Bridges, Cold-Storage, and Arctic Gas
Notes & quotes from recent reads, four for everyone and another four for paid AG supporters:
7 Days of Garbage
Quotes:
With 7 Days of Garbage, I call attention to the problem of waste by personalizing it. I asked family, friends, neighbors and other acquaintances to save their trash and recyclables for a week and then lie down and be photographed in it. I photographed my family because I want my 8-year-old son to understand that we’re contributing to the problem, too.
Notes:
I love projects like this (the photographer has some other stellar projects too, by the way), and even better when they cleverly visualize issues that might otherwise remain abstract (and tempting to ignore).
Why a Cold-Storage Company Just Delivered the Year’s Hottest IPO
Quotes:
The world’s biggest cold-storage operator by capacity, Lineage, is so deeply embedded in the U.S. economy that when it listed its stock on the Nasdaq exchange this past week, it was the largest initial public offering in the U.S. so far this year. At $78 a share, the IPO raised $4.4 billion and valued Lineage at more than $18 billion.
Cold storage is a centuries-old industry, but Lineage’s own lineage is young. It was founded in 2008 by two former Morgan Stanley investment bankers, Adam Forste and Kevin Marchetti. Since then, the duo has amassed an empire that today operates nearly a third of the temperature-controlled warehouse space in the U.S.
Notes:
There’s a book on my to-read pile that focuses on this industry and the extended supply chain that allows us to keep things cold over large distances, but I think it’s interesting that this IPO was so big (though it perhaps shouldn’t be surprising, considering how fundamental it is to so many other businesses and even industries).
Here’s How Much Cropland Could Be Freed Up if Americans Ate Half as Much Meat
Quotes:
A new report finds that the United States could more efficiently produce food if half the country’s protein supply came from plant-based or alternative proteins rather than meat or dairy.
The analysis demonstrates how a shift toward a plant-based diet provides ample benefits for the environment and the climate. In its latest report, the Good Food Institute, or GFI — a nonprofit think tank that supports the growth of alternative proteins — calculates that if Americans replaced 50 percent of their animal protein consumption with plant-based options, then 47.3 million fewer acres of cropland would be needed to grow the same amount of protein.
Notes:
The tldr explanation is that it would free up about a South Dakota’s worth of land (and South Dakota is a sizable state).
Which is a lot! And while it would be a heavy lift to convince the whole of the US population to make that kind of lifestyle change over night, I strongly suspect the ever-increasingly quality of meat-alternatives, and the (almost inevitable) increase in the price of meat (especially compared to those other sources of protein) will probably accomplish essentially the same thing, even if it takes a few decades to get there.
Vladimir Putin’s Flagship Arctic Gas Project Struggles to Lure Customers
Quotes:
Russia has been forced to start storing gas from Vladimir Putin’s flagship Arctic project, in a sign that western sanctions are deterring buyers.
According to ship-tracking data and satellite images, three vessels have shipped liquefied natural gas from the Arctic LNG 2, which is under US sanctions, since it started loading operations last month.
Notes:
The claim in this piece’s headline is still fairly speculative, but if true this would serve as a pretty significant narrative violation regarding Putin’s ability to keep the country’s energy products outflowing as usual, despite sanctions.
Also interesting is that this is in a part of the world where Russia is spending mightily to carve out an even bigger advantage than it already enjoys, so if things don’t pick up soon, it could have trouble justifying pouring more money into this and similar projects, thereabouts.
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