modern cars need thousands of them to control their complex electronics. but the pandemic has hit the supply of those chips and boosted demand, so they ve been harder and harder to get hold of. this mini plant in oxford was one of a number of car factories which had to suspend production lines last year as a result. staff shortages also hurt output at several car makers, while honda closed its swindon plant for good. coming on the back of a pretty dreadful 2020, 2021 turned out to be worse. most of it is covid related factors, most obviously the shortage of semiconductors, which was related to covid, and implications especially in the far east. but we also had a closure of a major plant, and all in all, the output was, as you know, the worst since 1956, so truly awful. the pandemic came at a time when car production was already declining. five years ago, 1.7 million cars were built in this country. by 2019, the total had gone down
(Page 1) Biotechnology plays a key role in sustainably feeding a growing global population How are we going to feed 10 billion people using 35% less land by 2050? This was the question posed by Ian Roberts, chief The number of new startup companies developing new and alternative protein sources is growing explosively, not to mention the growing participation and investment by traditional food, pharmaceutical and chemical companies.