July 6, 2020

empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines

Technology

Throughout the pandemic we have seen the juxtaposition of images of sprawling lines for food banks and farmers being forced to destroy their crops. The rationale was that while the consumer supply chain was taxed the industrial supply chain to large corporations (hotels, conferences, schools) was at a standstill.

Step up, Chipotle. Yes, that Chipotle. Chipotle announced the creation of a Virtual Farmer’s Market that allows the farmers in its supply chain to sell directly to consumers. Chipotle is also using its own social media channels to show recipes and promote their farmers.

Chipotle has historically focused on responsibly-sourced food for its menu (although it may not feel so responsible once it hits your stomach). Chipotle has partnered with Shopify to host the markets, and will cover the cost of developing the online storefronts for two years.

We are not sure how the e-commerce delivery of fresh produce will work in shopping deserts, but we applaud Chipotle’s move. We’ll happily stop doomscrolling on Instacart looking for items if we can make our own burritos at home.

This is yet another example of private companies stepping into the abyss left by the government. Whereas the FDA could have mandated or arranged the logistics network to have farmers supply restaurants which in turn could have supplied local communities, we have seen entrepreneurs fill the gap instead (like José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen).

An update:  Uber agreed to purchase Postmates for $2.65B over the weekend. No announcement (yet) as to whether Postmates will remain a separate service or will be folded into UberEats.

Another update: The problem with shopping cart abandonment was linked to another culprit — Google. A GoogleBot (with the unassuming name of John Smith) was shopping (trolling) e-commerce sites to confirm that consumers were getting accurate pricing. Not only were teens gaming e-commerce metrics, but Google Shopping itself was throwing a rather large wrench in the system.

Energy

Despite a positive Supreme Court ruling and a Presidential Executive Order, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline has fallen to economic pressure. The owners of the pipeline, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, announced the cancellation of the project.

The natural gas pipeline was meant to stretch 600 miles from West Virginia to North Carolina. The infrastructure project had been opposed by environmental activists and Native American communities as it passed under the Appalachian Trail and a National Forest. The current administration had limited the environmental review as well which raised concerns over pollution to the air quality and water supply.

Just a few weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline could continue. However, with natural gas prices hitting their lowest levels since 1995, the energy companies seem to have weighed their options, and put the fracking on hold.

On the other hand: Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway purchased Dominion Energy’s natural gas pipeline and storage assets for $10N. Buffet has historically bought troubled assets, but he has been sidelined for most of the pandemic. (This was Berkshire’s biggest purchase in four years.) Natural gas, while still a fossil fuel, has lower carbon emissions that traditional oil, and has been thought of a first step toward a more sustainable future.

Energy companies have obviously been hard hit by the pandemic, and Buffet is effectively calling a bottom. While the rest of the world is slowly opening, the US is failing at controlling the virus, and international travel remains restricted. If there is to be any price inflation, Buffet seems to have chosen a global asset.

Other Snippets

• The UK has announced a $2B support package to rescue the “cultural, arts and heritage institutions.” While the package can’t protect all institutions and workers, the culture secretary said the grants were designed to preserve the “crown jewels” of institutions. If we ever get to leave the United States again, we’ll happily stand in line to see the collections of the V&A and the Tate.

• In the US, several NBA teams have offered up their stadiums as voting sites. The facilities are unoccupied (the season is expected to be played exclusively in at ESPN’s home in Disney World), and several cities were looking for large, centrally located places to host polling sites. Three teams have volunteered — Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks and the Milwaukee Bucks. LeBron James’s More Than A Vote praised the move and asked for more teams to step up.

• Several universities have begun to announce plans for how classes will restart in the Fall. Williams College announced a 15% tuition reduction and cancelled all sports. While Harvard University will allow 40% of students to live on campus, but all course instruction will be online.

• The owner of the Washington Redskins came under significant pressure this week: FedEx (the sponsor of their stadium) and Pepsi asked the team to consider a name change, Nike pulled all team-branded merchandise from its e-commerce site, and the minority owners of the team launched a search to sell their stakes. The team responded by stating that the name is under review. The sports book has The Redtails as the number one contender, honoring the Tuskegee airmen.

• In case you missed it, Kanye West declared his 2020 Presidential candidacy with the full support of his BFF Elon Musk. Other celebrities jumped into the fray, including Paris Hilton who wants to “Make America Hot Again.”

US Politics

Sorry, we have to go there. QAnon, the right-wing conspiracy theory, has become more mainstream (if you consider Republican politics mainstream). Several potential Republican Congressman are QAnon believers, so Q meet Washington.

What exactly is Q? That is a whole can of worms, but essentially Q claims to be an intelligence insider who speaks directly with the President and drops coded language detailing the corrupt practices of the deep state. Q and his followers continually expect indictments to be dropped for high level Democrats, and was behind the Pizzagate conspiracy. QAnon was classified as a domestic terrorist threat by the FBI last year, and is a collection of meta-conspiracy theories that essential believes that corrupt arms of Hollywood, Finance and Politics rule the world. (For a rundown of Q’s beginnings and conspiracies check out Reply All or The Atlantic.)

Disturbingly, a new internet “trend” is the taking of the oath to Q, which Michael Flynn did over the weekend. Another candidate claimed that Beyoncé is not Black, but Italian, and that her songs are coded calls for Soros’s Deep State agenda.

With US politics becoming a true reality show, we hope facts (and not the alternative ones) and policy agendas will return. Saving Americans from unemployment, a pandemic and hunger seems like a more pressing problem than finding the coded messages in the internet. We’ll see if the candidates become more moderate as they face election or pressure from the RNC, but we preferred it when the only conspiracy in Washington was coming from Devin Nunes’ Cow.

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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