The Coming War on Agriculture

7,090 Views | 81 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by titan
nortex97
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I am linking this to this powerline blog piece, by that name, but really the war is already upon us, imho:

Quote:

You probably know about what has happened in Sri Lanka, where the government's attempt to impose organic farming led to food shortages, impoverishment, and a revolt that caused that country's prime minister to flee. Also the Netherlands, where the government's attempt to drastically reduce fertilizer use has led to massive protests by farmers that continue to this day.

At Hot Air, Jazz Shaw notes that farmers in other countries are up in arms as well:
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There are already protests by farmers taking place in a number of countries besides the Netherlands, though the farmers there are currently drawing the most headlines. Similar uprisings are happening in Spain, Ireland, and New Zealand. There are food shortages gripping a number of countries around the world, but our elite climate warriors are pushing to reduce food production rather than expanding it.
Next up is Canada:
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Undaunted by the uproar in the Netherlands over the impact on farmers of rules limiting nitrogen emissions, Canada's government is now looking to go down a similar route.
The Financial Post:

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The government is proposing to cut emissions from fertilizer 30 per cent by 2030 as part of a plan to get to net zero in the next three decades. But growers are saying that to achieve that, they may have to shrink grain output significantly at a time when the world is scrambling for more supplies.
Also at stake is the estimated $10.4 billion that farmers could lose this decade from the reduced output.
***
Cattle and fertilizer are key sources of nitrogen emissions.

Global warming religion is international, and the same anti-farming movement is coming soon to the U.S., the world's number one agricultural economy. The first target will be nitrogen-based fertilizers, which are a principal foundation of the world's ag productivity. Without fertilizers, the world will go hungry.

That leads to target number two: animals, especially cows. By far the largest crop in the U.S. is corn, and that corn is fed to cows and pigs to produce steaks, ground beef, bacon, pork chops, and so on. Liberals will argue that this is "inefficient." People should live on vegetables and insects, and animal husbandry should be phased out. The fact that cattle also emit methane, primarily by chewing cud, makes their decline an added bonus from a global warming perspective.

Will the Left's war on agriculture succeed? I don't know. The Sri Lankan government pushed it until mobs invaded the prime minister's residence. The government of the Netherlands isn't giving an inch, despite massive and prolonged civil disobedience by farmers. Justin Trudeau apparently likes what he sees in those countries. And consider the Left's war on energy: I never would have imagined that it could get as far as it has.

I think many liberals are essentially sadists. They love to boss the rest of us around and make us miserable. If you didn't know better, you might think they spend their days dreaming up ways to humiliate their fellow citizens. "Here's an idealet's screw up the grid to produce blackouts, so that people turn on the lights and nothing happens!" "They'll never stand for that." "We'll make them stand for that, and like it, too!" "Here's another idea: let's tell people they can no longer eat hamburgers and bacon, they have to eat crickets and vegetables!" "What? No one is crazy enough to go along with that." "Sure they willall we have to do is tell them it's necessary to save the planet."

Making food scarce and expensive, so that much of the population is threatened with starvation, has another benefit for liberals. They can respond by writing people checks representing food subsidies. Thus they turn millions of formerly self-sufficient Americans into government-reliant serfs. It's a win-win, if you are a liberal.

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A final comment: global warming is a great boon to the Left because every human activity emits carbon dioxide. In fact, human beings emit carbon dioxide simply by living. So if you believe that carbon dioxide is the worst possible threat to the world, it justifies absolutely any government action that leftists might want to take.

So conservatives, and conservative politicians, need to stop conceding the premises of global warming to the Left. "Climate change"that is, the theory of catastrophic anthropogenic global warminghas been decisively refuted as a matter of science. But it lives on as a religion for those seeking meaning in their lives, and as a cynical political tool of the Left. Conservatives need to stop conceding moral high ground to environmental Leftists, and instead attack them head-on.
I notice the dutch gov't has shown zero inkling of compromising with the 'illegitimate' farmers protests about being put out of business.

Never, ever vote for a Democrat. The party of globalist, totalitarian religious zealots and sadists.
YouBet
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Elected Democrats are evil and have stated policies that will cause chaos, famine, poverty, and untold death and destruction. It's already happening.

