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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">You do make some good points, Ted.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">But I'd still like to let this topic go, at least as far as this mailing list is concerned.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">-- Bob Primak </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div><br></div>
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On Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 03:14:39 PM EDT, Ted Kochanski <tedpkphd@gmail.com> wrote:
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<div><div id="yiv4465938408"><div><div dir="ltr">If you want to understand the gist of the problem -- catch the first few minutes of President Reagan's Press Conference in Chicago focused on price support and drought assistance to farmers in the Midwest<div><h1 style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;background:rgb(249,249,249);font-family:Roboto, sans-serif;overflow:hidden;color:rgb(3,3,3);" class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><span style="" class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><font size="4" style="background-color: inherit;">The President's News Conference - 8/12/86</font></span></h1></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><a shape="rect" href="https://youtu.be/1ySHtDHrLJY" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://youtu.be/1ySHtDHrLJY</a><br clear="none"></span></div><div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex;" class="yiv4465938408gmail_quote"><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">During this News Conference, President Ronald Reagan refers to how the government tends to be inefficient, to such a degree that instead of helping, it often causes harm instead. This view expresses the need for a more diminutive form of government where an individual or organization can complete an activity more effectively than the whole government.<br clear="none"></span><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">A few key points are:<br clear="none"></span><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">Government creates unpredictability due to constantly changing policies.<br clear="none"></span><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">The government’s goals sometimes don't align with the nation’s goals.<br clear="none"></span><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">With this ideology, he wanted to create and organize a government of the right size for its people, where both could work in harmony to overcome the crisis.</span></blockquote></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><br clear="none"></span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">This Press Conference is the home of the famous quote </span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. "<br clear="none"></span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><br clear="none"></span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">Going beyond just National governments meddling in what should be local matters -- </span>in the post WWII era we created various multi-governmental entities such as the World Bank and IMF [International Financial Institution {IFI} -- aka creatures of Bretton Woods]. The IFI's, private foundations {e.g. Ford, Rockefeler, Carnegie} and a plethora of newly minted NGO's, miscellaneous un-official coordinating organizations such as WEF -- often fought over the opportunity to offered assistance to the much less developed countries [often former Western Colonies] which had agricultural and resource-based economies. </div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><br clear="none"></span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">Throughout the 50's, 60' 70's, 80's -- We did good -- lifting more than 1 B people out of a medieval level of subsistence though introduction of: modern farming techniques, science-based horticulture [including developing more nutritious staple crops through targeted grants to local universities], locally available, reliable sources for potable water [often with electric pumps and deep wells], global markets for products [such as coffee and chocolate] and a much higher level of electricity availability [predominantly through l;arge-scale hydroelectric and fossil fuel thermal generation]. </span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><br clear="none"></span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">Then post Woodstock -- the West began to feel guilt, self-doubt and anguish and began to inflict these diseases of prosperity and richness on the poor. It is all well and good to have a purely organic farm in Lexington powered off-the-grid by solar arrays with composting toilets and closed-cycle water recycling -- because it matters not at all on a global scale, if some year there is near total crop failure and people on the farm may be cold in the winter and hot and thirsty in the summer. Force the same life-style someplace where crop failure still translates to famine and at best large shipments of bags marked <b>US AID</b> -- and you have inflicted evil on the people.</span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><br clear="none"></span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">To paraphrase President Reagan in the modern context</span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">"The nine [now 14] most terrifying words in the English language [or as translated from any version of bureaucratese] are: I'm from the Government, an NGO, and/or IFI and I'm here to help."<br clear="none"></span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><br clear="none"></span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">That's what is now coming home to roost in Ghana, Sri-Lanka, and other less developed countries and which has triggered a strong reaction by farmers and others in places such as France and the Netherlands.