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Article; After the Diamond Rush
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/after-the-diamond-rush/
For over 150 years, mining has constituted a core feature of the South African economy. The seemingly inexhaustible bounty of the earth made the country the wealthiest in the continent and financed one of the most all-encompassing systems of racial segregation in the world. Blessed with the largest gold deposits on the planet, successive governments in the colonial and apartheid periods cultivated a tight relationship between industry and the state. Mining wealth was used on a large scale to economically uplift white residents and to finance industrialization through state-owned corporations.
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/after-the-diamond-rush/
For over 150 years, mining has constituted a core feature of the South African economy. The seemingly inexhaustible bounty of the earth made the country the wealthiest in the continent and financed one of the most all-encompassing systems of racial segregation in the world. Blessed with the largest gold deposits on the planet, successive governments in the colonial and apartheid periods cultivated a tight relationship between industry and the state. Mining wealth was used on a large scale to economically uplift white residents and to finance industrialization through state-owned corporations.
Article; Supply Chains Are Us
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/supply-chains-are-us/
Supply chains are large industrial systems. They are composed of heterogeneous elements, such as ships, aircraft, trains, and trucks, but also systems of labor, information, and finance that build them and connect them together. Usually the goods flow in one direction and money flows in the opposite direction. Their physical substrates are themselves industrial products, relying on ships, trucks, cranes, fossil fuels, and electric power, tied together by skilled human operators, supervisors, managers, and other industrial roles.
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/supply-chains-are-us/
Supply chains are large industrial systems. They are composed of heterogeneous elements, such as ships, aircraft, trains, and trucks, but also systems of labor, information, and finance that build them and connect them together. Usually the goods flow in one direction and money flows in the opposite direction. Their physical substrates are themselves industrial products, relying on ships, trucks, cranes, fossil fuels, and electric power, tied together by skilled human operators, supervisors, managers, and other industrial roles.
Article; Leapfrog Logistics
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/leapfrog-logistics/
The growing economic significance of infrastructures and logistics, on the one hand, and digital platforms on the other, are increasingly interdependent trends. Since the logistics revolution of the 1970s, highways, ports, road networks, utility systems and advanced logistical mapping and forecasting have become central to securing the huge volumes of commodities flowing through the global economy—especially as production processes have fragmented and trade in parts and components has expanded. Global shipping volumes doubled from 5,984 million tons in 2000 to 11,071 million tons in 2019. Moreover, digital platform firms increasingly control physical logistics infrastructure, by taking ownership of cloud computing and data centers, internet cabling, telecoms networks, transport systems and satellites.
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/leapfrog-logistics/
The growing economic significance of infrastructures and logistics, on the one hand, and digital platforms on the other, are increasingly interdependent trends. Since the logistics revolution of the 1970s, highways, ports, road networks, utility systems and advanced logistical mapping and forecasting have become central to securing the huge volumes of commodities flowing through the global economy—especially as production processes have fragmented and trade in parts and components has expanded. Global shipping volumes doubled from 5,984 million tons in 2000 to 11,071 million tons in 2019. Moreover, digital platform firms increasingly control physical logistics infrastructure, by taking ownership of cloud computing and data centers, internet cabling, telecoms networks, transport systems and satellites.
Article; Supply Chain Sublime
https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/in-need-of-repair/articles/supply-chain-sublime
While visiting Walmart’s corporate headquarters, Friedman also saw a modern supply-chain depot in action. Perched high up in a million-square-foot distribution center, he witnessed merchandise from thousands of suppliers flowing from the backs of trailers into a vast network of conveyor belts. “As the Wal-Mart [sic] river flows along,” he writes, “an electric eye reads the bar codes on each box on its way to the other side of the building. There, the river parts again into a hundred streams. Electric arms from each stream reach out and guide the boxes—ordered by particular Wal-Mart stores—off the main river and down its stream, where another conveyor belt sweeps them into a waiting Wal-Mart truck.” Notably absent from this account, of course, are humans.
https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/in-need-of-repair/articles/supply-chain-sublime
While visiting Walmart’s corporate headquarters, Friedman also saw a modern supply-chain depot in action. Perched high up in a million-square-foot distribution center, he witnessed merchandise from thousands of suppliers flowing from the backs of trailers into a vast network of conveyor belts. “As the Wal-Mart [sic] river flows along,” he writes, “an electric eye reads the bar codes on each box on its way to the other side of the building. There, the river parts again into a hundred streams. Electric arms from each stream reach out and guide the boxes—ordered by particular Wal-Mart stores—off the main river and down its stream, where another conveyor belt sweeps them into a waiting Wal-Mart truck.” Notably absent from this account, of course, are humans.
Article; Factory flowers - beauty and survival in India’s garment factories
https://tansyhoskins.org/factory-flowers-beauty-and-survival-in-indias-garment-factories/
In thousands of garment factories in Tamil Nadu, women garment workers endure 8–10-hour shifts, racing to complete grueling targets as high as 1,000 pieces of clothing in a single day. The work takes a severe physical toll: Back pain, repetitive strain injuries, and skin conditions from chemical exposure. Adding to their hardships are abusive supervisors and a lack of basic amenities, like food refrigerators, which often leaves lunches spoiled before mealtime. In the midst of these daily struggles, one enduring tradition catches the eye: Flowers adorn the hair of most women toiling on the factory floor. Jasmine strands delicately preserved from temple offerings, roses salvaged from fading bouquets, or blooms lovingly grown in small home gardens. These are not mere adornments, they are symbols of resilience, comfort, and dignity, offering moments of beauty and relief from the harshness of factory work.
https://tansyhoskins.org/factory-flowers-beauty-and-survival-in-indias-garment-factories/
In thousands of garment factories in Tamil Nadu, women garment workers endure 8–10-hour shifts, racing to complete grueling targets as high as 1,000 pieces of clothing in a single day. The work takes a severe physical toll: Back pain, repetitive strain injuries, and skin conditions from chemical exposure. Adding to their hardships are abusive supervisors and a lack of basic amenities, like food refrigerators, which often leaves lunches spoiled before mealtime. In the midst of these daily struggles, one enduring tradition catches the eye: Flowers adorn the hair of most women toiling on the factory floor. Jasmine strands delicately preserved from temple offerings, roses salvaged from fading bouquets, or blooms lovingly grown in small home gardens. These are not mere adornments, they are symbols of resilience, comfort, and dignity, offering moments of beauty and relief from the harshness of factory work.
Article; EUDR delay poses challenges for cocoa companies
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/uncertainty-amid-eudr-delay-poses-challenges-for-cocoa-companies-farmers/
It might not come as much of a surprise that Tony’s Chocolonely has expressed its support for the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR). The Dutch chocolate maker is known as much for its emphasis on sustainable business practices as for the cartoonish labels that have enveloped its products since 2005. Tony’s even came out strongly against a delay in the EUDR rules designed to ensure that cocoa and six other commodities entering the European Union don’t come at the cost of forests elsewhere. What may be more surprising is that mainstream companies have also been pushing for the EUDR, which, whenever it becomes enforceable, will require an unprecedented level of monitoring and due diligence on supply chains for products entering the EU.
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/uncertainty-amid-eudr-delay-poses-challenges-for-cocoa-companies-farmers/
It might not come as much of a surprise that Tony’s Chocolonely has expressed its support for the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR). The Dutch chocolate maker is known as much for its emphasis on sustainable business practices as for the cartoonish labels that have enveloped its products since 2005. Tony’s even came out strongly against a delay in the EUDR rules designed to ensure that cocoa and six other commodities entering the European Union don’t come at the cost of forests elsewhere. What may be more surprising is that mainstream companies have also been pushing for the EUDR, which, whenever it becomes enforceable, will require an unprecedented level of monitoring and due diligence on supply chains for products entering the EU.
Article; Waiting at Anchor
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/waiting-at-anchor-khalili
Most abandoned ships fly flags of convenience. Since the loosening of the regulations around the offshore registration of shipping companies and ships themselves in the 1960s and 1970s, firms are frequently incorporated in offshore secrecy jurisdictions that hide their ownership structures. Even if a shipping company is listed in the country where the owners reside, that company can own or charter ships flagged to—or registered in—a country which has no relationship to the country of the ship’s owners or the nationality of its seafarers. The regulations of such open registries grant shipowners much leeway in their adherence to labor or environmental regulations.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/waiting-at-anchor-khalili
Most abandoned ships fly flags of convenience. Since the loosening of the regulations around the offshore registration of shipping companies and ships themselves in the 1960s and 1970s, firms are frequently incorporated in offshore secrecy jurisdictions that hide their ownership structures. Even if a shipping company is listed in the country where the owners reside, that company can own or charter ships flagged to—or registered in—a country which has no relationship to the country of the ship’s owners or the nationality of its seafarers. The regulations of such open registries grant shipowners much leeway in their adherence to labor or environmental regulations.
Article; Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance
https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/129/3/1269/7745219
Over the past fifteen years, long-haul truckers have emerged as significant subjects of scholarly inquiry, including those described in Shane Hamilton’s award-winning Trucking Country: The Road to America’s Wal-Mart Economy (2008), which charted, among other things, the ways in which “bandit” drivers, the “last American cowboys” of the highway, undermined their own autonomy by supporting deregulation during the Carter and Reagan administrations and ultimately paved the way for the rise of the low-wage, contingent-labor economy. Recent trucking memoirs have also surfaced as review-worthy windows into the collapse of blue-collar dignity in the United States, including waning independence and the erosion of teamsters’ unions, declining wages and increased debt, and deteriorating public perceptions despite the critical role long-haul truckers play in providing the goods the rest of us want and need. In Data Driven, Karen Levy picks up the threads of the deteriorating conditions under which American “asphalt cowboys” continue to labor as underpaid, overworked, and surveilled subjects of electronic logging devices.
https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/129/3/1269/7745219
Over the past fifteen years, long-haul truckers have emerged as significant subjects of scholarly inquiry, including those described in Shane Hamilton’s award-winning Trucking Country: The Road to America’s Wal-Mart Economy (2008), which charted, among other things, the ways in which “bandit” drivers, the “last American cowboys” of the highway, undermined their own autonomy by supporting deregulation during the Carter and Reagan administrations and ultimately paved the way for the rise of the low-wage, contingent-labor economy. Recent trucking memoirs have also surfaced as review-worthy windows into the collapse of blue-collar dignity in the United States, including waning independence and the erosion of teamsters’ unions, declining wages and increased debt, and deteriorating public perceptions despite the critical role long-haul truckers play in providing the goods the rest of us want and need. In Data Driven, Karen Levy picks up the threads of the deteriorating conditions under which American “asphalt cowboys” continue to labor as underpaid, overworked, and surveilled subjects of electronic logging devices.
Article;De eerste stappen op weg naar 'fairtrade sieraden' zijn niet makkelijk
https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2546760-de-eerste-stappen-op-weg-naar-fairtrade-sieraden-zijn-niet-makkelijk
Een sieraad met een edelsteen waarvan je precies weet uit welke mijn hij komt. Dat klinkt simpel, maar dat is het in de praktijk niet. Het Nederlandse sieradenmerk 'A Beautiful Story' kreeg een subsidie waarmee ze de eerste stappen richting traceerbare edelstenen kunnen zetten. Sinds 2021 probeert het bedrijf de oorsprong te achterhalen van de miljoen stenen die ze op jaarbasis gebruiken.
https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2546760-de-eerste-stappen-op-weg-naar-fairtrade-sieraden-zijn-niet-makkelijk
Een sieraad met een edelsteen waarvan je precies weet uit welke mijn hij komt. Dat klinkt simpel, maar dat is het in de praktijk niet. Het Nederlandse sieradenmerk 'A Beautiful Story' kreeg een subsidie waarmee ze de eerste stappen richting traceerbare edelstenen kunnen zetten. Sinds 2021 probeert het bedrijf de oorsprong te achterhalen van de miljoen stenen die ze op jaarbasis gebruiken.
