ze zivota producentu + komentar k sirsim souvislostem


Filip Partyka [polak]

Difficult financial decisions in difficult times

Last weeks most input costs and fuel skyrocketed in eastern Europe. In last two weeks we had to totally rebuild our financial planning. We went from 100% organic feed (for broilers and layers) to nonGMO + 60% organic last week to 100% conventional this morning. Our care and management will have to make the difference.

Through Holistic Financial Planning, we are aware of importance of built-in feedback loops and constant replanning. Thanks to Allan Savory framework hard decisions are somewhat easier to make. It feels like you can see potential setbacks from safe distance and act accordingly. Of course that all my change in no time if someone decide to put whole Europe on fire.



Darren Doherty

Sorry to hear that this is happening for you and all other omnivore producers out there.

It is something that I have been discussing with many folks over the journey as a part of my 'the problem of the omnivore' narrative. The 'chickens are coming home to roost' as it were.

I don't believe that this is the last time that we are going be confronted with the broader problems associated with the various resource limits that are made more obvious by the escalation of geopolitical realignments and their machinations.

In any case the challenge remains around whether chicken and pork will remain as affordable as they have been as meats over the last 50-60 years. Large scale producers who are working on knife-edge margins will find the ensuing period very difficult indeed and I anticipate that the average consumer will find the inflationary pressure to continue purchasing these products difficult (along with everything else).

Those of you who are omnivore producers here are largely not supplying the average consumer through the usual supply chains and so there is a bit an edge there—however as interest and inflation rates rise globally, I wonder just how much they will bear when it comes to price rises that you will have to pass on?
That leads me to the management of your narrative and the direct conversations you are having with your customer base. Most people will have heard by now that the war in Ukraine is already having on global grain prices. My suggestion would be to open up the books in the spirit of transparency and bringing people along with you.

Nobody would deny the importance of supporting producers to continue to produce. If people want to self-produce then they can do so and realise what that requires and why for most its not practical or feasible to do this unless they make radical changes in their whole life—something most folks are still not ready or able to do.

And so in that spirit I would suggest having a conversation with your customer base which does the break down of how much it costs to produce an egg or a bird. Take them through the whole supply chain—make a flow chart or better still make an infographic. In that add the cost of each part of that supply chain and demonstrate what any profit serves.

At the same time we need to take a critical look at how we produce omnivores into the future. Producers like Francisco Alves are possibly at the pinnacle of that art when it comes to pig production and there are others around the world who are having a crack at agroforestry-based chicken models—models which only go part of the way towards solving the base issues of maintaining a cost of production that the public will pay for. Jamon Iberica de Bellota can retail for €500/kg however that depends on having a middle class who is able to spend that much and they are going to be squeezed as a result of their high household debt, wage stagnation, rising interest and inflation rates.

Again, any time which has uncertainty is best addressed, in my opinion, by starting and continuing the conversation sooner rather than later. This builds trust in your brand, support for your purpose and in the importance of your relationships.

From Deep Crisis, Profound Change - RMI
https://rmi.org/insight/from-deep-crisis-profound-change

Before Putin’s War, Europe had sought to cut its fossil-fuel demand mainly to protect the climate, through policies and targets like Fit for 55. Despite prudence and profitability, those plans faced considerable internal opposition from a range of actors. Thus, Nordsteam 2 was built even after Russian bullying made clear the security risks of depending ever more on Russian gas.

Putin’s War changed all that. German policy shifted more in ten days than in the previous ten years. The German government swiftly brought forward its net-zero target for the electricity sector by a decade to 2035. The German utility E.ON and Fortescue Future Industries overnight created a partnership for the delivery of up to 5 million tons per year of green hydrogen from Australia to Germany. On March 8, 2022, the European Commission published an initial plan to cut Russian fossil fuels completely out of the European energy system well before 2030 — tightened two days later to 2027 — and, remarkably, to cut imported Russian gas by two-thirds in 2022. Meanwhile, in case Russian gas were cut off, the IEA published an emergency plan to show how Europe could cope, then another for an oil emergency — in effect, testing how Europe could not need oil and gas more than Putin needs their revenues (45 percent of Russia’s federal budget in January 2022).

The European Commission plan ramps up the key tools of greater efficiency, additional renewables, more electrification, and better policy. By 2030, it implies the installation of 900 gigawatts (GW, billion watts) of solar and wind as well as 30 million heat pumps and quadrupled green hydrogen. Policy includes faster permitting of solar and wind, new market structures, and more resiliency. As these plans come to fruition in a continent outraged by Putin’s War, Europe will keep enlarging the boundaries of its energy transition to encompass whatever the solution requires. The original green growth agenda is being rapidly refined in a loop of expanding, self-reinforcing, and trans-ideological ambition.