</span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><br clear="none"></span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata">Ted</span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><br clear="none"></span></div><div><span class="yiv4465938408gmail-style-scope yiv4465938408gmail-ytd-watch-metadata"><br clear="none"></span></div></div><br clear="none"><div class="yiv4465938408gmail_quote"><div id="yiv4465938408yqt73920" class="yiv4465938408yqt4681907865"><div dir="ltr" class="yiv4465938408gmail_attr">On Thu, Jul 14, 2022 at 8:54 AM Smita Desai <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:smitausa@gmail.com" href="mailto:smitausa@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">smitausa@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex;" class="yiv4465938408gmail_quote"><div>Thanks for sharing. While the organic farming was and is a major issue, that was not the only issue causing the problems. Below is where the country spent borrowed money to no use.<div><br clear="none"></div><div><a shape="rect" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/05/28/the-story-behind-the-worlds-emptiest-international-airport-sri-lankas-mattala-rajapaksa/?sh=61c1049f7cea" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/05/28/the-story-behind-the-worlds-emptiest-international-airport-sri-lankas-mattala-rajapaksa/?sh=61c1049f7cea</a></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>And this is occurring in many developing countries, thatdomino effect is - maybe - just the beginning.</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>Thanks,</div><div>Smita Desai <br clear="none"><br clear="none"><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPad</div><div dir="ltr"><br clear="none"><blockquote type="cite">On Jul 14, 2022, at 6:40 AM, arnold peterson <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:alp4982@gmail.com" href="mailto:alp4982@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">alp4982@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"><br clear="none"></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">I listened to a podcast on this topic this morning on BBC The inquiry <div><a shape="rect" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct39t6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct39t6</a><br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>Arnie</div></div><br clear="none"><div class="yiv4465938408gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="yiv4465938408gmail_attr">On Wed, Jul 13, 2022 at 4:47 PM Jerry Harris <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:jerryharri@gmail.com" href="mailto:jerryharri@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">jerryharri@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex;" class="yiv4465938408gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div>Mostly, I see a tenuous attempt by an analyst (and amplified by Tucker) to make a connection between the World Bank and Green Elites with difficult and impossible decisions made in Sri Lanka and Ghana. A decision faced by many other food-insecure countries after Covid disrupted agricultural supply chains. The impact of Covid plus the Russian invasion of Ukraine on food supplies around the world was predicted to be dire. The impact of Covid lockdowns deprived many countries of revenue, forcing them to take out loans and cut costs including subsidizing fertilizer purchases. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that this represents a failure of "the greens". </div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>Just my $0.02, but it's disturbing to see Tucker Carlson's twisted logic echoed here.</div><div>Jerry</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>My reading list:</div><div><a shape="rect" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/world/asia/sri-lanka-organic-farming-fertilizer.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/world/asia/sri-lanka-organic-farming-fertilizer.html</a></div><div><a shape="rect" href="https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/ghana-fertilizer-market" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/ghana-fertilizer-market</a><br clear="none"></div><div><a shape="rect" href="https://newsghana.com.gh/ghana-likely-to-face-food-shortage-hunger-in-last-quarter-of-2022-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://newsghana.com.gh/ghana-likely-to-face-food-shortage-hunger-in-last-quarter-of-2022-2023/</a><br clear="none"></div><div><a shape="rect" href="https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName=Ghana%27s%20Agricultural%20Subsidy%20Program_Accra_Ghana_GH2022-0004" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName=Ghana%27s%20Agricultural%20Subsidy%20Program_Accra_Ghana_GH2022-0004</a><br clear="none"></div><div><a shape="rect" href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/07/12/sri-lanka-crisis-politics-economics-rajapaksa-protest/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/07/12/sri-lanka-crisis-politics-economics-rajapaksa-protest/</a><br clear="none"></div><div><a shape="rect" href="https://dailynews.lk/2021/06/01/local/250626/sri-lanka-import-organic-fertilizer-needed-maha-season" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://dailynews.lk/2021/06/01/local/250626/sri-lanka-import-organic-fertilizer-needed-maha-season</a><br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div> <br clear="none"></div></div><br clear="none"><div class="yiv4465938408gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="yiv4465938408gmail_attr">On Wed, Jul 13, 2022 at 8:50 AM Marvin Menzin <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:mmenzin@icloud.com" href="mailto:mmenzin@icloud.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mmenzin@icloud.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex;" class="yiv4465938408gmail_quote"><div><div dir="ltr">After the energy discussion here is a similar issue to do with fertilizers.<div>think of the damage people can do with abrupt and unproven changes to a working system based on some theory pushed to its limits for ideological reasons . great leap backward for these poor Sri Lankans .. </div><div><br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPad</div><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPad</div><div dir="ltr"><br clear="none">Begin forwarded message:<br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> Common Sense with Bari Weiss <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:bariweiss@substack.com" href="mailto:bariweiss@substack.