Article; Gemopper over nieuwe EU-regels tegen ontbossing
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/09/21/gemopper-over-nieuwe-eu-regels-tegen-ontbossing-a4866640
Contains insights into the actual roll-out of this new legislation
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/09/21/gemopper-over-nieuwe-eu-regels-tegen-ontbossing-a4866640
Contains insights into the actual roll-out of this new legislation
Article; Olive Oil Wars
https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/cp_data_news/the-olive-oil-wars/
He is an oil broker, an intermediary who puts traders in contact with mills. Italy has always needed oil to export, and Spain, which normally produces about half of the world’s olive oil, has a surplus. This imbalance has caused a dependency whereby Italy buys, bottles under its own brands and sells back, at a higher price, large quantities of Spanish oil. And it is not exactly small fry (if you pardon the pun). Italy has been the destination of nearly half of Spanish exports, the vast majority of which it resells, at least since the 1990s.
https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/cp_data_news/the-olive-oil-wars/
He is an oil broker, an intermediary who puts traders in contact with mills. Italy has always needed oil to export, and Spain, which normally produces about half of the world’s olive oil, has a surplus. This imbalance has caused a dependency whereby Italy buys, bottles under its own brands and sells back, at a higher price, large quantities of Spanish oil. And it is not exactly small fry (if you pardon the pun). Italy has been the destination of nearly half of Spanish exports, the vast majority of which it resells, at least since the 1990s.
Article; The Global Supply Chain Pressure Index and the “Smooth Lines” Fallacy
https://liquidtime.substack.com/p/the-global-supply-chain-pressure?utm_source=substack&publication_id=537128&post_id=146544135
Variations of the sentence “the pandemic and the blockage of the Suez canal by the Ever Given brought the world’s supply chains to light” are, generally, annoying, although there is admittedly some truth to them. Shipping was not particularly on the news agenda several years ago. Running a search for news articles in 2019 that contain the phrase “Global Shipping” pulls up 1830 results. Running the same search for subsequent years sees that figure more than double 4800 in 2021, and rise to 5260 for 2023. In the last few years, Bloomberg have hired dedicated logistics reporters, and other news outlets are starting to consider supply chains as its own beat rather than just a dull branch of business news.
https://liquidtime.substack.com/p/the-global-supply-chain-pressure?utm_source=substack&publication_id=537128&post_id=146544135
Variations of the sentence “the pandemic and the blockage of the Suez canal by the Ever Given brought the world’s supply chains to light” are, generally, annoying, although there is admittedly some truth to them. Shipping was not particularly on the news agenda several years ago. Running a search for news articles in 2019 that contain the phrase “Global Shipping” pulls up 1830 results. Running the same search for subsequent years sees that figure more than double 4800 in 2021, and rise to 5260 for 2023. In the last few years, Bloomberg have hired dedicated logistics reporters, and other news outlets are starting to consider supply chains as its own beat rather than just a dull branch of business news.
Article; Zara fuels climate crisis with thousands of tons of airborne fashion
https://www.publiceye.ch/en/topics/fashion/zara-fuels-climate-crisis-with-thousands-of-tons-of-airborne-fashion
The location is Zaragoza Airport, the second largest cargo airport in Spain. A cargo jumbo operated by the airline Atlas Air, departing from Delhi Airport, is about to land. It carries on board around 100 tonnes of textiles for Zara and other brands belonging to the Spanish fashion giant Inditex. They are prepared in Spain for onward shipment to the 5,815 stores located worldwide. A few days later, large batches of them are loaded onto one of the 15 or so cargo planes which take off week-in week-out for Inditex – the main customer at Zaragoza airport – flying to destinations in North and Central America, the Middle East, Asia and also Europe.
https://www.publiceye.ch/en/topics/fashion/zara-fuels-climate-crisis-with-thousands-of-tons-of-airborne-fashion
The location is Zaragoza Airport, the second largest cargo airport in Spain. A cargo jumbo operated by the airline Atlas Air, departing from Delhi Airport, is about to land. It carries on board around 100 tonnes of textiles for Zara and other brands belonging to the Spanish fashion giant Inditex. They are prepared in Spain for onward shipment to the 5,815 stores located worldwide. A few days later, large batches of them are loaded onto one of the 15 or so cargo planes which take off week-in week-out for Inditex – the main customer at Zaragoza airport – flying to destinations in North and Central America, the Middle East, Asia and also Europe.
Article; How China’s demand for donkey hide is devastating African communities
https://www.reuters.com/graphics/AFRICA-CHINA/DONKEYS/xmpjrdgbxpr/
China’s demand for a traditional medicine known as e-jiao is fueling the slaughter of millions of donkeys every year, say animal welfare groups and veterinary experts.
E-jiao, which is made using collagen extracted from donkey hides, is the vital ingredient in food and beauty products believed by many Chinese consumers to enrich the blood, improve the immune system, and prevent diseases.
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen experts, including veterinarians and academics, to examine how demand for e-jiao is rippling across communities in Africa, which rely heavily on the donkey, and how the trade in hide continues to boom despite efforts by some African nations to restrict it.
https://www.reuters.com/graphics/AFRICA-CHINA/DONKEYS/xmpjrdgbxpr/
China’s demand for a traditional medicine known as e-jiao is fueling the slaughter of millions of donkeys every year, say animal welfare groups and veterinary experts.
E-jiao, which is made using collagen extracted from donkey hides, is the vital ingredient in food and beauty products believed by many Chinese consumers to enrich the blood, improve the immune system, and prevent diseases.
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen experts, including veterinarians and academics, to examine how demand for e-jiao is rippling across communities in Africa, which rely heavily on the donkey, and how the trade in hide continues to boom despite efforts by some African nations to restrict it.
Article; ‘Duurzaam’ merk Patagonia vervoert kleding vaker per vliegtuig
https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/patagonia-haalt-kleren-per-vliegtuig-naar-nederland?share=5tX2J7%2BsVcir3z4%2BgKqyRZZlAWftgNe3O1RWllzrjpJqLBvIlCkiChrGn2gH08Y%3D
Van bedrijven als Shein en Temu verwacht je niet anders, maar zelfs een duurzaam kledingmerk als Patagonia laat relatief opvallend vaak producten vervoeren per vliegtuig. Vorig jaar zelfs ruim 1300 keer, blijkt uit onderzoek van Follow the Money, terwijl het merk zegt ‘alleen in uitzonderlijke situaties’ te kiezen voor transport door de lucht.
https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/patagonia-haalt-kleren-per-vliegtuig-naar-nederland?share=5tX2J7%2BsVcir3z4%2BgKqyRZZlAWftgNe3O1RWllzrjpJqLBvIlCkiChrGn2gH08Y%3D
Van bedrijven als Shein en Temu verwacht je niet anders, maar zelfs een duurzaam kledingmerk als Patagonia laat relatief opvallend vaak producten vervoeren per vliegtuig. Vorig jaar zelfs ruim 1300 keer, blijkt uit onderzoek van Follow the Money, terwijl het merk zegt ‘alleen in uitzonderlijke situaties’ te kiezen voor transport door de lucht.
Article; The role of law in global value chains: a research manifesto
https://academic.oup.com/lril/article/4/1/57/2413108?login=false
Across a growing number of sectors and industries, value production is not just transnational in scope; it is organised and coordinated via global networks that link activities across as well as within firms and nations. These networks are increasingly referred to as ‘Global Value Chains’, or GVCs. The asserted causes of this phenomenon are multiple, and scholars debate which deserves designation as primary. 1 We begin from the premise that GVCs are not only the product of shifting economic conditions. They also arise as firms engage dynamically with multiple, overlapping and often conflicting local, national, regional and transnational legal regimes, soft-law normative orders and private ordering mechanisms (hereinafter collectively described as ‘law’).
This article seeks to establish the importance for both scholars and policymakers of investigating some of the complex ways in which the law shapes and is shaped by GVCs. The research agenda articulated here emerged from a series of ongoing conversations among a group of legal scholars, sociologists and political economists that first met in June 2014 under the auspices of the IGLP at Harvard University. For the most part, legal scholarship has only summarily or incidentally analysed GVCs, and similarly, GVCs scholars outside law have not made law a focal point of their theoretical or empirical analyses. We believe that placing law at the centre of the analysis of what have historically been treated as primarily ‘economic structures’ will not only enrich our understanding of the shape, nature and dynamic character of GVCs, but will also help to illuminate the complex inter-relationship between law and global political economy more broadly.
https://academic.oup.com/lril/article/4/1/57/2413108?login=false
Across a growing number of sectors and industries, value production is not just transnational in scope; it is organised and coordinated via global networks that link activities across as well as within firms and nations. These networks are increasingly referred to as ‘Global Value Chains’, or GVCs. The asserted causes of this phenomenon are multiple, and scholars debate which deserves designation as primary. 1 We begin from the premise that GVCs are not only the product of shifting economic conditions. They also arise as firms engage dynamically with multiple, overlapping and often conflicting local, national, regional and transnational legal regimes, soft-law normative orders and private ordering mechanisms (hereinafter collectively described as ‘law’).
This article seeks to establish the importance for both scholars and policymakers of investigating some of the complex ways in which the law shapes and is shaped by GVCs. The research agenda articulated here emerged from a series of ongoing conversations among a group of legal scholars, sociologists and political economists that first met in June 2014 under the auspices of the IGLP at Harvard University. For the most part, legal scholarship has only summarily or incidentally analysed GVCs, and similarly, GVCs scholars outside law have not made law a focal point of their theoretical or empirical analyses. We believe that placing law at the centre of the analysis of what have historically been treated as primarily ‘economic structures’ will not only enrich our understanding of the shape, nature and dynamic character of GVCs, but will also help to illuminate the complex inter-relationship between law and global political economy more broadly.
Article; How Finance Structures Global Value Chains
https://lpeproject.org/blog/how-finance-structures-global-value-chains/
The Law-in-Global-Value-Chains perspective adopted in the Research Manifesto and introduced the initial blog of this series is based on the recognition that law is endogenous to the production, circulation, accumulation and destruction of value. Whether we are talking about labor, nature, capital or any of the other ‘cheap things’ that are central to the construction of the global system of production, the Manifesto suggests that law has a lot to do with the way in which that ‘thing’ becomes cheap and value is extracted from it.
https://lpeproject.org/blog/how-finance-structures-global-value-chains/
The Law-in-Global-Value-Chains perspective adopted in the Research Manifesto and introduced the initial blog of this series is based on the recognition that law is endogenous to the production, circulation, accumulation and destruction of value. Whether we are talking about labor, nature, capital or any of the other ‘cheap things’ that are central to the construction of the global system of production, the Manifesto suggests that law has a lot to do with the way in which that ‘thing’ becomes cheap and value is extracted from it.
Article; What Supply Chains Can Teach Us about Neoliberalism
https://lpeproject.org/blog/what-supply-chains-can-teach-us-about-neoliberalism/
Prior to the pandemic, US consumers largely took global supply chains for granted. With roughly 80% of international trade conducted through transnational supply chains, consumers could place an order with an online retailer and expect their purchase to be delivered in a day or two, whether it was originally assembled in China, Bangladesh, or elsewhere.
https://lpeproject.org/blog/what-supply-chains-can-teach-us-about-neoliberalism/
Prior to the pandemic, US consumers largely took global supply chains for granted. With roughly 80% of international trade conducted through transnational supply chains, consumers could place an order with an online retailer and expect their purchase to be delivered in a day or two, whether it was originally assembled in China, Bangladesh, or elsewhere.
Article; Een handtas van Dior, ‘made in’ een sweatshop in Milaan
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/06/23/een-handtas-van-dior-made-in-een-sweatshop-in-milaan-a4857420
High end Italian fashion from Milanese sweatshops
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/06/23/een-handtas-van-dior-made-in-een-sweatshop-in-milaan-a4857420
High end Italian fashion from Milanese sweatshops
New free, science-based tool offers insights into sustainability priorities
https://news.asu.edu/20240613-environment-and-sustainability-new-free-sciencebased-tool-offers-insights-sustainability
“We are excited to offer this powerful tool to companies striving to improve the sustainability of their supply chains,” said Christy Slay, CEO of TSC and a senior Global Futures scientist. “CommodityMap allows businesses not only to identify and prioritize sustainability issues, but also to provide guidance on actions that improve commodity supply chains.”
Key features of CommodityMap include:
Insights without complex data collection: The platform leverages a proprietary model linking trade statistics to production regions, eliminating the need for time-consuming data collection.
Science-based recommendations: Users receive actionable recommendations grounded in scientific research, enabling them to effectively drive transparency and address their most pressing sustainability challenges.
Education and engagement opportunities: CommodityMap provides easy-to-interpret metrics and recommendations that facilitate communication and collaboration with stakeholders across the supply chain.
