Iceland to harvest more corn and less bitcoin, says PM

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Iceland plans to prioritise food security over financial gain, planting corn and curbing bitcoin miners as the island state strives for more self-sufficiency in a hostile world.

Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir told the Financial Times that recent protests by farmers in Europe and disruptions to trade meant the Nordic nation needed to reduce its reliance on imports.

“It’s not exactly easy to be a farmer in Iceland. It’s not exactly great fields. You know, we have glaciers covering a large part of the country,” she said. “But it’s an important part of our strategy for security and safety in this world.”

The Left-Green politician’s push on food security is coupled with an attempt to rein in energy-hungry bitcoin miners who have turned the island into a data-centre haven.

Precious renewable electricity should be reallocated from data centres to housing and other industries, Jakobsdóttir added, saying her priority was the energy needs of Iceland’s 375,000 citizens.

“Bitcoin is an issue worldwide . . . but data centres in Iceland use a significant share of our green energy,” she said. A new proposal to boost wind power would “prioritise” green industries to achieve carbon neutrality.

“Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, which use a lot of our energy, are not part of that mission,” she said.

Cheap and plentiful hydroelectric power has enticed energy-intensive data centres and bitcoin miners to the Arctic territory. Dozens of bitcoin groups consume 120MW of electricity, more than the country’s households, according to research firm Luxor.

But shortages of electricity over the winter forced Icelandic fish-processing plants to turn to oil and diesel generators for their energy needs, something that Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, Iceland’s environment minister, described as “unacceptable”.

Jakobsdóttir’s comments come amid concerns about food security in Europe as big agricultural exporters such as France and the Netherlands try to find ways to balance food production with the need to meet the EU’s stringent climate goals.

The Dutch government has been closing farms so that The Hague can meet EU-imposed targets on reducing emissions. Ireland has floated similar proposals that would force farmers to cull 200,000 cattle.

Iceland, where limited daylight and freezing temperatures make crop growing difficult, is introducing a new farm-funding system to boost production.

Jakobsdóttir said: “One of the things that we are starting is to grow corn in Iceland, which hasn’t been done systematically, even though it’s possible.”

Iceland produces most of the animal products it consumes, but only 1 per cent of its cereals and 43 per cent of vegetables. Only about a fifth of the country is used for agricultural production, according to the World Bank.

Jakobsdóttir said the country was “very much reliant on imported corn” but “it’s also important to grow something ourselves” because of supply chain disruption. “We see a greater trend for isolationism in the world.”