Green Britain faces food shortages as energy crisis shuts down factories

Acute food shortages were feared last night after high gas prices forced most of Britain’s commercial production of carbon dioxide to shut down.

Emergency talks were being held between government officials and food producers, retailers and the energy industry with warnings of a “black swan event”, an extremely rare blow with unpredictable consequences.

The closure of two fertilizer plants in northern England and others in Europe has left the food and drink industry facing a shortage of carbon dioxide, which is a byproduct of fertilizer manufacturing. The gas is critical to the production and transport of a range of products, from meat to bread, beer and fizzy drinks.

The meat industry estimates that businesses can carry on for less than two weeks before carbon dioxide stocks run out….

One head of a British chain called it a “black swan type of event” and warned that the ripple effect on the agricultural industry was only starting to be appreciated by the government and other supermarkets. “They have been caught out by this and only starting to grasp the level of the problem,” they added...

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