下载掌阅APP，畅读海量书库
立即打开
The Biden administration is trying to help foreign makers of baby formula (a milk powder used instead of breast milk) stay on the US market for the long term, in an effort to diversify the industry after the closure of the largest domestic plant sparked a nationwide shortage.
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday announced plans to help overseas producers that have sent supplies to the United States, under emergency approval to address the shortfall, secure long-term authorization to market their formula in the US. The agency will provide a way for producers temporarily selling in the US to meet existing regulatory requirements so they can stay on the market, providing consumers with more choices and making supplies more resilient against current and future shortages.
“The need to diversify and strengthen the US formula supply is more important than ever,” said the FDA commissioner, Dr. Robert Califf, and Susan Mayne, the director of the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, in a statement. “The recent shutdown of a major infant formula plant, compounded by unforeseen natural weather events, has shown just how vulnerable the supply chain has become.”
The US has tried to boost supply of baby formula after regulators in February shut down a Michigan plant run by Abbott, the largest domestic manufacturer of baby formula, over safety concerns. The plant reopened June 4 after the company committed to additional sanitizing and safety protocols, but closed again in mid-June after severe weather caused damage to the plant. The company said it needs time to assess damage and sanitize the factory again after severe thunderstorms and heavy rains swept through southwestern Michigan on June 13.
In May, the FDA eased federal import regulations to allow baby formula to be shipped to the US, and President Joe Biden authorized the use of the Defense Production Act, providing federal support to get formula from overseas into the US. “Infant formula is an essential food product that is the sole source of nutrition for many babies in the US. Companies and their manufacturing facilities must meet rigorous FDA standards that ensure the formula is both safe and nutritious,” Califf and Mayne said. “These standards are necessary to protect our children and will not be sacrificed for long-term supply considerations.”
The FDA's policy of temporary enforcement discretion is set to expire in November, but the administration says it will renew it if necessary to ensure domestic supply. “Today's announcement by the FDA will help ensure the infant formula supply market is less vulnerable to future supply shocks and will provide families with the confidence of steady access to a variety of safe infant formulas,” said White House spokesman Kevin Munoz.
[A] attract overseas producers quickly
[B] ensure the long-term supply of formula
[C] improve existing regulatory requirements
[D] enable producers to sell formula temporarily
[A] has cut off the local formula supply chain
[B] was triggered initially by a natural disaster
[C] will continue for a period of time
[D] is a way to secure formula supply
[A] remain as strict as ever
[B] improve product quality
[C] consider long-term needs
[D] ensure the infants' health
[A] can subsidize families to purchase formula
[B] will make the temporary policy a norm
[C] will maintain the order of the market
[D] may continue with the current measures
[A] The process of an event.
[B] The necessity of a policy.
[C] The debates on a decision.
[D] The content of a statement.
The European market is a tough terrain for food delivery firms. Delivery Hero has had a good run in the past couple of years. In August 2020 it ascended to the Dax, the stock market index of Germany's most valuable listed firms. It is present in 50 countries on four continents. Revenue for the third quarter was 1.8bn euros, a jump of 89% compared with the same period in 2020.
European consumers have also grown less mean amid the pandemic boom in online shopping of all kinds. As a consequence, Delivery Hero has reversed its decision to leave the German market altogether. In the summer it launched a new app, Foodpanda, in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.
When it comes to other labour matters, however, things may be about to get tougher still. If a draft proposal in the works in the European Union (EU) becomes law, as many as 4m gig workers delivering meals or ferrying ride-hailers could be reclassified as employees. This would entitle them to a minimum wage, sick leave and paid leave, unemployment benefits, health-and long-term-care coverage, and pension-insurance contributions. The EU estimates that the reclassification could cost gig-economy firms around 4.5bn euros a year.
Like his counterparts in the business, Niklas Ostberg, the Berlin-based firm's chief executive, insists that many of his riders choose to be freelancers because that lets them work as much as they want, whenever they want. But such arguments are increasingly cutting less mustard. In February Britain's highest court ordered Uber, which runs both food-delivery and ride-hailing apps, to reclassify its drivers in London as employees. Delivery Hero's share price fell by nearly 3% on December 3rd following reports of the draft EU proposal.
Such developments help explain why couriers are getting more assertive. The riders of Gorillas, a German online grocer with operations across Europe, have clashed with management for months over working conditions and pay. In October the firm sacked hundreds of riders who had participated in strikes, which further fuelled tensions. In late November a labour court in Germany rejected the management's attempt to stop Gorillas riders from electing an in-house works council, which they duly did. The firm's executives reluctantly had no choice but to say they will work with workers' representatives.
All this is happening as competition in Germany intensifies. It is estimated that Delivery Hero will have to invest some 120m euros in German sales and marketing in 2022. It is now competing with Lieferando, which dominates the German market, Uber Eats, which launched in April, and Wolt, a Finnish firm recently acquired by DoorDash for 7bn euros. The next few years look poised to be dog-eat-dog in German food delivery. Consumers can count on full bellies, courtesy of the gig firms. Their shareholders may go hungry.
[A] decided to abandon the German market
[B] become the most valuable stock company
[C] made its mark in the food delivery business
[D] cooperated with other online shopping firms
[A] hinder the growth of gig-economy
[B] increase the cost of delivery firms
[C] limit working hours of the riders
[D] reduce the number of odd jobs dramatically
[A] the necessity to protect the rights of gig workers
[B] the tension between labor and capital in Europe
[C] the tremendous impact of the EU legislation
[D] the pressure exerted by workers on gig firms
[A] Consumers.
[B] Gig workers.
[C] Shareholders.
[D] The government.
[A] The glorious development of Delivery Hero may come to an end.