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bariweiss@substack.com</a>><br clear="none"><b>Date:</b> July 12, 2022 at 6:05:23 AM EDT<br clear="none"><b>To:</b> <a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:mmenzin@comcast.net" href="mailto:mmenzin@comcast.net" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mmenzin@comcast.net</a><br clear="none"><b>Subject:</b> <b>Sri Lanka Just Fell. What Do We Have to Do With It?</b><br clear="none"><b>Reply-To:</b> Common Sense with Bari Weiss <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:reply%2B11vx2o%261pweo%26%26029e527d10f024143248c892c6a428db42e960c3e6a7752c10f62167632c46d8@mg1.substack.com" href="mailto:reply%2B11vx2o%261pweo%26%26029e527d10f024143248c892c6a428db42e960c3e6a7752c10f62167632c46d8@mg1.substack.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reply+11vx2o&1pweo&&029e527d10f024143248c892c6a428db42e960c3e6a7752c10f62167632c46d8@mg1.substack.com</a>><br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><img src="https://mailgun.substack.com/api/v1/email/open?token=eyJtIjoiPDIwMjIwNzEyMTAwMTMwLjMuOGQ1NTRkOWZiZWM2MzBmNUBtZzEuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tPiIsInUiOjI4ODgwMTYsInIiOiJtbWVuemluQGNvbWNhc3QubmV0IiwiZCI6Im1nMS5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20iLCJwIjo2MzYzNDk5MiwidCI6Im5ld3NsZXR0ZXIiLCJhIjoib25seV9wYWlkIiwicyI6MjYwMzQ3LCJjIjoicG9zdCIsImYiOmZhbHNlLCJwb3NpdGlvbiI6InRvcCIsImlhdCI6MTY1NzYyMDE1OSwiaXNzIjoicHViLTAiLCJzdWIiOiJlbyJ9._CfkQr2TTmP0ayQ-ezufA6NNGEs68AnMuxouFsHP7N8" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" style="min-height:1px;width:1px;border-width:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div style="display:none;font-size:1px;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:1px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;overflow:hidden;">The anti-growth environmental movement deserves much of the blame. </div><table role="presentation" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" width="550"></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"></td><td align="left" colspan="1" rowspan="1" width="550"><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px auto;max-width:550px;width:100%;"><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:40px;margin-bottom:8px;text-align:right;"><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=260347&post_id=63634992&utm_source=email" style="color:rgb(128,128,128);font-family:Pro -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Inter, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Color UI UI;font-size:13px;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Open in browser</a></div><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;padding:16px 0px 0px;"><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;"><h1 style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-family:Compact -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Color UI UI;font-size:1.625em;font-weight:bold;line-height:130%;margin:0.378em 0px 0px;"><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY29tbW9uc2Vuc2UubmV3cy9wL3NyaS1sYW5rYS1qdXN0LWZlbGwtd2hhdC1kby13ZS1oYXZlP3Rva2VuPWV5SjFjMlZ5WDJsa0lqb3lPRGc0TURFMkxDSndiM04wWDJsa0lqbzJNell6TkRrNU1pd2lhV0YwSWpveE5qVTNOakl3TVRVNExDSnBjM01pT2lKd2RXSXRNall3TXpRM0lpd2ljM1ZpSWpvaWNHOXpkQzF5WldGamRHbHZiaUo5LlFrSkxwNHdxZHppT2lnZ19XdHVfV3VNaUxBMXd2ZGwwLThDUUl2UTJfY1EiLCJwIjo2MzYzNDk5MiwicyI6MjYwMzQ3LCJmIjpmYWxzZSwidSI6Mjg4ODAxNiwiaWF0IjoxNjU3NjIwMTU4LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.JeL_3aipl-Hek2_Wx-MEK5dtaWBCX-r1r20UBKBnIrM?" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:none;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sri Lanka Just Fell. What Do We Have to Do With It? </a></h1><h3 style="color:rgb(118,118,118);font-family:Compact -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Color UI UI;font-size:20px;font-weight:normal;line-height:1.16em;margin:8px 0px;">The anti-growth environmental movement deserves much of the blame. </h3><table style="margin:1em 0px;"><tbody><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;"><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/10fd35fa-a86a-4eac-8411-5a37dd9f6986?u=2888016" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_90,h_90,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe518dd44-4f8d-4746-a290-2ed46e781bf3_750x875.jpeg" height="45" width="45" alt="" style="border-radius:50%;display:block;min-height:45px;max-width:550px;vertical-align:middle;width:45px;border:none;"></div></a></div></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:1em;margin-left:12px;"><div style="color:rgb(118,118,118);font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Color UI UI;font-size:14px;line-height:17px;"><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/10fd35fa-a86a-4eac-8411-5a37dd9f6986?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:none;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Michael Shellenberger</a></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="min-height:20px;margin:4px 0px 0px;"><tbody><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="color:rgb(118,118,118);font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Color UI UI;font-size:14px;font-weight:400;min-height:14px;padding:0px 9px 0px 0px;text-decoration:none;"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_36,c_scale,f_png,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2Ficon%2FLockFullIcon%3Fv%3D2%26height%3D36%26strokeWidth%3D2" width="18" height="18" style="max-width:18px;vertical-align:middle;border:none;" alt=""></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="color:rgb(118,118,118);font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Color UI UI;font-size:14px;font-weight:400;min-height:14px;padding:2px 12px 2px 0px;text-decoration:none;white-space:nowrap;">Jul 12</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="color:rgb(118,118,118);font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Color