50.1

$95

That was the rise in the amount of chicken being stored in US warehouse freezers in January, to 957.5 million pounds, which is the highest total ever for the month, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The amount of pork in storage also climbed 11% versus January year-over-year. The reason: what else, the coronavirus disruption that is reducing demand for meat imports from China and some other countries, while exports are being constrained by cancelled ocean container ship sailings to the US and then back to China that would normally carry the meat. And it's a growing problem, as available freezer space in the US was already tight. The Wall Street Journal, for example, reports that Lineage Logistics' cold storage warehouses in shipping hubs like Los Angeles and Seattle are close to full. NewCold, a cold-storage company operating warehouses in Washington and Idaho, has been fielding calls from meat companies, as well as vegetable and bread suppliers, all seeking available storage space, the Journal reports. Big meat sales in the US coming soon to reduce inventories?

$17 Million

That's how much autonomous truck start-up Starsky Robotics raised in 2018 – but those investors got wiped out this week when Starksy said it is shutting its doors due to an inability to raise more money and a market moving in a different direction than its technology. That makes the company what is believed to be the first autonomous truck company to go under. Starksky's technology involved not true autonomous operation, but rather moment-by-moment operation of a heavy-duty truck by a remote operator, hoping to bridge the present freight environment before we get to fully automated operation. But lots of money has been pouring in for true autonomous technology, putting Starksky's approach out of favor, while there are also concerns about the latency of the truck's response for remotely located "drivers."