I wish our resident Democrats would open their eyes to this and quit stupidly voting Democrat.
ProgN
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I for one am looking forward to starved masses to start eliminating these elites across several countries. It's going to happen because people will snap when they're burying their children and the elites are still living the privileged life.
Reno Hightower
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That new bill Manchin sold out for is full of anti-farming crap.
WestAustinAg
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Coming to America. Will our farmers fight it like the Dutch? Probably not. They're already so deep in government subsidies to grow this crop and not that crop it seems like they might be too fearful to stand up against the oat and most dangerous oppression to come. Will the public support the farmers as they are in Europe? Not sure.
TAMU1990
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Time to start pushing the fact they want to change the food supply and force you to eat bugs on them in debates. No more muh "climate change" because it's hot/cold/wet/dry, etc. Get down to what they really want to do - change the way you live and eat. Make them defend it.
Showertime at the Bidens
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And it's being led by Big AG. They want total vertical integration of the food supply. They will support the global warming agenda in a quid pro quo deal.
titan
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There are no arguments against TEXIT or 1775-redux with such policies imposed.

There is nothing special about the top -- no reason for Americans to put up with this. Even Democrats did not elect them to cripple food production. Its another reason Trudeau being thrown down would be very good -- it would send the right caution note.

SunrayAg
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WestAustinAg said:

Coming to America. Will our farmers fight it like the Dutch? Probably not. They're already so deep in government subsidies to grow this crop and not that crop it seems like they might be too fearful to stand up against the oat and most dangerous oppression to come. Will the public support the farmers as they are in Europe? Not sure.


Tell me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers or agriculture, without telling me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers and agriculture.

Clueless.
TAMU1990
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SunrayAg said:

WestAustinAg said:

Coming to America. Will our farmers fight it like the Dutch? Probably not. They're already so deep in government subsidies to grow this crop and not that crop it seems like they might be too fearful to stand up against the oat and most dangerous oppression to come. Will the public support the farmers as they are in Europe? Not sure.


Tell me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers or agriculture, without telling me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers and agriculture.

Clueless.
What would Texas A&M and other major Ag universities do as well? There will be several angles in this story that will become very interesting.
B-1 83
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Corn and soybeans……..such a waste……



Being in TexAgs jail changes a man……..no, not really
titan
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SunrayAg said:

WestAustinAg said:

Coming to America. Will our farmers fight it like the Dutch? Probably not. They're already so deep in government subsidies to grow this crop and not that crop it seems like they might be too fearful to stand up against the oat and most dangerous oppression to come. Will the public support the farmers as they are in Europe? Not sure.


Tell me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers or agriculture, without telling me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers and agriculture.

Clueless.
Indeed.

Remember the Kamala/Biden bus being run out of Texas?

I think many Texans would be happen to do that in defense of our farmers with any pushing that kind of thing. Look at Holland. Now Imagine its a place with the legacy of 1836 and 1776. That the admin labeled those eras and symbols subversive only reinforces the sense of separation if this happens.
Showertime at the Bidens
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TAMU1990 said:

SunrayAg said:

WestAustinAg said:

Coming to America. Will our farmers fight it like the Dutch? Probably not. They're already so deep in government subsidies to grow this crop and not that crop it seems like they might be too fearful to stand up against the oat and most dangerous oppression to come. Will the public support the farmers as they are in Europe? Not sure.


Tell me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers or agriculture, without telling me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers and agriculture.

Clueless.
What would Texas A&M and other major Ag universities do as well? There will be several angles in this story that will become very interesting.


A&M will probably do whatever the industry tells them to.
Zobel
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Not disagreeing with the thrust of the article but the Sri Lanka story is distorted. The government going to organic farming was not really a choice as much as a consequence of lacking the capital to purchase foreign made fertilizers.

I also don't know the reason behind the limitation of fertilizer use in the Netherlands but suspect it may be again a consequence of the inability to source it. Nitrogen fertilizers come from natural gas, something which Europe isn't exactly flush with right now. (Example here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-21/crunch-time-for-pricey-fertilizers-squeezing-european-farmers)

The ugly truth is that the Russian invasion all but guaranteed that food will be scarce and expensive for many places in the world soon. However the US simply isn't one of them.
dmart90
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Soylent green is people!

Dystopian cautionary tale, not an instruction manual.
TAMU1990
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Zarathustra said:

TAMU1990 said:

SunrayAg said:

WestAustinAg said:

Coming to America. Will our farmers fight it like the Dutch? Probably not. They're already so deep in government subsidies to grow this crop and not that crop it seems like they might be too fearful to stand up against the oat and most dangerous oppression to come. Will the public support the farmers as they are in Europe? Not sure.