UI UI;font-size:14px;font-weight:400;min-height:14px;padding:0px 12px 0px 0px;text-decoration:none;text-indent:3px;white-space:nowrap;"><span><a shape="rect" 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height="366.7925824175824" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_2912,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89111ce0-ea9e-4b6c-a685-c81d0d55c682_5388x3592.jpeg" style="display:block;height:auto;margin:0px auto;vertical-align:middle;border:none;max-width:100%;width:auto;"></a></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;"></td></tr></tbody></table>An activist shouts slogans and holds up bread as he protests against rising living costs in Colombo on March 15, 2022. (Ishara S. Kodikara via Getty Images)</div><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>Sri Lanka has fallen. On Saturday, thousands of protesters stormed the presidential palace. While the angry and the aggrieved </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/0fc19f16-0717-4627-a371-06d1414ad22c?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">swam</a><span> in the president’s pool, had a cookout on his lawn, lounged on his bed, and set fire to his residence, the president was spirited away to a naval ship off the Sri Lankan coast.</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>The proximate reason for the chaos is that the nation is bankrupt, suffering its </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/dae94dd7-c0d0-49ac-8be7-4d9fda0dff4f?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">worst financial crisis in decades</a><span>. Millions are struggling to buy food, medicine and fuel. Between June 2021 to June 2022, food prices </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c0134aa1-72f9-461b-9054-50298584d5f7?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rose</a><span> by 80 percent. Last month, annual inflation hit nearly </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2492bc6d-b18d-48a1-9260-b1af951f36ae?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">55 percent</a><span>. Since the start of the pandemic, half a million people have </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/f0f7efc4-fc20-4404-a738-885d19a03370?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fallen</a><span> into poverty.</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">If you’ve never paid attention to the island country just off India’s southeastern coast, you might think this is just how it goes in developing nations. But the truth is that Sri Lanka had been gradually rebuilding itself—after decades of civil war and authoritarianism—and then this happened. We in the West had a lot to do with it.</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>The underlying reason for the fall of Sri Lanka is that its leaders—starting with former President Maithripala Sirisena and continuing with his successor, the recently deposed Gotabaya Rajapaksa—fell under the spell of Western green elites peddling organic agriculture and “ESG,” which refers to investments made following supposedly higher Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria. Sri Lanka </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/77864164-c2bc-495b-8e02-053ac999c019?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has a near-perfect ESG score</a><span> of 98—higher than Sweden (96) and the United States (51).</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>What does having such a high ESG score mean? In short, it meant that Sri Lanka’s two million farmers were forced to stop using fertilizers and pesticides, laying waste to its critical agricultural sector. (Never mind that Tesla has been </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/f9eedfc9-de34-40d1-9316-a98fe9dc97b1?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">booted</a><span> from the ESG S&P Index, while Exxon Mobil is in the top ten. None of it makes much sense.)</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>To be sure, there were other factors behind Sri Lanka’s fall. Covid lockdowns and a 2019 bombing hurt tourism—an industry that usually generates between </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/54c8454b-1d59-42eb-960c-2ea6b1b08b27?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$3 billion</a><span> and </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/1a693711-57cc-42fe-9b69-46ce823d8f5c?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$5 billion</a><span> a year. Sri Lanka racked up huge foreign debt, with China lending the country billions of dollars as part of its Belt and Road initiative. Transportation costs have rocketed 128 percent since May due to rising oil prices. And overall trends have not helped: Since 2012, growth has been </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/d6bc6231-7503-47ff-b390-2b9d954a2050?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">declining</a><span>.</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">But the biggest problem was Sri Lanka’s chemical fertilizer ban, which passed last year and was central to the country’s effort to comply with ESG.</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">The numbers are shocking. </p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>One-third of Sri Lanka’s farm lands </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/d0574c31-3487-4c9d-8637-038da3d8fe02?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">were dormant</a><span> in 2021 due to the fertilizer ban. Over 90 percent of Sri Lanka’s farmers had used chemical fertilizers before they were banned. After they were banned, an astonishing 85 percent </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/54c8454b-1d59-42eb-960c-2ea6b1b08b27?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">experienced</a><span> crop losses. Rice production fell 20 percent and prices skyrocketed </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/3f943e27-79ad-4b8a-8c12-90be9d7c7b56?