Action and comparative analyses: Companies can prioritize issues, compare analyses and take demonstrable actions to address environmental and social concerns.
https://news.asu.edu/20240613-environment-and-sustainability-new-free-sciencebased-tool-offers-insights-sustainability
“We are excited to offer this powerful tool to companies striving to improve the sustainability of their supply chains,” said Christy Slay, CEO of TSC and a senior Global Futures scientist. “CommodityMap allows businesses not only to identify and prioritize sustainability issues, but also to provide guidance on actions that improve commodity supply chains.”
Key features of CommodityMap include:
Insights without complex data collection: The platform leverages a proprietary model linking trade statistics to production regions, eliminating the need for time-consuming data collection.
Science-based recommendations: Users receive actionable recommendations grounded in scientific research, enabling them to effectively drive transparency and address their most pressing sustainability challenges.
Education and engagement opportunities: CommodityMap provides easy-to-interpret metrics and recommendations that facilitate communication and collaboration with stakeholders across the supply chain.
Action and comparative analyses: Companies can prioritize issues, compare analyses and take demonstrable actions to address environmental and social concerns.
The Extracted Earth
https://granta.com/the-extracted-earth/
What has been hailed as the ‘green transition’ – the global project to end large-scale extraction of fossil fuels – requires a shift to a new set of extractive projects. Green technologies depend on minerals and metals locked in the earth: lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and, above all, iron for steel. The exploitation, corruption and environmental destruction involved in the mining of these materials are not on the wane. But what can be done to counter the interests behind them? What possibilities are there for a less ecologically compromised and economically stratified future?
Interview with Thea Riofrancos.
https://granta.com/the-extracted-earth/
What has been hailed as the ‘green transition’ – the global project to end large-scale extraction of fossil fuels – requires a shift to a new set of extractive projects. Green technologies depend on minerals and metals locked in the earth: lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and, above all, iron for steel. The exploitation, corruption and environmental destruction involved in the mining of these materials are not on the wane. But what can be done to counter the interests behind them? What possibilities are there for a less ecologically compromised and economically stratified future?
Interview with Thea Riofrancos.
Article; 90% of the World’s Goods are Moved By Sea. Says Who?
https://liquidtime.substack.com/p/90-of-the-worlds-goods-are-moved
First off: what is this stat even actually saying? Is it saying that 90% of all traded goods are moved by sea – as the World Economic Forum puts it? Or just 90% of international trade – as OECD (WEF’s source) puts it? Because these are very different claims. Additionally, the statistic is referring to volume of goods rather than value, but that’s not immediately clear in the way its often presented. These, too, are very different claims: 10 tonnes of sand is a very different thing to, say, 10 tonnes of laptops.
https://liquidtime.substack.com/p/90-of-the-worlds-goods-are-moved
First off: what is this stat even actually saying? Is it saying that 90% of all traded goods are moved by sea – as the World Economic Forum puts it? Or just 90% of international trade – as OECD (WEF’s source) puts it? Because these are very different claims. Additionally, the statistic is referring to volume of goods rather than value, but that’s not immediately clear in the way its often presented. These, too, are very different claims: 10 tonnes of sand is a very different thing to, say, 10 tonnes of laptops.
Article; Burn After Wearing
https://grist.org/international/burn-after-wearing-fashion-waste-chile/
Fast fashion dumped in Chilean desert caught fire
https://grist.org/international/burn-after-wearing-fashion-waste-chile/
Fast fashion dumped in Chilean desert caught fire
Article; Measuring Global Value Chains
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-economics-080217-053600
Recent decades have seen the emergence of global value chains (GVCs), in which production stages for individual goods are broken apart and scattered across countries. Stimulated by these developments, there has been rapid progress in data and methods for measuring GVC linkages. The macro ap- proach to measuring GVCs connects national input–output tables across borders by using bilateral trade data to construct global input–output tables. These tables have been applied to measure trade in value added, the length of and location of producers in GVCs, and price linkages across countries. The micro approach uses firm-level data to document firms’ input sourcing decisions, how import and export participation are linked, and how multi- national firms organize their production networks. In this review, I evaluate progress in these two approaches, highlighting points of contact between them and areas that demand further work. I argue that further convergence between these approaches can strengthen both, yielding a more complete empirical portrait of GVCs.
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-economics-080217-053600
Recent decades have seen the emergence of global value chains (GVCs), in which production stages for individual goods are broken apart and scattered across countries. Stimulated by these developments, there has been rapid progress in data and methods for measuring GVC linkages. The macro ap- proach to measuring GVCs connects national input–output tables across borders by using bilateral trade data to construct global input–output tables. These tables have been applied to measure trade in value added, the length of and location of producers in GVCs, and price linkages across countries. The micro approach uses firm-level data to document firms’ input sourcing decisions, how import and export participation are linked, and how multi- national firms organize their production networks. In this review, I evaluate progress in these two approaches, highlighting points of contact between them and areas that demand further work. I argue that further convergence between these approaches can strengthen both, yielding a more complete empirical portrait of GVCs.
Sustainable by design: A blueprint for sourcing green building materials
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/esg/the-energy-transition/sustainable-energy-infrastructure/blueprint-for-sourcing-green-building-materials.html
Roughly one-fifth of infrastructure and building emissions comes from steel and cement production alone. To address this challenge, we’ve developed a sustainable framework for procuring green materials—a critical step in the pursuit of net zero.
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/esg/the-energy-transition/sustainable-energy-infrastructure/blueprint-for-sourcing-green-building-materials.html
Roughly one-fifth of infrastructure and building emissions comes from steel and cement production alone. To address this challenge, we’ve developed a sustainable framework for procuring green materials—a critical step in the pursuit of net zero.
Article; Dit vliegtuigje betrapt vervuilende schepen op heterdaad
https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/vieze-uitstoot-schepen?share=ZCKWX2u0XTcYLNc7BG/GFR1BALE7RsO5iUSZdXY2QcwhaI fBZH9MOcZYQSLhYA
De gevoelige meetapparatuur registreert direct hoeveel CO2, stikstofoxiden, roet en zwavel het containerschip uitstoot. Op een schermpje tonen kleurrijke lijnen die hoeveelheden in een diagram. ‘Hier zie je de uitstoot van zwavel.’ Van Roy wijst naar een donkergroene lijn die stevig fluctueert. Nog binnen de norm. Zwavel leidt in te grote hoeveelheden tot ernstige luchtverontreiniging – het is een belangrijke veroorzaker van zure regen en gezondheidsproblemen. Het vormt fijnstof dat diep doordringt in de longen en aandoeningen kan veroorzaken aan de luchtwegen. Het kan ook leiden tot hart- en vaatziekten.
https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/vieze-uitstoot-schepen?share=ZCKWX2u0XTcYLNc7BG/GFR1BALE7RsO5iUSZdXY2QcwhaI fBZH9MOcZYQSLhYA
De gevoelige meetapparatuur registreert direct hoeveel CO2, stikstofoxiden, roet en zwavel het containerschip uitstoot. Op een schermpje tonen kleurrijke lijnen die hoeveelheden in een diagram. ‘Hier zie je de uitstoot van zwavel.’ Van Roy wijst naar een donkergroene lijn die stevig fluctueert. Nog binnen de norm. Zwavel leidt in te grote hoeveelheden tot ernstige luchtverontreiniging – het is een belangrijke veroorzaker van zure regen en gezondheidsproblemen. Het vormt fijnstof dat diep doordringt in de longen en aandoeningen kan veroorzaken aan de luchtwegen. Het kan ook leiden tot hart- en vaatziekten.
Article; How environmentally friendly are Iceland’s data centers?
https://techhq.com/2023/11/how-environmentally-friendly-are-icelands-data-centers/
Iceland certainly sees itself as one of the most viable options for handling our ever-growing data demands, and with good reason. The country has a mild climate all year round, with temperatures ranging from just above freezing in the winter to around 54°F (12°C) in the summer, and the range is even smaller on the south of the island. This essentially provides data centers, that produce a lot of heat but must be kept at around 68 to 77°F (20 to 25°C), with a free, natural cooling system that doesn’t require any energy. Iceland’s data center industry boasts an impressive power usage effectiveness (PUE) range of 1.05 to 1.2, thanks to the lack of air conditioning systems and instances of hardware overheating.
https://techhq.com/2023/11/how-environmentally-friendly-are-icelands-data-centers/
Iceland certainly sees itself as one of the most viable options for handling our ever-growing data demands, and with good reason. The country has a mild climate all year round, with temperatures ranging from just above freezing in the winter to around 54°F (12°C) in the summer, and the range is even smaller on the south of the island. This essentially provides data centers, that produce a lot of heat but must be kept at around 68 to 77°F (20 to 25°C), with a free, natural cooling system that doesn’t require any energy. Iceland’s data center industry boasts an impressive power usage effectiveness (PUE) range of 1.05 to 1.2, thanks to the lack of air conditioning systems and instances of hardware overheating.
Article; Electric mountain, The beauty of infrastructure
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/nov/02/beauty-of-infrastructure-electric-mountain-dinorwig-power-station-north-wales
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/nov/02/beauty-of-infrastructure-electric-mountain-dinorwig-power-station-north-wales
Infrastructural systems are more than just technical – they are social and political. They are shaped by the sustained relationships of the people who live in the places they connect, and they also form part of that relationship. They can’t easily be valued or assessed like a consumer good, where it’s “worth it” to buy something or not. Deciding to buy a car has little in common with deciding when, where and how to build the roads to drive it on. So infrastructural systems don’t lend themselves to decision-making that focuses solely on the costs or the returns on investment.
An infrastructural network can encode and promote a set of values: everyone should have access to clean water, or electricity is a necessity, or personal mobility is a human right, or a healthy population is important, or broadband access is required to fully participate in civic society, or even endangered fish should be protected. While infrastructural systems can meet basic human needs, providing agency and freedom, the specific form they take depends on cultural norms and expectations; in turn, the systems set and define those norms and expectations.
Supply Chain Alternatives if Climate Change-driven Water Shortages Persist at the Panama Canal
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/supply-chain-alternatives-ocean-shipping-if-climate-change-driven-water-shortages-persist
A severe drought is currently affecting the Panama Canal and, exacerbated by the weather pattern known as El Niño, water shortages are likely to persist well into 2024. For each ship transiting the canal, approximately 52 million gallons of water are needed to operate the sets of locks ascending from the Pacific Ocean toward Gatun Lake in Panama (the highest point of the canal at 85 feet above sea level) and descending again to sea level on the Atlantic Ocean side. The water required comes from Gatun Lake, an artificial lake built to service the canal, and other smaller sources. Because the drought has lowered lake water levels, a depth limit of 44 feet — 4 to 5 feet lower than normal — has been imposed on ships transiting the canal, and daily crossings have been reduced from 36 to 32, contributing to a backlog of 264 ships as of mid-August.
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/supply-chain-alternatives-ocean-shipping-if-climate-change-driven-water-shortages-persist
A severe drought is currently affecting the Panama Canal and, exacerbated by the weather pattern known as El Niño, water shortages are likely to persist well into 2024. For each ship transiting the canal, approximately 52 million gallons of water are needed to operate the sets of locks ascending from the Pacific Ocean toward Gatun Lake in Panama (the highest point of the canal at 85 feet above sea level) and descending again to sea level on the Atlantic Ocean side. The water required comes from Gatun Lake, an artificial lake built to service the canal, and other smaller sources. Because the drought has lowered lake water levels, a depth limit of 44 feet — 4 to 5 feet lower than normal — has been imposed on ships transiting the canal, and daily crossings have been reduced from 36 to 32, contributing to a backlog of 264 ships as of mid-August.
Article; China’s LOGINK Logistics Platform
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/chinas-logink-logistics-platform-and-its-strategic-potential-economic-political-and
LOGINK began in 2007 as a provincial-level truck and logistics tracking system in Zhejiang and by 2009 was expanding to all Chinese provinces, a process that unfolded alongside efforts to establish a unified document submission portal. In 2010, LOGINK began to incorporate data from the Northeast Asia Logistics Information Service Network (NEAL-NET), which initially covered container ship operations in the ports of Ningbo-Zhoushan (PRC), Tokyo-Yokohama (Japan), and Busan (South Korea). Six years later, the network included 11 Chinese ports, five Japanese ports, and three South Korean ports.
Fast forward to today, and LOGINK has become a world-scale information and intelligence funnel aggregating data from more than 450,000 users in China, 5 million trucks, multiple public databases in China, more than 200 Cainiao logistics warehouses worldwide, CargoSmart (which live tracks more than 90% of global container ships), Chinese domestic ports, and up to two dozen foreign ports.
