Covid vaccine rally fuels market optimism of a faster global recovery

Name :_______                                                        ENGLISH ECO                        Alison Armstrong

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Covid vaccine rally fuels market optimism of a faster global recovery

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/14/covid-vaccine-rally-fuels-market-optimism-of-a-faster-global-recovery?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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Meat and veg vending machines do roaring trade in coronavirus crisis

This article is more than 6 months old

UK food producers find innovative ways to sell produce during lockdown

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Sales at Thorneybank Farm Shop are up fivefold.

Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent

Sat 18 Apr 2020 09.00 BST

A vending machine is ...

1. a machine that grows things for you to eat.2. a machine that you can buy things from.3. a machine that keeps food cool and fresh.

b. What do vending machines sell?

1.Meat from a vending machine and salads grown in car parks – British food producers are finding new ways to sell their food during lockdown.

2 Many UK farmers had problems because of the coronavirus crisis, even though people want to buy fresh food.

3 But some farmers and food entrepreneurs are finding different ways to be successful. The environmental benefits – and the profits – may encourage more people to copy them.

4 In 2018, Neil Stephen, from Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, bought self-service vending machines that can sell everything from farmhouse cheese and shortbread to joints of meat, whole chickens and fresh fruit and vegetables.

5 Now Stephen’s idea has become a success. People like the hygienic system where the food is packed and kept in the cool vending machine, behind glass doors. They put in the number, pay by card, and the windows open for them to collect the food.

6 Sales at his Thorneybank Farm Shop have increased by five times, Stephen reports. “We were rushed off our feet. It’s worked really well.”

7 The shop sells produce from neighbouring farmers, too. Asparagus and strawberries come from six miles away and eggs and dairy from three miles down the road. The farmers can make a bigger profit than they would selling to a big supermarket. The shop is on social media, and shoppers come from nearby towns and the city of Aberdeen, which is only about 30 miles away.

8 Sebastien Sainsbury has a London-based company called Crate to Plate. He grows lettuce and other leafy greens in air-conditioned shipping containers under heat lamps.

9 The containers seem more like laboratories than farms. Workers wear protective gear to stop pests getting in. This means that the company does not need to use pesticides, insecticides and herbicides on their lettuce, kale, pak choi and herbs. And they use 96% less water than in fields.

10 Once all of the units are open and working, there could be 12 harvests a year, producing 15 to 18 tonnes of green vegetables.

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