Why can't we all just go veg?

 Based on this blog post from big picture nutritionist Lawrence Haddad, "'Eat less meat' is seen as a way of improving the health of the planet and its people. However, eating less meat would harm the health of some individuals in low-income contexts, especially children under five and low-income populations...." The bottom line is that needs of consumers and producers both are different in richer countries than they are in poorer.

Winning the price war against animal meat

These few sentences, from Vox, say a lot: "The chicken industry has managed to cut all their corners, they don’t pay their environmental bills, they don’t pay for a lot of the public health hazards they cause. They have managed to produce a product that is just artificially cheap and hard to compete with....More important [than direct subsidies] are invisible forms of subsidization like not enforcing worker’s rights, exempting factory farms from animal cruelty laws, not requiring companies to engage in environmental cleanup, and not restricting practices — like antibiotic overuse — that impose costs on the whole world."

The upshot? Hopefully the meat alternative companies can achieve returns to scale and start getting their own products to be price competitive to these artifically low prices!

CAFOs under attack

Ok, sure, it's only by a couple of liberals, but maybe this movement has legs? A bill sponsored by Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren seeks to increase competition among meat packers, a change that would potentially increase farmers' sale prices, putting them on better financial footing. Also removing clout from the mega-producers and mega-processors might rein in their miserable environmental practices. It's hopeful!

Cheap oil!

A few days ago, before the stock market collapsed (!) I noted that due to the ongoing clash between the world's two biggest suppliers of crude oil (OPEC and Russia) the price of oil was dropping quite a bit, lower than it had for about 4 years. Cheap oil and gas would have been a boost for consumers (and a loss for those who love the environment)... but guess what? Now everyone is staying home. Airlines are among the biggest consumers of oil, but no one's traveling; manufacturing too is tanking. So not only were prices low from the price wars, but STILL nobody wants oil, even at those prices. (Except Trump, who is taking the opportunity to refill the strategic reserve- can't really argue with that move.) Anyway, today the price dropped again to about $23/ barrel, a price not seen since 2002.

This is a huge, positive development for the environment and particularly a big step against climate change. If only it wasn't coming at such a horrible, horrible human cost....

To hear more about it, including the view from a genuine expert, check out this 30-minute (ish) podcast ... and even the full transcript is included at the same link! Excuse me while I go read it....

Enter... CORONAVIRUS!

The good news: as the economy grinds to a halt, pollution also slows.... https://twitterhttps://twitter.com/novaaa/status/1238879131456208903.com/novaaa/status/1238879131456208903?s=20

https://twitter.com/novaaa/status/1238879131456208903?s=20

https://twitter.com/novaaa/status/1238879131456208903

Some bad news (though not nearly as bad as the real bad news) is price gouging, which in general economists support. Gotta say, though, it's a bad look!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/technology/coronavirus-purell-wipes-amazon-sellers.html

The idea is that higher prices will incentivize suppliers to provide more of the good when a particular need crops up. For example here in Maryland, a pharmacist is able to synthesize hand sanitizer, which normally it wouldn't be worth her time to do, but in cases like this she can put extra effort into the task.

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/fox-5-found-toilet-paper-in-silver-spring
https://twitter.com/novaaa/status/1238879131456208903?s=20

Russia vs OPEC

Could it be... a price war? https://twitter.com/gbrew24/status/1236451791610490880

A similar take from US News & World Report

Pretty much timed perfectly from a class perspective- we'll see if we get the cheap gas that this thread predicts!

Quickie on methane

A new study reports that the impact of methane on climate change is even bigger than was thought. That means that fracking is worse than we thought. :(