Access to foreign port community systems amplifies LOGINK’s data haul. LOGINK’s cooperation agreements and partnerships include PortBase (Netherlands), Maqta (UAE), and Network of Trusted Networks data from the International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA), whose members include tens of ports worldwide. Port community systems offer a critical entry point because once LOGINK is plugged into their data streams, PRC firms will not even necessarily need a physical presence at a given point in the supply chain to achieve significant data visibility and insights into cargo flows. With such expansive tentacles, LOGINK provides the most comprehensive picture available of national — and increasingly, global — logistics activities and, according to one analyst, is a decade ahead of rival information systems.
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/chinas-logink-logistics-platform-and-its-strategic-potential-economic-political-and
LOGINK began in 2007 as a provincial-level truck and logistics tracking system in Zhejiang and by 2009 was expanding to all Chinese provinces, a process that unfolded alongside efforts to establish a unified document submission portal. In 2010, LOGINK began to incorporate data from the Northeast Asia Logistics Information Service Network (NEAL-NET), which initially covered container ship operations in the ports of Ningbo-Zhoushan (PRC), Tokyo-Yokohama (Japan), and Busan (South Korea). Six years later, the network included 11 Chinese ports, five Japanese ports, and three South Korean ports.
Fast forward to today, and LOGINK has become a world-scale information and intelligence funnel aggregating data from more than 450,000 users in China, 5 million trucks, multiple public databases in China, more than 200 Cainiao logistics warehouses worldwide, CargoSmart (which live tracks more than 90% of global container ships), Chinese domestic ports, and up to two dozen foreign ports.
Access to foreign port community systems amplifies LOGINK’s data haul. LOGINK’s cooperation agreements and partnerships include PortBase (Netherlands), Maqta (UAE), and Network of Trusted Networks data from the International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA), whose members include tens of ports worldwide. Port community systems offer a critical entry point because once LOGINK is plugged into their data streams, PRC firms will not even necessarily need a physical presence at a given point in the supply chain to achieve significant data visibility and insights into cargo flows. With such expansive tentacles, LOGINK provides the most comprehensive picture available of national — and increasingly, global — logistics activities and, according to one analyst, is a decade ahead of rival information systems.
Outlaw Ocean: The China Report
https://www.theoutlawocean.com/investigations/china-the-superpower-of-seafood/
Since then, China has invested heavily in its fleet. The country now catches more than five billion pounds of seafood a year through distant-water fishing, the biggest portion of it squid. China’s seafood industry, which is estimated to be worth more than thirty-five billion dollars, accounts for a fifth of the international trade, and has helped create fifteen million jobs. The Chinese state owns much of the industry—including some twenty per cent of its squid ships—and oversees the rest through the Overseas Fisheries Association. Today, the nation consumes more than a third of the world’s fish.
https://www.theoutlawocean.com/investigations/china-the-superpower-of-seafood/
Since then, China has invested heavily in its fleet. The country now catches more than five billion pounds of seafood a year through distant-water fishing, the biggest portion of it squid. China’s seafood industry, which is estimated to be worth more than thirty-five billion dollars, accounts for a fifth of the international trade, and has helped create fifteen million jobs. The Chinese state owns much of the industry—including some twenty per cent of its squid ships—and oversees the rest through the Overseas Fisheries Association. Today, the nation consumes more than a third of the world’s fish.
Article; AI Data Ingestion
https://comics.packagex.io/p/ai-data-ingestion
According to a recent survey by Freightos, 95% of supply chain professionals think AI will impact logistics but only 7% are actively using it. Perhaps the largest barrier to entry to adopting AI is reliance on pen and paper, which 50% of companies still use to manage logistics operations.
https://comics.packagex.io/p/ai-data-ingestion
According to a recent survey by Freightos, 95% of supply chain professionals think AI will impact logistics but only 7% are actively using it. Perhaps the largest barrier to entry to adopting AI is reliance on pen and paper, which 50% of companies still use to manage logistics operations.
Article, California's new supply chain laws
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/07/newsom-california-climate-disclosure-00120474
Taken together, the laws will change the landscape for corporate disclosure. For the first time in the U.S., large publicly traded and privately held corporations doing business in California will need to make public both their impact on the environment, including Scope 3 emissions or those generated through a company’s value chain, and how climate change is impacting their bottom line.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/07/newsom-california-climate-disclosure-00120474
Taken together, the laws will change the landscape for corporate disclosure. For the first time in the U.S., large publicly traded and privately held corporations doing business in California will need to make public both their impact on the environment, including Scope 3 emissions or those generated through a company’s value chain, and how climate change is impacting their bottom line.
Article; Why shipping should be worried about soaring ocean temperatures
https://splash247.com/why-shipping-should-be-worried-about-soaring-ocean-temperatures
The biggest threat to the commercial shipping sector from the warming seas will be the increased frequency and intensity of weather hazards driven by ocean warming. These include more intense hurricanes, heavier rainfall and snowstorms as well as shifts in weather patterns so much so that some areas face rainstorms and flooding while others face worsening drought conditions and wildfire risks. There is no need to look further than the drought and water shortages at the Panama Canal which make passage through the canal less reliable and delay vessels.
https://splash247.com/why-shipping-should-be-worried-about-soaring-ocean-temperatures
The biggest threat to the commercial shipping sector from the warming seas will be the increased frequency and intensity of weather hazards driven by ocean warming. These include more intense hurricanes, heavier rainfall and snowstorms as well as shifts in weather patterns so much so that some areas face rainstorms and flooding while others face worsening drought conditions and wildfire risks. There is no need to look further than the drought and water shortages at the Panama Canal which make passage through the canal less reliable and delay vessels.
Article; Microchips in the Parmigiano
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/microchips-in-the-parmigiano-and-other-ways-europeans-are-fighting-fake-food/ar-AA1fn7ct
New methods to guarantee the origin of products are being used across the EU. Some wineries are putting serial numbers, invisible ink and holograms on their bottles. So-called DNA fingerprinting of milk bacteria pioneered in Switzerland, which isn’t in the EU, is now being tested inside the bloc as a method for identifying cheese. QR codes are also proliferating, including on individual portions of pre-sliced Prosciutto di San Daniele, a raw ham similar to Prosciutto di Parma. A smartphone can be used to show information such as how long the prosciutto has been aged and when it was sliced. Food fraud is particularly rampant for cheese and wine, but is also common with fresh and cured meats, fish and produce. In addition to fighting against products that fraudulently present themselves as the European original, the EU is also waging battles over the naming rights of cheeses and other products, trying to stop other countries from using names such as Champagne, feta and Gouda.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/microchips-in-the-parmigiano-and-other-ways-europeans-are-fighting-fake-food/ar-AA1fn7ct
New methods to guarantee the origin of products are being used across the EU. Some wineries are putting serial numbers, invisible ink and holograms on their bottles. So-called DNA fingerprinting of milk bacteria pioneered in Switzerland, which isn’t in the EU, is now being tested inside the bloc as a method for identifying cheese. QR codes are also proliferating, including on individual portions of pre-sliced Prosciutto di San Daniele, a raw ham similar to Prosciutto di Parma. A smartphone can be used to show information such as how long the prosciutto has been aged and when it was sliced. Food fraud is particularly rampant for cheese and wine, but is also common with fresh and cured meats, fish and produce. In addition to fighting against products that fraudulently present themselves as the European original, the EU is also waging battles over the naming rights of cheeses and other products, trying to stop other countries from using names such as Champagne, feta and Gouda.
Article; What Happens to All the Stuff We Return?
https://archive.ph/dxz2X
Earlier this year, I attended a three-day conference, in Las Vegas, conducted by the Reverse Logistics Association, a trade group whose members deal in various ways with product returns, unsold inventories, and other capitalist jetsam. The field is large and growing. Dale Rogers, a business professor at Arizona State, gave a joint presentation with his son Zachary, a business professor at Colorado State, during which they said that winter-holiday returns in the United States are now worth more than three hundred billion dollars a year.
https://archive.ph/dxz2X
Earlier this year, I attended a three-day conference, in Las Vegas, conducted by the Reverse Logistics Association, a trade group whose members deal in various ways with product returns, unsold inventories, and other capitalist jetsam. The field is large and growing. Dale Rogers, a business professor at Arizona State, gave a joint presentation with his son Zachary, a business professor at Colorado State, during which they said that winter-holiday returns in the United States are now worth more than three hundred billion dollars a year.
Article, The Hidden Victims of the Shadow Fleet
https://hakaimagazine.com/news/the-hidden-victims-of-the-shadow-fleet/
As staff at the ship-tracking service Tanker Trackers noted, the Pablo had spent years smuggling Iranian oil. The vessel also featured on a list of ships under investigation for sanctions-busting by the organization United Against Nuclear Iran. It quickly became clear that for as long as Tripathi had been working on the ship, the vessel he’d called home had been smuggling oil for the Iranian regime. The ship was a member of the so-called shadow fleet, which emerged in 2018 shortly after the United States reimposed a flood of sanctions against Iran. The sanctions had been waived in 2015 as part of an international effort to end Iran’s nuclear program. But in May 2018, then-president Donald Trump reversed course. In response, Iran enlisted a fleet of vintage tankers to secretly transport its oil without US oversight.
https://hakaimagazine.com/news/the-hidden-victims-of-the-shadow-fleet/
As staff at the ship-tracking service Tanker Trackers noted, the Pablo had spent years smuggling Iranian oil. The vessel also featured on a list of ships under investigation for sanctions-busting by the organization United Against Nuclear Iran. It quickly became clear that for as long as Tripathi had been working on the ship, the vessel he’d called home had been smuggling oil for the Iranian regime. The ship was a member of the so-called shadow fleet, which emerged in 2018 shortly after the United States reimposed a flood of sanctions against Iran. The sanctions had been waived in 2015 as part of an international effort to end Iran’s nuclear program. But in May 2018, then-president Donald Trump reversed course. In response, Iran enlisted a fleet of vintage tankers to secretly transport its oil without US oversight.
Article; Global Race for Lithium Lands in Rural Brazil
https://nacla.org/global-race-lithium-brazil
The global energy transition is set to require a staggering increase in the lithium supply. An essential element in EV batteries, demand could increase as much as 42 times over two decades according to International Energy Agency projections. Jequitinhonha Valley sits on 85 percent of Brazil's known lithium deposits, which has sparked a race to invest and develop. In May, Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema and Brazilian federal officials traveled to Nasdaq in New York to launch the “Lithium Valley” project, looking for international investors for the lithium mining companies operating in the region. A "Preserve the Environment!" sign representing the Araçuaí Environmental Secretary and Sigma Lithium (Sam Klein-Markman) A "Preserve the Environment!" sign representing the Araçuaí Environmental Secretary and Sigma Lithium (Sam Klein-Markman) The Valley of Opportunity? In promoting this investment, officials are making the case that lithium mining will remake the long-neglected region into a “valley of opportunity.” Central to that campaign is Sigma Lithium, which began production in April, the first of the new mining companies in the region to do so. Sigma promises to produce a “green” lithium using renewable energy and 90 percent recycled water, to hire local, and to voluntarily invest more than the country requires in local municipalities and environmental projects. Sigma expects its Grota do Cirilo mining site to be in production for 13 years, generating over $5 billion for the company and over $200 million in payments to local municipalities. This year, the company expects to pay around $10.7 million to Araçuaí and its neighboring town Itinga, just under a tenth of the two municipalities’ combined GDP according to data from Brazil’s 2022 census. Sigma has also instituted programs to construct wells for rural communities, create lines of microcredit for local women entrepreneurs, and pay for the preservation of local forest land. Even so, as the region appears to be undergoing a transformative lithium boom, there is growing concern about the costs for rural communities that are most vulnerable to the environmental impacts of mining, and about whether local governments can translate the presence of international mining businesses into lasting gains for the region’s residents. The Movement for People Affected by Dams (MAB) has been campaigning against the advance of lithium mining, citing inevitable environmental degradation, water-intensive practices, and the opposition of federally protected quilombo communities—settlements generally founded by escap
https://nacla.org/global-race-lithium-brazil
The global energy transition is set to require a staggering increase in the lithium supply. An essential element in EV batteries, demand could increase as much as 42 times over two decades according to International Energy Agency projections. Jequitinhonha Valley sits on 85 percent of Brazil's known lithium deposits, which has sparked a race to invest and develop. In May, Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema and Brazilian federal officials traveled to Nasdaq in New York to launch the “Lithium Valley” project, looking for international investors for the lithium mining companies operating in the region. A "Preserve the Environment!" sign representing the Araçuaí Environmental Secretary and Sigma Lithium (Sam Klein-Markman) A "Preserve the Environment!" sign representing the Araçuaí Environmental Secretary and Sigma Lithium (Sam Klein-Markman) The Valley of Opportunity? In promoting this investment, officials are making the case that lithium mining will remake the long-neglected region into a “valley of opportunity.” Central to that campaign is Sigma Lithium, which began production in April, the first of the new mining companies in the region to do so. Sigma promises to produce a “green” lithium using renewable energy and 90 percent recycled water, to hire local, and to voluntarily invest more than the country requires in local municipalities and environmental projects. Sigma expects its Grota do Cirilo mining site to be in production for 13 years, generating over $5 billion for the company and over $200 million in payments to local municipalities. This year, the company expects to pay around $10.7 million to Araçuaí and its neighboring town Itinga, just under a tenth of the two municipalities’ combined GDP according to data from Brazil’s 2022 census. Sigma has also instituted programs to construct wells for rural communities, create lines of microcredit for local women entrepreneurs, and pay for the preservation of local forest land. Even so, as the region appears to be undergoing a transformative lithium boom, there is growing concern about the costs for rural communities that are most vulnerable to the environmental impacts of mining, and about whether local governments can translate the presence of international mining businesses into lasting gains for the region’s residents. The Movement for People Affected by Dams (MAB) has been campaigning against the advance of lithium mining, citing inevitable environmental degradation, water-intensive practices, and the opposition of federally protected quilombo communities—settlements generally founded by escap
Article; Shortening food supply chains using forgotten crops
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/kruiprogge-zomergerst-spelt-veldje-voor-veldje-brengt-marcel-van-silfhout-de-granen-van-vroeger-terug-in-het-landschap~b7bba674/
Van Silfhout onderzocht als journalist wat er misgaat in de (lange) voedselketens van tegenwoordig. Hij besloot zelf aan de slag te gaan. Het resultaat: brood op de plank en kruiden in het veld. ‘Ik doorbreek die Berlijnse muur tussen natuur en intensieve landbouw.’
