Open Editor's Digest for free
Rula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Iceland plans to prioritize food security over financial gains, grow corn and limit Bitcoin mining, as the island nation seeks to become more self-sufficient in a hostile world.
Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir told the Financial Times that recent farmers' protests in Europe and trade disruptions meant the Scandinavian country needed to reduce its reliance on imports.
“It's not easy to be a farmer in Iceland. It's not exactly great fields. You know, we have glaciers covering a lot of the country. “But it's an important part of our strategy for security and safety in this world.”
The green leftist politician's push on food security is coupled with an attempt to rein in energy-hungry bitcoin miners who have turned the island into a data center haven.
Jakobsdóttir added that precious renewable electricity should be reallocated from data centers to housing and other industries, saying her priority was the energy needs of Iceland's 375,000 citizens.
“Bitcoin is a global problem…but data centers in Iceland use a large share of our green energy. A new proposal to boost wind energy would 'prioritize' green industries to achieve carbon neutrality.
“Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, which take up so much of our energy, are not part of this mission,” she said.
Cheap and abundant hydropower has attracted energy-intensive data centers and Bitcoin miners to the Arctic region. Dozens of Bitcoin clusters consume 120 megawatts of electricity, more than the country's households, according to research firm Luxor.
But electricity shortages during the winter have forced Icelandic fish processing plants to switch to oil and diesel generators to meet their energy needs, something Icelandic Environment Minister Gullagur Thor Thorarson described as “unacceptable.”
Jakobsdottir's comments come amid concerns about food security in Europe as major agricultural exporters such as France and the Netherlands try to find ways to balance food production with the need to meet strict EU climate targets.
The Dutch government closed the farms so The Hague could meet EU-imposed emissions reduction targets. Ireland has put forward similar proposals that would force farmers to cull 200,000 head of cattle.
Iceland, where limited daylight and freezing temperatures make growing crops difficult, is introducing a new farm financing system to boost production.
“One of the things we have started is growing corn in Iceland, which has not been done systematically, although it is possible,” Jakobsdottir said.
Iceland produces most of the animal products it consumes, but only 1 percent of its grains and 43 percent of its vegetables. Only about a fifth of the country is used for agricultural production, according to the World Bank.
Jakobsdottir said the country is “highly dependent on imported corn” but “it's also important that we grow something ourselves” because of the supply chain disruption. “We see a greater trend of isolationism in the world.”