Tell me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers or agriculture, without telling me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers and agriculture.

Clueless.
What would Texas A&M and other major Ag universities do as well? There will be several angles in this story that will become very interesting.


A&M will probably do whatever the industry tells them to.

Not without considerable pushback from stakeholders - alumni, professors, etc to name a few. They lost approximately $150M in 2020. Young was fired and Banks was hired.
titan
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Zobel said:

Not disagreeing with the thrust of the article but the Sri Lanka story is distorted. The government going to organic farming was not really a choice as much as a consequence of lacking the capital to purchase foreign made fertilizers.

I also don't know the reason behind the limitation of fertilizer use in the Netherlands but suspect it may be again a consequence of the inability to source it. Nitrogen fertilizers come from natural gas, something which Europe isn't exactly flush with right now. (Example here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-21/crunch-time-for-pricey-fertilizers-squeezing-european-farmers)

The ugly truth is that the Russian invasion all but guaranteed that food will be scarce and expensive for many places in the world soon. However the US simply isn't one of them.
This is correct.

In fact, what it means is the reverse. The U.S. may be an important source for food production for much of the world. We will need to increase, not any any way limit, agriculture here, and remove junk science limits on natural gas and other energy placed by Democrats or functional Democrats (RINOs).

American agriculture will need to GROW.
Showertime at the Bidens
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SunrayAg said:

WestAustinAg said:

Coming to America. Will our farmers fight it like the Dutch? Probably not. They're already so deep in government subsidies to grow this crop and not that crop it seems like they might be too fearful to stand up against the oat and most dangerous oppression to come. Will the public support the farmers as they are in Europe? Not sure.


Tell me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers or agriculture, without telling me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers and agriculture.

Clueless.


I like to know what evidence you have to support this. The American Farmer has been capitulating for decades. If they haven't revolted yet over industry control and receiving less and less of the food dollar I don't know when they ever will. The stated intent of the USDA is to drive out small farmers in favor of large corporate farms. And that was stated 40 years ago. Where was the revolution?



Funky Winkerbean
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It's all by design and chaos is the goal. Fight back or it continues.
WestAustinAg
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titan said:

SunrayAg said:

WestAustinAg said:

Coming to America. Will our farmers fight it like the Dutch? Probably not. They're already so deep in government subsidies to grow this crop and not that crop it seems like they might be too fearful to stand up against the oat and most dangerous oppression to come. Will the public support the farmers as they are in Europe? Not sure.


Tell me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers or agriculture, without telling me you know absolutely nothing about American farmers and agriculture.

Clueless.
Indeed.

Remember the Kamala/Biden bus being run out of Texas?

I think many Texans would be happen to do that in defense of our farmers with any pushing that kind of thing. Look at Holland. Now Imagine its a place with the legacy of 1836 and 1776. That the admin labeled those eras and symbols subversive only reinforces the sense of separation if this happens.


Half the farmers in the US are in fact left of center. Their political positions alone will make it difficult - a mix of anger and desire to agree with their party. You both are dreaming that they will stand up to the government when they will stand to lose everything they have. Think about the land they have with loans to banks now run according to ESG values. Think about what happens when the feds target those who resist. Maybe the feds will actually move support to the farmers who comply.

It will be a war. And half of our country is already lost to the WEF/globalists in terms of their beliefs.
black_ice
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We will fight them!


Farmers fight! Farmers fight!
titan
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So what you are saying is, it will be the trigger for the break-up because it will be sufficient catalyst, but the divide will still remain wide enough on either side that there will be two sides.

Okay.

But I wouldn't equate farmer's past acceptance of subsidies within an understandable context with some policies just arbitrarily destroying food production potential when it is not surplus, but needed food.

But you may be right.
WestAustinAg
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I'm saying there are no easy fights anymore. The government has picked the winners and the losers. The remaining farmers (bankers, tech companies, fisheries, manufacturers, cake bakers etc.) are the remaining few. They are still there because they did what the feds required decade after decade.

Our farmers will be hurt but many will benefit in some way because the feds will throw money at their problems to keep them in line. So in all probability very little will happen as many big talkers on texagers who always vow "that will be the moment". We passed the moment 50 years ago. No one cared because the remaining few became winners.
nortex97
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Zobel said:

Not disagreeing with the thrust of the article but the Sri Lanka story is distorted. The government going to organic farming was not really a choice as much as a consequence of lacking the capital to purchase foreign made fertilizers.