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/kruiprogge-zomergerst-spelt-veldje-voor-veldje-brengt-marcel-van-silfhout-de-granen-van-vroeger-terug-in-het-landschap~b7bba674/
Van Silfhout onderzocht als journalist wat er misgaat in de (lange) voedselketens van tegenwoordig. Hij besloot zelf aan de slag te gaan. Het resultaat: brood op de plank en kruiden in het veld. ‘Ik doorbreek die Berlijnse muur tussen natuur en intensieve landbouw.’
Who owns farmer's data
https://datavaluesdigest.substack.com/p/who-owns-farmers-data
Farmers and food producers, especially in low- and middle-income countries, face immense challenges: price increases on the input end against notoriously low and unstable prices on the output end, extreme weather events, shifting consumer demand, and rapidly changing regulatory environments—to name a few. Like other industries, the agricultural sector responds to these challenges with digital technology. Think of precision agriculture technologies such as sensors and drones, which can be used to monitor crop health and optimize inputs, while AI can analyze data on weather patterns, market demand, and supply chain logistics to improve decision-making. Many of these resources, however, are restricted to large farm owners that can afford them.
https://datavaluesdigest.substack.com/p/who-owns-farmers-data
Farmers and food producers, especially in low- and middle-income countries, face immense challenges: price increases on the input end against notoriously low and unstable prices on the output end, extreme weather events, shifting consumer demand, and rapidly changing regulatory environments—to name a few. Like other industries, the agricultural sector responds to these challenges with digital technology. Think of precision agriculture technologies such as sensors and drones, which can be used to monitor crop health and optimize inputs, while AI can analyze data on weather patterns, market demand, and supply chain logistics to improve decision-making. Many of these resources, however, are restricted to large farm owners that can afford them.
The Shipping Climate Crunch
https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/06/08/Shipping-Climate-Crunch/
“International shipping as a sector is a major source of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, and it is one of the only two sectors, the other being international aviation, which is not covered under the Paris climate agreement,” Laskar said. Shipping needs to adopt measures in line with the international goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 C, he said, which means moving away from using fossil-based fuels. “Currently the sector does not have that goal.”
https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/06/08/Shipping-Climate-Crunch/
“International shipping as a sector is a major source of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, and it is one of the only two sectors, the other being international aviation, which is not covered under the Paris climate agreement,” Laskar said. Shipping needs to adopt measures in line with the international goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 C, he said, which means moving away from using fossil-based fuels. “Currently the sector does not have that goal.”
Article; Leefbaar loon voor theeplukkers lijkt uit zicht na overname van Unilevers theedivisie
https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/leefbaar-loon-voor-unilevers-theeplukkers-uit-zicht?share=MuxZbTTOr6W5BG7HAaXhNkG2zyTrpkz2U1Zu46dabMF2fTfxbuhc0iqONXNCQZs%3D
Na een jarenlange stroom van misstanden in de productieketen en stokkende omzet verkocht Unilever zijn theebusiness, met merken als Lipton en Pukka, vorig jaar aan private equity investeerder CVC Capital. Voor kwetsbare theeplukkers in de keten werd het er niet beter op. ‘Dit zal de problemen die er nu al in de theesector zijn verergeren, zoals uitbuiting, lage lonen en misbruik.’
https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/leefbaar-loon-voor-unilevers-theeplukkers-uit-zicht?share=MuxZbTTOr6W5BG7HAaXhNkG2zyTrpkz2U1Zu46dabMF2fTfxbuhc0iqONXNCQZs%3D
Na een jarenlange stroom van misstanden in de productieketen en stokkende omzet verkocht Unilever zijn theebusiness, met merken als Lipton en Pukka, vorig jaar aan private equity investeerder CVC Capital. Voor kwetsbare theeplukkers in de keten werd het er niet beter op. ‘Dit zal de problemen die er nu al in de theesector zijn verergeren, zoals uitbuiting, lage lonen en misbruik.’
Article; How Rana Plaza catalyzed a transparency movement and the lessons learned on opening data at
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-rana-plaza-catalyzed-transparency-movement-lessons-grillon/
April 24, 2023 marked the 10 year anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, an industrial tragedy of unprecedented scale in which over 1,110 people died and more than 2,500 were left injured. In the immediate aftermath, activists on the ground dug through rubble trying to find clothing with tags to identify who might be held accountable. The collapse left families forever changed; husbands, wives, sisters and brothers lost; children left without mothers. While the conditions which led to the accident and the longer term worker advocacy efforts which followed have, rightly, been widely covered elsewhere, the accident led to a shift in the apparel sector. It catapulted issues of abuse and neglect in apparel supply chains into the global public consciousness, giving campaigners who had been active in this sector for many years previously a more visible platform for their activism. What did this look like in practice?
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-rana-plaza-catalyzed-transparency-movement-lessons-grillon/
April 24, 2023 marked the 10 year anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, an industrial tragedy of unprecedented scale in which over 1,110 people died and more than 2,500 were left injured. In the immediate aftermath, activists on the ground dug through rubble trying to find clothing with tags to identify who might be held accountable. The collapse left families forever changed; husbands, wives, sisters and brothers lost; children left without mothers. While the conditions which led to the accident and the longer term worker advocacy efforts which followed have, rightly, been widely covered elsewhere, the accident led to a shift in the apparel sector. It catapulted issues of abuse and neglect in apparel supply chains into the global public consciousness, giving campaigners who had been active in this sector for many years previously a more visible platform for their activism. What did this look like in practice?
PDF; Turbulent Circulation
https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/26197/3/Introduction%20-%202018.05.23%20revised%20for%20EPD.pdf
Since the mid-20th century, logistics has evolved into a wide-ranging science of circulation involved in planning and managing flows of innumerable kinds. In this introductory essay, we take stock of the ascendancy and proliferation of logistics, proposing a critical engagement with the field. We argue that logistics is not limited to the management of supply chains, military or corporate. Rather, it is better understood as a calculative logic and spatial practice of circulation that is at the fore of the reorganization of capitalism and war. Viewed from this perspective, the rise of logistics has transformed not only the physical movement of materials but also the very rationality by which space is organized. It has remade economic and military space according to a universalizing logic of abstract flow, exacerbating existing patterns of uneven geographical development.
https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/26197/3/Introduction%20-%202018.05.23%20revised%20for%20EPD.pdf
Since the mid-20th century, logistics has evolved into a wide-ranging science of circulation involved in planning and managing flows of innumerable kinds. In this introductory essay, we take stock of the ascendancy and proliferation of logistics, proposing a critical engagement with the field. We argue that logistics is not limited to the management of supply chains, military or corporate. Rather, it is better understood as a calculative logic and spatial practice of circulation that is at the fore of the reorganization of capitalism and war. Viewed from this perspective, the rise of logistics has transformed not only the physical movement of materials but also the very rationality by which space is organized. It has remade economic and military space according to a universalizing logic of abstract flow, exacerbating existing patterns of uneven geographical development.
Article; Shipping Doesn’t Do What Everyone Says it Does
https://weirdeconomies.com/contributions/producing-circulation
One way that we’ve been thinking about logistics recently is as a project of time management, at planetary scale. Logistics seems to no longer be the annihilation of space by time, but the management of time (or contingency, or money) through the perceived capacity to manipulate space — bigger ships, more containers, and bigger ports to accommodate them. But as it becomes harder and harder to sustain the promise of things moved quickly, the whole thing begins to collapse. One question that lies at the forefront of much recent attention to supply chains and commodity flows is, ‘can the current map of financial flows survive a remapping of the world’s shipping system?’. A more pragmatic question might be whether the shipping system can survive its own financially-minded, oligopolistic death drive — or even, in its current bloated state, if it should. Virilio famously said that the invention of the ship is the invention of the shipwreck. To return to where we started, now it seems as though the mass shipwreck is the inauguration of shipping’s weird new era.
https://weirdeconomies.com/contributions/producing-circulation
One way that we’ve been thinking about logistics recently is as a project of time management, at planetary scale. Logistics seems to no longer be the annihilation of space by time, but the management of time (or contingency, or money) through the perceived capacity to manipulate space — bigger ships, more containers, and bigger ports to accommodate them. But as it becomes harder and harder to sustain the promise of things moved quickly, the whole thing begins to collapse. One question that lies at the forefront of much recent attention to supply chains and commodity flows is, ‘can the current map of financial flows survive a remapping of the world’s shipping system?’. A more pragmatic question might be whether the shipping system can survive its own financially-minded, oligopolistic death drive — or even, in its current bloated state, if it should. Virilio famously said that the invention of the ship is the invention of the shipwreck. To return to where we started, now it seems as though the mass shipwreck is the inauguration of shipping’s weird new era.
Article; Logistics, Counterlogistics and the Communist Prospect
https://endnotes.org.uk/articles/logistics-counterlogistics-and-the-communist-prospect
Today’s supply chains are distinguished not just by their planetary extension and incredible speed but by their direct integration of manufacture and retail, their harmonisation of the rhythms of production and consumption. Since the 1980s, business writers have touted the value of “lean” and “flexible” production models, in which suppliers maintain the capacity to expand and contract production, as well as change the types of commodities produced, by relying on a network of subcontractors, temporary workers, and mutable organisational structures, adaptations that require precise control over the flow of goods and information between units. Originally associated with the Toyota Production System, and Japanese manufacturers in general, these corporate forms are now frequently identified with the loose moniker Just In Time (JIT), which refers in the specific sense to a form of inventory management and in general to a production philosophy in which firms aim to eliminate standing inventory (whether produced in-house or received from suppliers). Derived in part from the Japanese and in part from Anglo-American cybernetics, JIT is a circulationist production philosophy, oriented around a concept of “continuous flow” that views everything not in motion as a form of waste (muda), a drag on profits. JIT aims to submit all production to the condition of circulation, pushing its velocity as far toward the light-speed of information transmission as possible. From the perspective of our blockaders, this emphasis on the quick and continuous flow of commodities multiplies the power of the blockade. In the absence of standing inventories, a blockade of just a few days could effectively paralyse many manufacturers and retailers.
https://endnotes.org.uk/articles/logistics-counterlogistics-and-the-communist-prospect
Today’s supply chains are distinguished not just by their planetary extension and incredible speed but by their direct integration of manufacture and retail, their harmonisation of the rhythms of production and consumption. Since the 1980s, business writers have touted the value of “lean” and “flexible” production models, in which suppliers maintain the capacity to expand and contract production, as well as change the types of commodities produced, by relying on a network of subcontractors, temporary workers, and mutable organisational structures, adaptations that require precise control over the flow of goods and information between units. Originally associated with the Toyota Production System, and Japanese manufacturers in general, these corporate forms are now frequently identified with the loose moniker Just In Time (JIT), which refers in the specific sense to a form of inventory management and in general to a production philosophy in which firms aim to eliminate standing inventory (whether produced in-house or received from suppliers). Derived in part from the Japanese and in part from Anglo-American cybernetics, JIT is a circulationist production philosophy, oriented around a concept of “continuous flow” that views everything not in motion as a form of waste (muda), a drag on profits. JIT aims to submit all production to the condition of circulation, pushing its velocity as far toward the light-speed of information transmission as possible. From the perspective of our blockaders, this emphasis on the quick and continuous flow of commodities multiplies the power of the blockade. In the absence of standing inventories, a blockade of just a few days could effectively paralyse many manufacturers and retailers.
