energy is required throughout the food production process, farmers and food producers are feeling the pinch from red-hot prices with some halting or slowing output in the colder months ahead. That's because Nordic Greens had already locked in tomato prices earlier in the year when electricity prices were lower, explained the company's site manager Mindaugas Krasauskas.

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