I also don't know the reason behind the limitation of fertilizer use in the Netherlands but suspect it may be again a consequence of the inability to source it. Nitrogen fertilizers come from natural gas, something which Europe isn't exactly flush with right now. (Example here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-21/crunch-time-for-pricey-fertilizers-squeezing-european-farmers)

The ugly truth is that the Russian invasion all but guaranteed that food will be scarce and expensive for many places in the world soon. However the US simply isn't one of them.
Respectfully, no.

First, the Sri Lankan government went all in on organic as a result of hiring a green nut bag to direct policy. The president banned synthetic fertilizer imports overnight, not because they (farmers/companies) couldn't possibly pay for them, but a 100 percent fanatical religious faith by the (totalitarian/fascist) president in his green dogma. Vandana Shiva is an anti-GMO, anti-technology high priestess in leftist bs; she primarily lobbied for this sudden shift. And yes, Bill Gates/Rockefeller foundations are all over it.

Second, fertilizer use in the Netherlands sounds innocuous. Banning nitrogen use/run off near certain 'state parks' (to use a more American term) essentially is what is motivating it directly, but look up Mark Rutte. He is a true believer globalist about AGW. This is a poor link but the article text from last week is pretty good:

Quote:

The genesis of the scheme was a court ruling from 2019 that said the Dutch government's plan for reducing nitrogen emissions violated EU laws protecting its Natura 2000 network of supposedly vulnerable and endangered plant and animal habitats basically a bunch of EU-governed wildlife preserves. These sites span the EU, covering 18 percent of the bloc's land area and 8 percent of its marine territory.

To protect these wildlife preserves, Dutch farmers are being told they must submit to their government's ruinous emissions plan.

But the Natura 2000 preserves are only part of the story. European leaders such as Rutte are environmental ideologues who want to transform global food production and eliminate private land ownership, and he sees an opportunity in this court order to reshape agriculture and land use in the Netherlands.

Indeed, Rutte a walking embodiment of the Davos Man if there ever was one is a big proponent of the United Nations' "Agenda 2030" and its Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to squeeze farmers and ranchers around the world in order to reduce "emissions." The policies that flow from these goals, such as drastically reducing the use of fertilizer, contributed to the recent economic collapse of Sri Lanka, which triggered mass protests that toppled Sri Lanka's government and ousted its president earlier this month.

Last year, Rutte spoke to the World Economic Forum about "transforming food systems and land use" at Davos Agenda Week, announcing that the Netherlands would host something called the "Global Coordinating Secretariat of the World Economic Food Innovation Hubs," whose job would be to "connect all other food innovation hubs."

In Davos-speak, that means agricultural production and the supply of food will be centrally controlled by intra-governmental bodies and "stakeholders" consisting mainly of the world's largest food corporations and international NGOs. Private farms and independent farmers will be a thing of the past, supplanted by global bodies making decisions about how much and what kinds of food are produced. The private sector and the independent farmers will have no place in the future that the UN and the WEF are planning.
Dutch farmers understand this. They know Rutte and his ministers want above all to eradicate their farms and way of life. But they're not going down without a fight.
Anyway, I don't believe the banning of non-organic fertilizers overnight was really driven by a budget issue in the government, nor do I think the drastic nitrogen use cuts mandated by the Dutch government are somehow related to a natural gas shortage. They aren't. We also get a lot of our nitrogen fertilizer stock from...wait for it...Ukraine, but not via natural gas.

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is not driving this war on agriculture, or the spike in food prices that are attendant to this second war which is quietly happening right now. That's just what Democrats/media/leftists want people to believe is the cause of Bidenflation etc.
Zobel
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Shrug. "Hey guys were going organic because it's totally awesome" sounds way better than "we're broke and suffering a currency collapse because of profligate spending by our administration"

They were going organic whether they wanted to or not.
Catag94
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Leftists are evil and somehow think they are righteous.

I'm reminded though if Hank Jr.'s "A Country Boy Will Survive".
nortex97
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Zobel said:

Shrug. "Hey guys were going organic because it's totally awesome" sounds way better than "we're broke and suffering a currency collapse because of profligate spending by our administration"

They were going organic whether they wanted to or not.
Yes, because the president issued an edict about it after talking about it for almost 10 years. Every developing country's budget in 2020 was thrown for a loop, especially those depending on tourism for a substantive part of their budget.

Again, there's no empirical reason to deny/question whether he was strongly committed to doing this prior to any budget challenges. As well, the other zealots who pushed him toward this draconian edict were not concerned about the Sri Lankan treasury.
titan
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It boils down to these two, as they appear to be true.