Article: Can Cybersocialist Planning Become a Reality?
https://jacobin.com/2023/04/cybersocialism-economic-planning-marxism-information-theory-econophysics
The digital revolution of recent decades allows for much more developed resource allocation than was possible in the 20th century. Cybersocialist planning, some argue, can provide for a rational allocation of resources, under real democratic control.
https://jacobin.com/2023/04/cybersocialism-economic-planning-marxism-information-theory-econophysics
The digital revolution of recent decades allows for much more developed resource allocation than was possible in the 20th century. Cybersocialist planning, some argue, can provide for a rational allocation of resources, under real democratic control.
Article: Cybernetics of the Future
https://cosmonautmag.com/2022/07/glushkov-and-his-ideas-cybernetics-of-the-future-by-vasiliy-pikhorovich/
As capitalist waste leads to more and more obviously ecological devastation, we communists must be louder in proclaiming that another world is possible. Opposed to the anarchy of the market is the idea of a planned economy, and more specifically a socialist one. The centennial objection to planning is that it is impossible to plan something as complex as the economy that results from millions of agents making billions of transactions. However, with computers that are becoming smarter every day and increasingly capable of solving some of the most complex problems in the world, why should economic planning be excluded from these advances?
https://cosmonautmag.com/2022/07/glushkov-and-his-ideas-cybernetics-of-the-future-by-vasiliy-pikhorovich/
As capitalist waste leads to more and more obviously ecological devastation, we communists must be louder in proclaiming that another world is possible. Opposed to the anarchy of the market is the idea of a planned economy, and more specifically a socialist one. The centennial objection to planning is that it is impossible to plan something as complex as the economy that results from millions of agents making billions of transactions. However, with computers that are becoming smarter every day and increasingly capable of solving some of the most complex problems in the world, why should economic planning be excluded from these advances?
Article: Big Business games the supply chain
https://prospect.org/economy/big-business-games-the-supply-chain/
Big-box stores, however, have circumvented many of the bottlenecks. Amazon, Walmart, and other giants have maintained their inventory by expanding logistics operations and striking deals with suppliers, allowing them to get products quicker and cheaper than their smaller rivals. Though the maneuvers keep consumers happy, small businesses have suffered: They wait longer for goods, pay more for shipping, and lose business as customers flock to big-box stores.
https://prospect.org/economy/big-business-games-the-supply-chain/
Big-box stores, however, have circumvented many of the bottlenecks. Amazon, Walmart, and other giants have maintained their inventory by expanding logistics operations and striking deals with suppliers, allowing them to get products quicker and cheaper than their smaller rivals. Though the maneuvers keep consumers happy, small businesses have suffered: They wait longer for goods, pay more for shipping, and lose business as customers flock to big-box stores.
Article: Hidden costs of containerization
https://prospect.org/economy/hidden-costs-of-containerization/
It’s no exaggeration to say that the rise of the shipping container revolutionized the global economy. The abundance of plentiful and cheap goods we have become accustomed to finding at our local Walmart would not exist without the shipping container. Containerization drastically reduced the expense of international trade and increased the speed at which goods are delivered. Today, more than 60 percent of the world’s consumer goods, nearly $14 trillion worth of everything from iPhones to Chiquita bananas, are transported this way. Practically everything we own, will own, or ever want to own has been and will be shipped in a container.
https://prospect.org/economy/hidden-costs-of-containerization/
It’s no exaggeration to say that the rise of the shipping container revolutionized the global economy. The abundance of plentiful and cheap goods we have become accustomed to finding at our local Walmart would not exist without the shipping container. Containerization drastically reduced the expense of international trade and increased the speed at which goods are delivered. Today, more than 60 percent of the world’s consumer goods, nearly $14 trillion worth of everything from iPhones to Chiquita bananas, are transported this way. Practically everything we own, will own, or ever want to own has been and will be shipped in a container.
Bon Jovi and the Dock Worker
https://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/07/10/bon-jovi-livin-on-a-prayer/
Bon Jovi is “working for the man” indeed. While, at first glance, “Living on a Prayer” seems to be a paean to the working class couples of the world, the text ultimately is meant as an opiate for the masses. It suggests that the poor workers of the world must “hold onto what they’ve got,” rather than rising up against their capitalist oppressors.
https://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/07/10/bon-jovi-livin-on-a-prayer/
Bon Jovi is “working for the man” indeed. While, at first glance, “Living on a Prayer” seems to be a paean to the working class couples of the world, the text ultimately is meant as an opiate for the masses. It suggests that the poor workers of the world must “hold onto what they’ve got,” rather than rising up against their capitalist oppressors.
Article; How We Broke the Supply Chain
https://prospect.org/economy/how-we-broke-the-supply-chain-intro/
Almost none of these stories will explain how these shortages and price hikes were also brought to life through bad public policy coupled with decades of corporate greed. We spent a half-century allowing business executives and financiers to take control of our supply chains, enabled by leaders in both parties. They all hailed the transformation, cheering the advances of globalization, the efficient network that would free us from want. Motivated by greed and dismissive of the public interest, they didn’t mention that their invention was supremely ill-equipped to handle inevitable supply bottlenecks. And the pandemic exposed this hidden risk, like a domino bringing down a system primed to topple.
https://prospect.org/economy/how-we-broke-the-supply-chain-intro/
Almost none of these stories will explain how these shortages and price hikes were also brought to life through bad public policy coupled with decades of corporate greed. We spent a half-century allowing business executives and financiers to take control of our supply chains, enabled by leaders in both parties. They all hailed the transformation, cheering the advances of globalization, the efficient network that would free us from want. Motivated by greed and dismissive of the public interest, they didn’t mention that their invention was supremely ill-equipped to handle inevitable supply bottlenecks. And the pandemic exposed this hidden risk, like a domino bringing down a system primed to topple.
Article, Ghost Ships
https://logicmag.io/pivot/ghost-ships/
Squinting against the sun, I tried to imagine the ships another way: as numbers on a screen, cells in a spreadsheet, dots on a grid. I’d been reading about the information transfer that accompanies the movement of these vessels, and I knew that the scale of this data is nearly as impressive as the ships’ sheer size. Ships like those docked at Long Beach are vital links in the global supply chain, but they’re also floating “data terminals,” as the global maritime industry consultancy Lloyd’s Register put it in 2015. Increasingly, these vessels receive and transmit an enormous amount of information: about their position, of course, but also about weather, traffic, temperature, maintenance, staffing, ocean conditions, and much more. The streams of information are so complex that they threaten to exceed humans’ ability to interpret them. That’s partly why many newer vessels—“smart ships,” in industry parlance—use complex algorithms (some of them devised by Google and Microsoft) to chart their courses. Within the next decade, carriers hope to launch fleets of automated or remote-controlled vessels—“ghost ships,” as they’re sometimes called.
https://logicmag.io/pivot/ghost-ships/
Squinting against the sun, I tried to imagine the ships another way: as numbers on a screen, cells in a spreadsheet, dots on a grid. I’d been reading about the information transfer that accompanies the movement of these vessels, and I knew that the scale of this data is nearly as impressive as the ships’ sheer size. Ships like those docked at Long Beach are vital links in the global supply chain, but they’re also floating “data terminals,” as the global maritime industry consultancy Lloyd’s Register put it in 2015. Increasingly, these vessels receive and transmit an enormous amount of information: about their position, of course, but also about weather, traffic, temperature, maintenance, staffing, ocean conditions, and much more. The streams of information are so complex that they threaten to exceed humans’ ability to interpret them. That’s partly why many newer vessels—“smart ships,” in industry parlance—use complex algorithms (some of them devised by Google and Microsoft) to chart their courses. Within the next decade, carriers hope to launch fleets of automated or remote-controlled vessels—“ghost ships,” as they’re sometimes called.
Article, Droughts and Dams
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/droughts-and-dams/
Most of Zambia’s grid electricity is generated by hydropower. Over the past decade, recurring droughts—in 2015, 2016, 2019, and now again in 2022—have exposed deep vulnerabilities in the system. These droughts have unleashed unprecedented power outages, with low reservoir levels constraining hydroelectricity generation capacity.
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/droughts-and-dams/
Most of Zambia’s grid electricity is generated by hydropower. Over the past decade, recurring droughts—in 2015, 2016, 2019, and now again in 2022—have exposed deep vulnerabilities in the system. These droughts have unleashed unprecedented power outages, with low reservoir levels constraining hydroelectricity generation capacity.
Article, Big Brands and the wild west of supply chains
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/19/how-big-brands-like-tesco-are-drawn-to-wild-west-of-global-supply-chain
Hundreds of factories surround the border city of Mae Sot in the far west of Thailand. It is so close to Myanmar that at times the bombs of the civil war can be heard from its centre. Almost all the garment factories here rely on the flow of cheap Burmese labour fleeing war and economic hardship. Their hard work, willingness to accept pay well below the Thai minimum wage and a lack of legal rights make them an attractive prospect for factories trying to cut costs. And the sale price of what they produce on these tiny wages attracts big brands.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/19/how-big-brands-like-tesco-are-drawn-to-wild-west-of-global-supply-chain
Hundreds of factories surround the border city of Mae Sot in the far west of Thailand. It is so close to Myanmar that at times the bombs of the civil war can be heard from its centre. Almost all the garment factories here rely on the flow of cheap Burmese labour fleeing war and economic hardship. Their hard work, willingness to accept pay well below the Thai minimum wage and a lack of legal rights make them an attractive prospect for factories trying to cut costs. And the sale price of what they produce on these tiny wages attracts big brands.
Article, Cyborg Trucking
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/karen-levy/
In her new book Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance, Karen Levy of Cornell University offers an in-depth view of the US long haul trucking industry, explaining why so few workers today are willing to take up what was once considered a respectable, skilled job. Decimated by waves of deregulation and union-busting since the 1970s, a once highly organized and well-paid workforce has fragmented over time, subjected to the intensifying discipline of markets and management.
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/karen-levy/
In her new book Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance, Karen Levy of Cornell University offers an in-depth view of the US long haul trucking industry, explaining why so few workers today are willing to take up what was once considered a respectable, skilled job. Decimated by waves of deregulation and union-busting since the 1970s, a once highly organized and well-paid workforce has fragmented over time, subjected to the intensifying discipline of markets and management.
Article, Indonesia’s electric vehicle batteries dream has a dirty nickel problem
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2022/09/21/indonesias-electric-vehicle-batteries-dream-has-a-dirty-nickel-problem/
Indonesia—the world’s largest nickel miner—is making moves to become a key player in the electric vehicle supply chain. Most of Indonesia’s nickel output is currently Class 2 nickel, a low-purity type used for stainless steel. The country’s government and the mining sector are determined to transform its nickel industry to meet the rising demand for Class 1 nickel, a crucial component for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. EVs are widely viewed as a pillar of the transition toward renewable energy sources since they typically have a smaller carbon footprint over their lifespan than gasoline-powered vehicles. These efforts have seen some success to date, with the EV and battery manufacturing sector making investments in the country’s downstream industry (in other words, investment in end-uses of nickel, such as EV batteries), including an EV battery cell plant near Jakarta.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2022/09/21/indonesias-electric-vehicle-batteries-dream-has-a-dirty-nickel-problem/
Indonesia—the world’s largest nickel miner—is making moves to become a key player in the electric vehicle supply chain. Most of Indonesia’s nickel output is currently Class 2 nickel, a low-purity type used for stainless steel. The country’s government and the mining sector are determined to transform its nickel industry to meet the rising demand for Class 1 nickel, a crucial component for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. EVs are widely viewed as a pillar of the transition toward renewable energy sources since they typically have a smaller carbon footprint over their lifespan than gasoline-powered vehicles. These efforts have seen some success to date, with the EV and battery manufacturing sector making investments in the country’s downstream industry (in other words, investment in end-uses of nickel, such as EV batteries), including an EV battery cell plant near Jakarta.