It is completely feasible to cut Russian fossil fuels out of European supply long before 2030 simply by growing solar and wind and increasing efficiency. In 2020, solar and wind provided 541 TWh of electricity to Europe, enough to displace 5 EJ of fossil fuels. At 15 percent annual growth rates (a little higher than the 2010–2020 13 percent European average), solar and wind would be able to displace an additional 12 EJ/year of fossil fuels. Meanwhile, European energy demand has been falling at 1 percent per year for a decade. Another decade of decline would cut demand by 5 EJ/year.

profit?

Labour says it will insulate 2m houses in first year to cut bills | Cost of living crisis | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/19/labour-says-it-will-insulate-2m-houses-in-first-year-to-cut-bills

Just Stop Oil suspends actions until 25th April – Just Stop Oil
https://juststopoil.org/2022/04/19/just-stop-oil-suspends-actions-until-25th-april/

There are times when faced with a grave injustice or a harmful government, citizens have a right, a duty to break laws to prevent a greater crime being committed. And we can see that harm happening, right now, across the world and in the nations least responsible for the climate crisis.

We know that the course being charted by our government, by many governments, that of continuing to invest in new fossil fuels, has only one outcome, the mass loss of life and unimaginable horror visited on those who survive.

That this has not been well or widely communicated does not make it any less true, if you drop a glass it falls, if you burn carbon you heat the planet, if you destroy nature you lose the basic building blocks for life to flourish.

Right now, in 2022, those of us alive are witnessing the greatest crime ever committed, that of destroying the ‘liveable planet’ for profit. The scale and recklessness of this endeavor is hard to fathom. Scientist after scientist, report after report has concluded that we must escape the grip of oil, and the first step to finding our way is to stop new oil and gas.

It really is that simple, burn shit, heat the planet, lose all you love. So let’s Just Stop Oil.

That’s why across the globe, people are now engaging in civil resistance. That is why five Just Stop Oil supporters are currently on remand in prison. The era of protest, marches and petitions is drawing to a close – either we put our bodies in the way of the machine or we accept the loss of our only home.

roger hallam

https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21/status/1516314110237028354?s=19

Every time people go on the street I get raided and arrested, and the police run off with my phone and laptops. This time twice in 48 hours. Cell reading: A biography of St Augustine. In 410AD Rome was sacked and the world was never the same again.

Our "sack of Rome" will be going over 1.5C before 2030.

#offshore #infrastructure

The first US offshore wind farm has had no negative effect on fish, finds groundbreaking study
https://electrek.co/2022/04/18/the-first-us-offshore-wind-farm-has-had-no-negative-effect-on-fish-finds-groundbreaking-study/

The only meaningful effect they found by the wind turbines was positive: a lot more black sea bass were congregating around the Block Island wind farm, probably because they like to hang out near physical structures like wind turbine foundations. Scientists also found more Atlantic cod there, but not often enough to draw any firm conclusions.

The study not only looked at what fish were caught, but also what sort of condition they were in and what was in their stomachs. Some were eating more mussels, which indicated they were feeding off of mussels growing on the turbines themselves.

...

This study, which was designed by scientists and commercial fishermen at INSPIRE International, has the potential to help remove obstacles for the young offshore wind industry in the United States

#food #mitigation

Ancient Protein Rubisco Could Be Used to Save Future Food Crops From Dying in Hot Climates
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ancient-protein-rubisco-could-be-used-to-save-future-food-crops-from-dying-in-hot-climates

Researchers at Cornell University have found a way to resurrect an ancient form of an enzyme called rubisco, or RuBisCo, that promoted photosynthesis in plants millions of years ago, when Earth was experiencing one of its hottest climates in the last 50 million years. In a study published April 15 in the journal Science Advances, the researchers were able to use modern-day versions of rubisco to piece together an idea of what the enzyme looked like in ancient times. As a result, scientists may be able to harness its power once again to help ensure our crops of the future can adapt and resist climate change and provide us with all the fresh fruits, vegetables, and grains we need.

...

To solve this conundrum, the Cornell researchers took a trip down memory lane—25 to 50 million years ago when Earth was much hotter thanks to high amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide (a whopping 500 to 800 parts per million, compared to the 413 ppm estimated in 2020). This meant modern-day rubisco likely had an ancestral version that was adapted to working under such extreme carbon dioxide levels.