Quote:

First, the Sri Lankan government went all in on organic as a result of hiring a green nut bag to direct policy. The president banned synthetic fertilizer imports overnight, not because they (farmers/companies) couldn't possibly pay for them, but a 100 percent fanatical religious faith by the (totalitarian/fascist) president in his green dogma. Vandana Shiva is an anti-GMO, anti-technology high priestess in leftist bs; she primarily lobbied for this sudden shift. And yes, Bill Gates/Rockefeller foundations are all over it.

Second, fertilizer use in the Netherlands sounds innocuous. Banning nitrogen use/run off near certain 'state parks' (to use a more American term) essentially is what is motivating it directly, but look up Mark Rutte. He is a true believer globalist about AGW. This is a poor link but the article text from last week is pretty good:
This makes it indeed the fault of GND type religion in both countries and imposed top-down by govt officials, rather than due to any actual inability -- and thus should be punished and resisted.
S540841
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Never will. We feel the exact same way about Republicans. Nothing will change anyones mind. Better off the just split up the country now before things get violent.
Zobel
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So you're saying they could have afforded fertilizer and chose not to? Because I don't think that's true.
Funky Winkerbean
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WestAustinAg said:

I'm saying there are no easy fights anymore. The government has picked the winners and the losers. The remaining farmers (bankers, tech companies, fisheries, manufacturers, cake bakers etc.) are the remaining few. They are still there because they did what the feds required decade after decade.

Our farmers will be hurt but many will benefit in some way because the feds will throw money at their problems to keep them in line. So in all probability very little will happen as many big talkers on texagers who always vow "that will be the moment". We passed the moment 50 years ago. No one cared because the remaining few became winners.
It will require us, the consumers, to take up the fight. We are their true target, not the farmers and definitely not the environment.
VarkAg77
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Zobel said:

So you're saying they could have afforded fertilizer and chose not to? Because I don't think that's true.


They didn't CHOOSE anything. The Sri Lankan government IMPOSED it on the farmers there. It was following WEF guidance. The Dutch government has adopted policies that will IMPOSE it (and more) on the Dutch farmers.
YouBet
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S540841 said:

Never will. We feel the exact same way about Republicans. Nothing will change anyones mind. Better off the just split up the country now before things get violent.
I consider myself more of a conservative these days and not a Republican, noted that you generally hate freedom and liberty.

Good with the split up! Would be fascinating watching your side destroy itself as it has done throughout history. And then observe to see how you could blame it on conservatives.
Zobel
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They "they" in my statement is the Sri Lankan government. When you buy foreign goods you have to do so in foreign currency. Their currency collapsed, they couldn't purchase fuel or medicine or fertilizer or anything else imported.
nortex97
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Zobel said:

So you're saying they could have afforded fertilizer and chose not to? Because I don't think that's true.
Ok, you don't think so. But you should admit that you are ignoring/dismissing all of the contemporaneous statements about organic farming around/before the edict/ban.

From a simple financial standpoint (setting aside the tragic human costs), the ban absolutely has been fiscally disastrous. It's even led to diesel shortages due to the financial apocalypse.

Yet, the farmers have managed to get some black market fertilizer. That's the thing; the farmers are the ones who deal with companies selling fertilizers. The gov't in Sri Lanka doesn't buy fertilizer itself. Yes, they had a fertilizer subsidy program they could have just ended, but that's not what the fascist autocrat did.

Once again, this is a model the left supports, if the premise of 'global warming' or 'CO2 emissions by humans' is bad.

Quote:

Subsequently, the prices for other food items have also gone up by almost three times. Shortages of fuel are affecting transportation, adding to the already soaring inflation.

Farmer Anura said, "The government forced us to switch to organic farming all of a sudden and due to that, we could not produce anything. Now we are left with no money, survival is very difficult here. Somehow, we got chemical fertilisers from the black market at very high rates."

The farmers of Sri Lanka are now turning into labourers due to failed policies of the government.
In cash crops like rubber and tea, the use of chemicals is 90 per cent, but a ban imposed in April 2021 left farmers in the doldrums.

Two million farmers in Sri Lanka were left in misery with no help. Reportedly, the domestic rice production was reduced by more than 20 per cent. The decline in tea production could cost the country to the tune of $425 million.

Although the government had decided to pay $200 mn compensation for a failed organic farm drive to 2 million rice farmers, it's too late.
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