Article, A data-sharing approach for supply chain visibility
https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/a-data-sharing-approach-for-greater-supply-chain-visibility/
Amid the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation, the war in Ukraine, geopolitical tensions in East Asia, and more frequent extreme weather events, manufacturing supply chains continue to struggle in bringing goods when and where they are needed. These disruptions have affected all aspects of end-to-end supply chains, producing demand shifts, supply and manufacturing capacity reductions, and coordination failures. Prior to 2020, most supply chain designs lacked the resilience needed to cope with these disruptions, and, in response, companies have tried to diversify their sourcing and increase inventories and manufacturing capacity, all of which have led to increased cost. Now more than ever, companies need a new paradigm for cost-competitive resilience if they are to redesign supply chains while maintaining their competitive advantages. Firms are increasingly turning toward better contingency planning, improving organizational readiness and worker flexibility, automation, and building more collaborative relationships with suppliers to improve supply chain resilience.
https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/a-data-sharing-approach-for-greater-supply-chain-visibility/
Amid the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation, the war in Ukraine, geopolitical tensions in East Asia, and more frequent extreme weather events, manufacturing supply chains continue to struggle in bringing goods when and where they are needed. These disruptions have affected all aspects of end-to-end supply chains, producing demand shifts, supply and manufacturing capacity reductions, and coordination failures. Prior to 2020, most supply chain designs lacked the resilience needed to cope with these disruptions, and, in response, companies have tried to diversify their sourcing and increase inventories and manufacturing capacity, all of which have led to increased cost. Now more than ever, companies need a new paradigm for cost-competitive resilience if they are to redesign supply chains while maintaining their competitive advantages. Firms are increasingly turning toward better contingency planning, improving organizational readiness and worker flexibility, automation, and building more collaborative relationships with suppliers to improve supply chain resilience.
Article, Six ways to improve global supply chains
https://www.brookings.edu/research/six-ways-to-improve-global-supply-chains/
In this paper, I outline six ways to improve global supply chains: Boosting domestic production through on-shoring and near-shoring
Easing transportation jams
Prioritizing public health
Managing labor shortages
Fighting anti-competitive practices
Mitigating geopolitical tensions
https://www.brookings.edu/research/six-ways-to-improve-global-supply-chains/
In this paper, I outline six ways to improve global supply chains: Boosting domestic production through on-shoring and near-shoring
Easing transportation jams
Prioritizing public health
Managing labor shortages
Fighting anti-competitive practices
Mitigating geopolitical tensions
Polycrisis Continued
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-165-polycrisis-thinking
Continued from earlier.
https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-165-polycrisis-thinking
Continued from earlier.
Article, Food fraud and counterfeit cotton: the detectives untangling the global supply chain
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/sep/16/food-fraud-counterfeit-cotton-detectives-untangling-global-supply-chain
Amid the complex web of international trade, proving the authenticity of a product can be near-impossible. But one company is taking the search to the atomic level
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/sep/16/food-fraud-counterfeit-cotton-detectives-untangling-global-supply-chain
Amid the complex web of international trade, proving the authenticity of a product can be near-impossible. But one company is taking the search to the atomic level
Article, Four years into the trade war, are the US and China decoupling?
https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/four-years-trade-war-are-us-and-china-decoupling
For many decades China and the United States have been locked in such a tight economic embrace that it is challenging to quantify whether, how, or why the embrace may be weakening. Are the mounting tensions, bordering on hostility, between the two superpowers causing their economies to “decouple”?
https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/four-years-trade-war-are-us-and-china-decoupling
For many decades China and the United States have been locked in such a tight economic embrace that it is challenging to quantify whether, how, or why the embrace may be weakening. Are the mounting tensions, bordering on hostility, between the two superpowers causing their economies to “decouple”?
Article, Murder at Sea
https://hakaimagazine.com/features/murder-at-sea/
When a grainy video of a grisly mass shooting on the high seas surfaced, one determined detective and a host of NGOs went on a quest for justice
https://hakaimagazine.com/features/murder-at-sea/
When a grainy video of a grisly mass shooting on the high seas surfaced, one determined detective and a host of NGOs went on a quest for justice
Article, ‘This land belonged to us’: Nestlé supply chain linked to disputed Indigenous territory
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/22/this-land-belonged-to-us-nestle-supply-chain-linked-to-disputed-indigenous-territory
Marfrig is one of Brazil’s biggest meat producers, with 32,000 workers and revenues in 2021 of about $15bn (£13.3bn). It slaughters as many as 5 million cattle per year in South America. Shipping records show the Tangará da Serra abattoir has exported more than £1bn of beef products since 2014 to various buyers. Destinations include China, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. Details about Marfrig’s suppliers are kept under wraps, but our investigation has obtained information on some of the hundreds of properties in the Amazon and Cerrado from which it buys for its Tangará da Serra plant. Cross-referencing the imagery with public records identified two properties overlapping the territory claimed by the Myky, one of which – Cascavel farm – directly transported cattle to Marfrig in 2019, according to documents obtained by TBIJ. The farm did not respond to the bureau’s requests for comment. Marfrig told TBIJ that it only considers Indigenous lands to be those that have received presidential approval. Since Bolsonaro came to power in 2019, he has not approved any.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/22/this-land-belonged-to-us-nestle-supply-chain-linked-to-disputed-indigenous-territory
Marfrig is one of Brazil’s biggest meat producers, with 32,000 workers and revenues in 2021 of about $15bn (£13.3bn). It slaughters as many as 5 million cattle per year in South America. Shipping records show the Tangará da Serra abattoir has exported more than £1bn of beef products since 2014 to various buyers. Destinations include China, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. Details about Marfrig’s suppliers are kept under wraps, but our investigation has obtained information on some of the hundreds of properties in the Amazon and Cerrado from which it buys for its Tangará da Serra plant. Cross-referencing the imagery with public records identified two properties overlapping the territory claimed by the Myky, one of which – Cascavel farm – directly transported cattle to Marfrig in 2019, according to documents obtained by TBIJ. The farm did not respond to the bureau’s requests for comment. Marfrig told TBIJ that it only considers Indigenous lands to be those that have received presidential approval. Since Bolsonaro came to power in 2019, he has not approved any.
Article, Small number of huge companies dominate global food chain, study finds
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/22/small-number-of-huge-companies-dominate-global-food-chain-study-finds
The dominance of a small number of big companies over the global food chain is increasing, aided by the rising use of “big data” and artificial intelligence, new research has found. Only two companies control 40% of the global commercial seed market, compared with 10 companies controlling the same proportion of the market 25 years ago, according to the ETC Group, an eco-justice organisation.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/22/small-number-of-huge-companies-dominate-global-food-chain-study-finds
The dominance of a small number of big companies over the global food chain is increasing, aided by the rising use of “big data” and artificial intelligence, new research has found. Only two companies control 40% of the global commercial seed market, compared with 10 companies controlling the same proportion of the market 25 years ago, according to the ETC Group, an eco-justice organisation.
Article, Why the future of global trade is digital
https://ship.nridigital.com/ship_sep22/future_trade_global_shipping_data
Data sits at the heart of global trade. How it is generated, held, used, and exchanged has an enormous impact on the productivity and sustainability of container shipping processes, the experience of shipping customers, and the industry’s ability to innovate and improve. Digitalising data and enabling its seamless exchange between all stakeholders is key to mitigating the impacts of current and future supply chain disruption and ensuring a future in which shipping customers have a choice of seamless, easy-to-use services that provide the flexibility to meet their business and sustainability goals.
https://ship.nridigital.com/ship_sep22/future_trade_global_shipping_data
Data sits at the heart of global trade. How it is generated, held, used, and exchanged has an enormous impact on the productivity and sustainability of container shipping processes, the experience of shipping customers, and the industry’s ability to innovate and improve. Digitalising data and enabling its seamless exchange between all stakeholders is key to mitigating the impacts of current and future supply chain disruption and ensuring a future in which shipping customers have a choice of seamless, easy-to-use services that provide the flexibility to meet their business and sustainability goals.
Article, Is the US chicken industry cheating its farmers?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/03/is-the-us-chicken-industry-cheating-its-farmers
A report for poultry companies produced by a secretive data-sharing firm, reviewed in a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Food and Environment Reporting Network (Fern), shows sensitive market information including how much producers are being paid per chicken. US anti-trust officials are currently conducting a grand jury investigation into poultry companies in response to a major class-action lawsuit alleging that the firms use information supplied by Agri Stats, a data company, to keep farmers’ pay low and chicken prices high. Agri Stats produces daily reports for the poultry industry on chicken production, and has enabled companies to share detailed financial information with one another for decades.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/03/is-the-us-chicken-industry-cheating-its-farmers
A report for poultry companies produced by a secretive data-sharing firm, reviewed in a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Food and Environment Reporting Network (Fern), shows sensitive market information including how much producers are being paid per chicken. US anti-trust officials are currently conducting a grand jury investigation into poultry companies in response to a major class-action lawsuit alleging that the firms use information supplied by Agri Stats, a data company, to keep farmers’ pay low and chicken prices high. Agri Stats produces daily reports for the poultry industry on chicken production, and has enabled companies to share detailed financial information with one another for decades.
Article, De datagrariër
https://www.platform-investico.nl/artikel/de-datagrarier/
Investico onderzocht in samenwerking met Trouw de landbouwsector en ontdekte hoe de datagedreven landbouw een machtsverschuiving in de sector teweeg brengt. Via de data van hun slimme landbouwapparatuur raken boeren afhankelijker van een aantal grote spelers in het veld. Dat levert soms grote financiële schade op en kan, zoals bij incidenten met melkrobots, zelfs dieren het leven kosten. Privacywetten bieden de boeren weinig bescherming omdat hun data geen mensen betreffen, maar dieren of machines. Ook prijsmanipulaties en hogere prijzen in de supermarkten liggen op de loer. Want wie precies toegang heeft tot waardevolle agrarische gegevens, is voor boeren en landbouworganisaties onduidelijk. De meeste landbouwers hebben geen idee aan wie ze daarvoor toestemming hebben gegeven, blijkt uit een enquête van Investico samen met de Zuidelijke Land- en Tuinbouworganisatie ZLTO.
https://www.platform-investico.nl/artikel/de-datagrarier/
Investico onderzocht in samenwerking met Trouw de landbouwsector en ontdekte hoe de datagedreven landbouw een machtsverschuiving in de sector teweeg brengt. Via de data van hun slimme landbouwapparatuur raken boeren afhankelijker van een aantal grote spelers in het veld. Dat levert soms grote financiële schade op en kan, zoals bij incidenten met melkrobots, zelfs dieren het leven kosten. Privacywetten bieden de boeren weinig bescherming omdat hun data geen mensen betreffen, maar dieren of machines. Ook prijsmanipulaties en hogere prijzen in de supermarkten liggen op de loer. Want wie precies toegang heeft tot waardevolle agrarische gegevens, is voor boeren en landbouworganisaties onduidelijk. De meeste landbouwers hebben geen idee aan wie ze daarvoor toestemming hebben gegeven, blijkt uit een enquête van Investico samen met de Zuidelijke Land- en Tuinbouworganisatie ZLTO.
Article, Decentralized Exploitation
https://hackernoon.com/the-rise-of-digital-neo-colonialism-rc1h3xdr
"The goal was to inform the consumer about the origin of their goods, and we believed that once informed, they would make better choices. Like most blockchain supply chain startups, we believed we could create a more fair environment for the farmers, that consumers would tip through blockchain, that things would get better for everyone.
A single coffee bean is almost worthless alone, it is only in bags of thousands of other beans that they have any value. Likewise, the data about a single coffee bean is worth so little that a farmer is incapable of extracting any value from it. Even cooperatives that represent scores of farmers are limited in their ability to extract value from the data of a single bean.
