The Full English – Envirobubble

What’s piqued my interest this week?

I’m returning to a couple of last weeks news ‘events’, because they’re rant worthy. First, there was this piece from the Beeb, “Why you have (probably) already bought your last car” (1). What a piece of London-centric horse tripe.

The author accepts our incredulity, but goes on to state (1):

“A growing number of tech analysts are predicting that in less than 20 years we’ll all have stopped owning cars, and, what’s more, the internal combustion engine will have been consigned to the dustbin of history.”

So a group of industry-focused early adopters, who likely live in major urban centres, are suggesting that we should all do away with our regular transport. There are some valid points in the article. Electric cars are being widely adopted, are more efficient, simpler mechanically and will change the way people travel. Autonomous self-driving cars are also a great move, they’re safer in theory (watch out insurance services) and the idea of being able to work (or sleep, read etc) while commuting is amazing. I look forward to writing blogpieces at 60/mph on the M5.

The article falls down because it demonstrates a spectacular lack of understanding of anyone who lives outside a place with regular public transport, or who doesn’t work in one place. If you drive for work are you going to use a taxi everywhere? What about couriers, farmers, electricians, plumbers, gas line workers, etc. All of whom are going to multiple sites every day and rely on a vehicle to get them to where they need to be.

The following line grates:

Don’t worry that rural areas will be left out. A vehicle could be parked in every village waiting for your order to come.

Oh, so in my village of 300 people we’re going to only be able to have three or four people travelling at a time? I grew up in a village that size. We had four bus services a day, a 20 minute ride to the nearest town of a few thousand people. How are autonomous taxi services going to be cost-effective in that scenario? If I need to get somewhere I don’t want to wait 20 minutes for the next available taxi to travel over from the nearest town before starting my journey. Uber and public transport may be ubiquitous in the urban centres, but for rural areas the community-minibus remains a lifeline where market forces run out.

The second article I’m returning to is also environmentally focused. Quite a few outlets picked up the story about meat’s huge climate impact (2). Undoubtedly climate change is the biggest global threat currently, outweighing even Trump’s ego. The effect of meat is something we’ve known about for a while, but is rarely brought to the surface or acknowledged by politicians (3). The scare numbers in this story are simple, western meat consumption needs to fall massively, 90% for beef, to prevent a ‘climate breakdown’ (2). The meat produced to fill western diets is resource intensive, wasteful, and with intensive farming is hugely damaging to the environment.

Most of the articles point people towards becoming vegetarian the majority of the time, with meat reserved for special occasions. This is much more the diet that has been eaten historically up to the C19th, when greater wealth and the growth of middle class along with cheap transported or imported meat meant that the treat could become everyday. Since then the ‘meat and two veg’ has become ingrained in western culture. A culture we are exporting worldwide. Just look at how John on GBBO struggled with vegan food to see how deep that culture runs. Practically therefore changing our culture so everyone only eats meat once a week is going to be bloody hard. Try being the politician selling that song to your community hall.

Thankfully, I think market forces will come into play. Meat is expensive to produce. We recently started getting monthly boxes from a butcher, where they track all of our meat from their farm to my fridge. They upload monthly video updates from the farms on the animals. I pay for this premium. I know I’m getting meat from well-cared for animals, produced in a sustainable(ish) manner. The meat going into your McNuggets is not going to be grown to that standard. As the demand for a western diet rich in meat spreads, and supply struggles to meet (groan) demand, prices will go up.

Companies working to exploit this rise in price are already positioning themselves. Lab-grown meat is coming. Many of the start-ups have big backers, and are positioning themselves for high end consumers (4). It is effective proof-of-concept to those who will set trends (5). Theoretically lab-grown meat should have lower overheads and be cheaper to produce. It will lack the subtlety of the 28-day hung Aberdeen Angus, but it’ll do for your 99p McNuggets. I look forward to my ChickieNobs and conversations with MaddAddam.

Have a great weekend,

The Shrink

N.B. I’m off grid and on holiday for the next three weeks, so no more updates until Mid-November. Happy Halloween all!

