Today: Extreme weather is driving short-term surges in food prices; politicians from across the aisle want to boost efforts to recycle electronic waste and reclaim critical minerals; from soft wood to superwood.

Welcome back: The price of staple foods are being hit by climate-related shocks, the WSJ's Joseph Hoppe reports.

Recent spikes in food prices of potatoes, rice, onions, lettuce and fruit have been linked to heat, drought and heavy rainfall conditions, according to a study led by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain. 

Vegetable prices in California and Arizona rose 80% on year in November 2022 after extreme drought, while Ethiopian food prices rose 40% in March 2023 following a drought the year prior. Potato prices in the U.K. jumped 22% in the 13 months to February 2024 after extreme rainfall in the winter.

The digital detritus of discarded laptops, phones and other electronics contain much-sought-after resources hidden in plain sight, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Clara Hudson reports. 

Lawmakers at a congressional hearing last week pushed for improved recycling infrastructure to secure critical minerals, such as lithium, that power electric vehicles and smartphones.

The race is on to secure critical minerals in the U.S., in part to offset China’s dominance in the ownership and processing of these materials. The U.S. is also lagging behind China on renewable energy and electric vehicles, driven in part by critical minerals.

A Maryland startup is attempting to turn soft wood into something that is stronger than steel yet one-sixth the weight. The plan is to replace a good chunk of construction-grade steel and concrete with scrap wood that is otherwise unusable waste, the WSJ's Christopher Mims writes.

InventWood says its product, Superwood, could someday replace steel I-beams in the skeleton of a building, while being impact-resistant enough for bulletproof doors. It’s also fire resistant—the outside carbonizes in a way that protects the inside, and it won’t sag in a fire like steel.

To create the product, InventWood starts by cooking and treating the wood. It then compresses it, so a typical board becomes one-quarter as thick. The company says Superwood will go on sale for about the same price as high-end building facades, or tropical hardwood. 

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• EU budget plan would deal ‘devastating blow’ to nature. (Politico)
   
• Learning to live in a world beset by wildfires. (FT)
   
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• Coldplay, a viral kiss-cam moment—and a CEO’s resignation. (WSJ)

Correction: U.S. companies have quietly increased sustainability spending this year, according to research by EcoVadis. In Friday's newsletter, the sustainability ratings company's name was spelled incorrectly.

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at wsjperry, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.