Of course, if you can build a supply chain pipeline that can capture the data about every bean, suddenly everything is different. With enough data you can create a comprehensive picture of the heath of harvests, the effect of fertilizers and farming methods, you can understand rainfall, climate change, and yields. You can look into the past and predict the future, correlate growing conditions, identify and eliminate inefficiencies and standardize quality. Most importantly, however, you can create an entirely new resource: data, and the more of it you collect, the more valuable it becomes."
https://hackernoon.com/the-rise-of-digital-neo-colonialism-rc1h3xdr
"The goal was to inform the consumer about the origin of their goods, and we believed that once informed, they would make better choices. Like most blockchain supply chain startups, we believed we could create a more fair environment for the farmers, that consumers would tip through blockchain, that things would get better for everyone.
A single coffee bean is almost worthless alone, it is only in bags of thousands of other beans that they have any value. Likewise, the data about a single coffee bean is worth so little that a farmer is incapable of extracting any value from it. Even cooperatives that represent scores of farmers are limited in their ability to extract value from the data of a single bean.
Of course, if you can build a supply chain pipeline that can capture the data about every bean, suddenly everything is different. With enough data you can create a comprehensive picture of the heath of harvests, the effect of fertilizers and farming methods, you can understand rainfall, climate change, and yields. You can look into the past and predict the future, correlate growing conditions, identify and eliminate inefficiencies and standardize quality. Most importantly, however, you can create an entirely new resource: data, and the more of it you collect, the more valuable it becomes."
Article: We Were Warned About the Ports
https://prospect.org/economy/we-were-warned-about-the-ports/
As the American economy became increasingly reliant on goods made in East Asia, so too did it rely on the only port that could readily receive them, L.A./Long Beach, which strained against its own limitations. The expansive nearby population of Southern California, once seen as an asset to finding cheap and ample labor to unload containers and drive trucks and staff warehouses, soon became a hindrance to expansion, as land around the ports was ringed with housing, making growth impossible. Instead, the ports began expanding out into the sea, with major terraforming initiatives to conjure more dock space from the ocean floor, a process that still couldn’t keep up with the strains of a growing e-commerce sector that relied overwhelmingly on Chinese manufacturing. (This led to a separate problem during the supply crunch: where to put the empty containers. Often they were dumped in residential neighborhoods, towering above modest homes and subdivisions.)
https://prospect.org/economy/we-were-warned-about-the-ports/
As the American economy became increasingly reliant on goods made in East Asia, so too did it rely on the only port that could readily receive them, L.A./Long Beach, which strained against its own limitations. The expansive nearby population of Southern California, once seen as an asset to finding cheap and ample labor to unload containers and drive trucks and staff warehouses, soon became a hindrance to expansion, as land around the ports was ringed with housing, making growth impossible. Instead, the ports began expanding out into the sea, with major terraforming initiatives to conjure more dock space from the ocean floor, a process that still couldn’t keep up with the strains of a growing e-commerce sector that relied overwhelmingly on Chinese manufacturing. (This led to a separate problem during the supply crunch: where to put the empty containers. Often they were dumped in residential neighborhoods, towering above modest homes and subdivisions.)
Article: A US Freight Rail Crisis Threatens More Supply Chain Chaos
https://www.wired.com/story/a-us-freight-rail-crisis-threatens-more-supply-chain-chaos/
Early this summer, farmers worried that millions of chickens in California’s Central Valley might soon peck each other to death. The birds were running perilously low on feed, which should have been delivered by Union Pacific Railroad from Midwestern corn producers. Foster Farms needed at least nine trainloads of corn each month to feed its tens of millions of chickens and turkeys, plus tens of thousands of dairy cows at its California facilities. But the trains weren’t showing up. Chickens can’t go long without eating—they become aggressive and turn to cannibalism—and if the feed didn’t arrive soon, the mega-flock would have to be euthanized.
https://www.wired.com/story/a-us-freight-rail-crisis-threatens-more-supply-chain-chaos/
Early this summer, farmers worried that millions of chickens in California’s Central Valley might soon peck each other to death. The birds were running perilously low on feed, which should have been delivered by Union Pacific Railroad from Midwestern corn producers. Foster Farms needed at least nine trainloads of corn each month to feed its tens of millions of chickens and turkeys, plus tens of thousands of dairy cows at its California facilities. But the trains weren’t showing up. Chickens can’t go long without eating—they become aggressive and turn to cannibalism—and if the feed didn’t arrive soon, the mega-flock would have to be euthanized.
Article: Finding Sustainable Seafood Can Be Complex
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220810-can-eating-fish-ever-be-sustainable
Although this article does not spell it out, the implication for an end consumer wanting to buy sutainable will always rely on the product having traceability requirements. Certification is the best mechanism and signal we currently have for supply chains managers and consumers alike to achieve and verify this.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220810-can-eating-fish-ever-be-sustainable
Although this article does not spell it out, the implication for an end consumer wanting to buy sutainable will always rely on the product having traceability requirements. Certification is the best mechanism and signal we currently have for supply chains managers and consumers alike to achieve and verify this.
"[The Marine Stewardship Council blue tick] means at least they are being audited, and they have to prove things," says Clarke. "It's a great way of just quickly and easily identifying whether something's a sustainable choice."
Certifications like these can also be a protection against fraud, a huge issue in the seafood industry.
A 2016 meta-analysis of DNA identification studies of seafood found that globally there was a 30% rate of misdescription – meaning the fish was not the species stated on the label or menu. But a 2019 DNA study by the Marine Stewardship Council found that seafood bearing its sustainability mark was labelled correctly over 99% of the time.
One issue with these labels, however, is that gaining them can be a significant process for a fishery involving data collection and a lot of paperwork – meaning not every fishery has the resources to receive the stamp, even if they are working sustainably.
The Uncertain Rhythms Of Life For China’s Migrant “Bosses”
https://www.noemamag.com/the-uncertain-rhythms-of-life-for-chinas-migrant-bosses/
On the fringes of global supply chains are Chinese migrant entrepreneurs, for whom long hours and little pay are less important than climbing the social ladder toward new opportunities outside China.
https://www.noemamag.com/the-uncertain-rhythms-of-life-for-chinas-migrant-bosses/
On the fringes of global supply chains are Chinese migrant entrepreneurs, for whom long hours and little pay are less important than climbing the social ladder toward new opportunities outside China.
Article: We Need Assurance!
https://www.acsac.org/2005/papers/Snow.pdf
'We Need Assurance!' is a paper from 1999 by Brian Snow of the NSA. It is a classic in the computer security literature. In certification the term assurance is used to name those activities that safeguard that products sold as certified are indeed entitled to this claim. Supply chain assurance is a distinct field of security and the parallels with the concerns of this paper are obvious throughout.
https://www.acsac.org/2005/papers/Snow.pdf
'We Need Assurance!' is a paper from 1999 by Brian Snow of the NSA. It is a classic in the computer security literature. In certification the term assurance is used to name those activities that safeguard that products sold as certified are indeed entitled to this claim. Supply chain assurance is a distinct field of security and the parallels with the concerns of this paper are obvious throughout.
Article: Can Global Brands Create Just Supply Chains?
https://bostonreview.net/forum/can-global-brands-create-just-supply-chains-richard-locke/
I began studying Nike because I was impressed with its commitment to labor standards. After several years of effort, with many conversations and visits to corporate headquarters, I convinced the company to share its factory audit reports and facilitate visits to its suppliers. Eventually my case study evolved into a full-fledged research project involving the collection, coding, and analysis of thousands of factory audit reports; more than 700 interviews with company managers, factory directors, NGO representatives, and government labor inspectors; and field research in 120 factories in fourteen different countries. What began as a study of one company (Nike) in a particular industry (athletic footwear) grew to include several global corporations competing in different industries, with different supply chain dynamics, operating across numerous national boundaries.
https://bostonreview.net/forum/can-global-brands-create-just-supply-chains-richard-locke/
I began studying Nike because I was impressed with its commitment to labor standards. After several years of effort, with many conversations and visits to corporate headquarters, I convinced the company to share its factory audit reports and facilitate visits to its suppliers. Eventually my case study evolved into a full-fledged research project involving the collection, coding, and analysis of thousands of factory audit reports; more than 700 interviews with company managers, factory directors, NGO representatives, and government labor inspectors; and field research in 120 factories in fourteen different countries. What began as a study of one company (Nike) in a particular industry (athletic footwear) grew to include several global corporations competing in different industries, with different supply chain dynamics, operating across numerous national boundaries.
Article: After Free Trade
https://bostonreview.net/articles/after-free-trade/
The Suez Canal cut the time it took to travel from London to Mumbai in half; Panama did the same for travel times in the Americas. Complex global commodity chains emerged for the first time. Their network structure was amazingly hierarchical: by the end of the nineteenth century, every part of the world was connected to Europe, if not necessarily to adjacent countries or even neighboring provinces. In the Western Hemisphere, the only international rail links were in North America; they were meant to carry lumber, grain, and hides out of Canada and silver, gold, copper, and nickel from Mexico in exchange for finished goods from the United States.
https://bostonreview.net/articles/after-free-trade/
The Suez Canal cut the time it took to travel from London to Mumbai in half; Panama did the same for travel times in the Americas. Complex global commodity chains emerged for the first time. Their network structure was amazingly hierarchical: by the end of the nineteenth century, every part of the world was connected to Europe, if not necessarily to adjacent countries or even neighboring provinces. In the Western Hemisphere, the only international rail links were in North America; they were meant to carry lumber, grain, and hides out of Canada and silver, gold, copper, and nickel from Mexico in exchange for finished goods from the United States.
Article: How the Shipping Industry Sails through Legal Loopholes
https://hakaimagazine.com/features/how-the-shipping-industry-sails-through-legal-loopholes/
A murky world of shell companies, flags of convenience, and end-of-life flags allows companies to dodge accountability and dispose of ships cheaply
https://hakaimagazine.com/features/how-the-shipping-industry-sails-through-legal-loopholes/
A murky world of shell companies, flags of convenience, and end-of-life flags allows companies to dodge accountability and dispose of ships cheaply
Article: Infrastructure and Logistics
https://www.societyandspace.org/topics/infrastructure-and-logistics
Foregrounds the built systems or networks that coordinate the circulation of things, people, money, and data into integrated wholes. Provides an analytical framework for critically interrogating the relation between built networks and their spatial mobilities, including attention to their institutional dimensions, political economies, and forms of life that interact with and reshape their geographies.
https://www.societyandspace.org/topics/infrastructure-and-logistics
Foregrounds the built systems or networks that coordinate the circulation of things, people, money, and data into integrated wholes. Provides an analytical framework for critically interrogating the relation between built networks and their spatial mobilities, including attention to their institutional dimensions, political economies, and forms of life that interact with and reshape their geographies.
Article: The Rise of the Shipping Container
https://hakaimagazine.com/videos-visuals/in-graphic-detail-the-rise-of-the-shipping-container/
Every industry has its base unit, the quantity by which growth and decline are measured. In shipping, that unit is the 20-foot (six-meter) container, roughly the size of the tiniest of tiny homes. In the 21st century, it is the conduit for much of the material goods that furnish our lives. With infographic.
https://hakaimagazine.com/videos-visuals/in-graphic-detail-the-rise-of-the-shipping-container/
Every industry has its base unit, the quantity by which growth and decline are measured. In shipping, that unit is the 20-foot (six-meter) container, roughly the size of the tiniest of tiny homes. In the 21st century, it is the conduit for much of the material goods that furnish our lives. With infographic.
Article: Studying Logistics
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/02/logistics-industry-organizing-labor/
As the economy develops around a sprawling logistics industry, organizing workers in these sectors will be vital.
“Amateurs study strategy, professionals study logistics,” US Army General Omar Bradley famously said. Bradley’s declaration was of course an overstatement, but it was also a necessary correction. Logistics — the mobilization of vast resources and, most importantly, people — was the lifeblood of a winning military strategy. Without full and competent logistical support, any strategy, no matter how brilliant, will fail. It is a point worth remembering when discussing the importance of the logistics industry to the US economy. By Joe Allen.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/02/logistics-industry-organizing-labor/
As the economy develops around a sprawling logistics industry, organizing workers in these sectors will be vital.
“Amateurs study strategy, professionals study logistics,” US Army General Omar Bradley famously said. Bradley’s declaration was of course an overstatement, but it was also a necessary correction. Logistics — the mobilization of vast resources and, most importantly, people — was the lifeblood of a winning military strategy. Without full and competent logistical support, any strategy, no matter how brilliant, will fail. It is a point worth remembering when discussing the importance of the logistics industry to the US economy. By Joe Allen.