Side Orders

Other News

• Sears goes the way of House of Fraser (6)
• As Superdry shows the continued strain on the high street (7)
• UK’s growth to remain crap (8)
• Facebook stock has seen a 30% drop since July (9)
• UK wage growth the fastest in 10 years, reason – 0 hours contracts (10)
• Cheaper food drives down inflation (11)

Opinion/ blogs:

• Interesting piece in the Grauniad on automation and the effects on the labour market (12)
• The Frugal Cottage gives us their dividend income (13)
• Tuppenny reflects on how to live a simple life (14)
• And what you can cut from your shopping list (15)
• The ermine reflects on working out what brings you happiness (16)
• Dr Fire does the million pound question (17)
• As does Inspiring Life Design (18)
• And earlyretirementplanning. All new bloggers to me (19)
• My debt diary updates on their goals (20)
• MsZiYou, on why she blogs for pleasure not profit. I completely agree with this, and can’t stand clickbaity rehashes (21)
• Weenie from quietly saving pops into MsZiYou for an interview. Thanks for the mention! (22)
• And reminisces on her own blog about the joy of getting paid (23)
• Indeedably talks asset allocation (24)
• They also have an interesting piece of the way cashless payments have affected busking (25)
• And have a nice narrative on the importance of an emergency fund (26)
• GFF goes against the grain, on why you should put less in your pension (27)
• I really enjoy Nils Pratley’s Guardian column, and this one on Trump and the Fed is a corker (28)
• MrYFG gives up his secrets (29)
• Lots from DIY Investor UK this week including a piece on the state pension increase (30)
• And a purchase of an environmental fund after last weeks blog on climate change (31)
• Which has prompted a reflective Weekend Reading at Monevator (32)
• TI also did an explanatory piece on the effects of interest rates on bonds (33)
• Of dollars and data, on your financial tipping point (34)
• UKVI reviews portfolio risk and returns (35)

The kitchen garden:

• Agents of Field tells us what to do this month (36)
• Two thirsty gardeners – How to make beetroot chutney – need to try this! (37)

What I’m reading:

La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One – Philip Pullman

Religio Medici and Urne-Buriall by Sir Thomas Browne – the theological and psychological reflections of a C17th doctor.

Enchiridion by Epictetus – Bedside reading for a bad day

References:

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45786690
2. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/10/huge-reduction-in-meat-eating-essential-to-avoid-climate-breakdown
3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45838997
4. https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-lab-grown-meat-ready-for-dinner-1539701100
5. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-grown-meat/
6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45859722
7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45860769
8. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45858107
9. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/11/tech/facebook-stock-dip/index.html
10. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45875599
11. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45886791
12. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/14/dont-believe-world-bank-robots-inequality-growth
13. http://www.thefrugalcottage.com/dividend-income-september-2018/
14. https://tuppennysfireplace.com/living-a-simple-life-inspiration/
15. https://tuppennysfireplace.com/things-we-cut-food-shopping-list/
16. https://simplelivingsomerset.wordpress.com/2018/10/16/what-colour-is-your-parachute/
17. https://drfire.co.uk/million-pound-question/
18. https://inspiringlifedesign.com/posts/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-given-1-million.html
19. https://earlyretirementplanning.wordpress.com/2018/10/12/what-would-you-do-if-you-got-given-1-million/
20. https://mydebtdiary.info/2018/10/17/my-goals-update-for-october-2018/
21. http://www.msziyou.com/my-anti-monetisation-manifesto/
22. http://www.msziyou.com/quietly-saving/
23. http://quietlysaving.co.uk/2018/10/19/i-just-got-paid/
24. https://indeedably.com/asset-allocation/
25. https://indeedably.com/cashless-payments-disrupted-busking/
26. https://indeedably.com/emergency/
27. https://gentlemansfamilyfinances.wordpress.com/2018/10/11/pay-less-into-your-pension-to-retire-early/
28. https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2018/oct/18/the-fed-is-ignoring-trump-it-knows-this-is-a-fight-he-cannot-win
29. https://youngfiguy.com/mr-yfgs-backstory/
30. http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/2018/10/inflation-and-state-pension-increase.html
31. http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/2018/10/impax-environmental-markets-new-purchase.html
32. http://monevator.com/an-ethical-quandary/
33. http://monevator.com/what-did-low-us-treasury-yields-ever-do-for-us-anyway/
34. https://ofdollarsanddata.com/what-is-your-financial-tipping-point/
35. https://www.ukvalueinvestor.com/2018/10/portfolio-review-2018-q3.html/
36. https://agentsoffield.com/2018/10/14/jobs-to-do-this-month/
37. https://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/2018/10/how-to-make-beetroot-chutney/