[B] German food delivery market may attract more foreign investment.
[C] Changes in employing conditions may bring crisis to delivery firms.
[D] The EU draft proposal may spur the reintegration of the gig economy.
A European Union proposal announced recently could unleash tens of billions of dollars in funding for research and new production facilities, part of the bloc's economy-wide effort to boost its commercial independence. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, introduced a plan on Tuesday to make available about $49 billion in public and private funding for the chip-making industry. The proposal would also give the commission power, under some circumstances, to demand companies give priority to specific products where there is a shortage.
EU officials have previously said the proposal, known as the European Chips Act, is meant to bolster the bloc's position in the global market for semiconductors. While the EU is an important supplier of the materials and machines needed to make semiconductors, it is well behind Asia and the US in fabricating most kinds of chips. The effort to increase semiconductor production in Europe comes amid a global supply crunch that has over the past year affected a range of products, from cars to smartphones and home appliances.
Europe and the US were bigger players in the global semiconductor market in the 1990s, but both have since fallen far behind countries in East Asia, where most production is now concentrated. European officials have said they want to double the bloc's market share of semiconductors to 20% by 2030. The European proposal is valued at about $49 billion, putting it close to the $52 billion announced in US legislation meant to expand American microchip production. It wasn't immediately clear how the commission reached its $49 billion figure.
Niclas Poitiers, a research fellow at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, said it appears that some of it would come from reallocated money in the EU budget, while the remainder is expected to come from EU countries and private companies. Overall, the largest portion of the money announced Tuesday will likely come from subsidies, granted by EU countries, to encourage companies to set up facilities in Europe, Mr. Poitiers said. Those subsidies will be possible in that the commission's plan involves relaxing state aid rules to allow European countries to provide public support for certain microchip projects that wouldn't otherwise take place in the bloc.
The EU provides substantial funding for research and development in many fields but often fails to capitalize on and profit from those efforts with commercially successful products. Some critics of the European Chips Act say it risks following past, failed efforts to “pick winners” or replicating other industrial subsidies efforts globally that end up using taxpayer money to attract facilities from one region to another, rather than establishing new plants that otherwise wouldn't get built.
[A] promote chip output
[B] lead the global chip market
[C] import new chip facilities
[D] gain commercial independence
[A] is one of the two biggest players
[B] falls behind East Asian countries
[C] supplies core materials and machines
[D] is badly shocked by the global supply crunch
[A] fund size
[B] fundraising
[C] application scope
[D] application process
[A] critical
[B] skeptical
[C] ambiguous
[D] affirmative
[A] force the factories to relocate
[B] be misinterpreted as empty talk
[C] fail to achieve the desired effect
[D] lack regional coordination
Using a unique hydrogel (a gel in which the liquid constituent is water), scientists in Saudi Arabia created a solar-driven system that successfully grows spinach by using water drawn from the air while producing electricity. The proof-of-concept design, described in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science , offers a sustainable, low-cost strategy to improve food and water security for people living in dry-climate regions.
“A fraction of the world's population still doesn't have access to clean water or green power, and many of them live in rural areas with arid or semi-arid climate,” says senior author Peng Wang, a professor of environmental science and engineering at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. “Our design makes water out of air using clean energy that would've been wasted and is suitable for decentralized, small-scale farms in remote places like deserts and oceanic islands.”
The system, called WEC2P, is composed of a solar photovoltaic panel placed at the top of a layer of hydrogel, which is mounted on top of a large metal box to condense and collect water. Wang and his team developed the hydrogel in their prior research, and the material can effectively absorb water vapor from surrounding air and release the water content when heated. The researchers used the waste heat from solar panels when generating electricity to drive absorbed water out of the hydrogel. The metal box below collects the vapor and condenses the gas into water. Alternatively, the hydrogel increases the efficiency of solar photovoltaic panels by as much as 9% by absorbing the heat and lowering the panels' temperature.
The team conducted a plant-growing test by using WEC2P in Saudi Arabia for two weeks in June, when the weather was very hot. They used the water solely collected from air to irrigate 60 spinach seeds planted in a plastic plant-growing box. Over the course of the experiment, the solar panel, with a size similar to the top of a student desk, generated a total of 1,519 watt-hours of electricity, and 57 out of 60 of the spinach seeds sprouted and grew normally to 18 centimeters. In total, about 2 liters of water were condensed from the hydrogel over the two-week period.
“Our goal is to create an integrated system of clean energy, water, and food production, especially the water-creation part in our design, which sets us apart from current agrophotovoltaics,” says Wang. To turn the proof-of-concept design into an actual product, the team plans to create a better hydrogel that can absorb more water from the air.
“Making sure everyone on Earth has access to clean water and affordable clean energy is part of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations,” Wang says. “I hope our design can be a decentralized power and water system to light homes and water crops.”
[A] plant spinach in desert areas
[B] provide clean water and green energy
[C] reduce the cost of grain production
[D] expand the uses of a hydrogel
[A] accelerates plant growth
[B] has a multi-layer structure
[C] collects water when heated
[D] replaces oil with clean energy
[A] Collecting moisture from the surrounding air.
[B] Cooling the overheated solar photovoltaic panels.
[C] Improving the efficiency of heat collection.
[D] Providing enough water for plant-growing.
[A] it proves the high efficiency of hydrogel
[B] it develops an optimal watering technology
[C] it aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals
[D] it improves an integrated clean energy system
[A] Better Hydrogel Improves the Traditional Solar Photovoltaic Panels
[B] Solar-driven System Pulls in Water Vapor for Crop-growing in Deserts
[C] Recent Experiment Proves the Sustainable Development Goals
[D] Integrated Energy System Solves the Problems of Desert Residents