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">50 percent</a><span> in just six months. Sri Lanka had to import $450 million worth of rice despite having been self-sufficient just months earlier. The price of carrots and tomatoes </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/1a693711-57cc-42fe-9b69-46ce823d8f5c?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rose</a><span> fivefold. All this had a </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c0134aa1-72f9-461b-9054-50298584d5f7?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dramatic impact</a><span> on the more than 15 million people of the country’s </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/c0134aa1-72f9-461b-9054-50298584d5f7?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">22 million people</a><span> who are directly or indirectly dependent on farming. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>Things were worse for smaller farmers. In the Rajanganaya region, where the majority of farmers operate two-and-a-half-acre lots, families reported 50 percent to 60 percent reductions in their harvest. “Before the ban, this was one of the biggest markets in the country, with tons and tons of rice and vegetables,” one farmer </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/d53fc5cf-b4ae-47b3-9663-65b9ea8826ae?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a><span> earlier this year. “But after the ban, it became almost zero. If you talk to the rice mills, they don’t have any stock because people’s harvest dropped so much. The income of this whole community has dropped to an extremely low level.”</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>But the damage to tea was the key to Sri Lanka’s ruin. Before 2021, tea production generated $1.3 billion in exports annually. Tea exports </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b8af5a48-2094-4906-a198-2cc120b25561?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">paid</a><span> for 71 percent of the nation’s food imports before 2021. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>The fertilizer ban, starting in April 2021, changed everything. Four months after the ban took effect, the president, realizing that things were not going according to plan, </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/088f2a78-eb36-4d53-8ee7-5abc602a9f14?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lifted</a><span> the ban on the import of chemical fertilizers—and then, two days later, reinstated it. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>The results have been devastating and widely predicted by tea farmers, with exports </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/723dcf20-dd73-45bc-9d8e-9a14c5273bba?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">crashing</a><span> 18 percent between November 2021 and February 2022—</span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/61cfd65b-1cea-4809-902a-02764f9c91ef?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reaching</a><span> their lowest level in more than two decades.</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>“We don’t have enough chemical fertilizers,” Rajapaksa </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/1a693711-57cc-42fe-9b69-46ce823d8f5c?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">admitted</a><span> in December 2021, “because we didn’t import them. There is a shortage.” </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>In May 2022, Sri Lanka </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ee813afa-8bd8-485f-90cc-1b2e30650b53?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">failed to pay</a><span> $77 million on its foreign debt repayments. That may seem like a small sum in the bigger scheme of things, but the default made it hard for Sri Lanka to borrow money. So, it devalued its currency, inflation rose 30 percent, and the government ran out of the cash it needed to import fuel, food and medicines.</span></p><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;"><hr style="background:rgb(235,235,235);border:none;min-height:1px;margin:48px 0px;padding:0px;"></div><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin-bottom:16px;text-align:center;"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin:8px auto;"><tbody><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;"></td><td align="left" colspan="1" rowspan="1" width="1456" style="text-align:center;"><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/41ebd5dd-9318-432c-8f4c-383e50d3e750?u=2888016" style="border:none;display:block;height:auto;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;width:auto;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img alt="" width="550" height="366.7925824175824" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_2912,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F093af56f-182a-42d5-aec2-b741663b0a73_3317x2212.jpeg" style="display:block;height:auto;margin:0px auto;vertical-align:middle;border:none;max-width:100%;width:auto;"></a></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;"></td></tr></tbody></table>Protestors swim in a pool inside the compound of Sri Lanka's Presidential Palace on July 9, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)</div><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;"><hr style="background:rgb(235,235,235);border:none;min-height:1px;margin:48px 0px;padding:0px;"></div><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">What, exactly, were Rajapaksa and other Sri Lankan leaders thinking? Why did they engage in such a radical experiment with the most important industry in their country?</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>After World War II, Sri Lanka, like many poor nations, </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/5abdba60-6677-4ff4-a4b9-099af591dbb8?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subsidized</a><span> farmers to transition from biofertilizers, like manure, to chemical fertilizers in what is known as the Green Revolution. (This was popularized by </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/fb36eb74-65ad-4759-b083-9e777c425a68?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Norman Borlaug</a><span>, the Nobel Prize-winning agronomist.) Rice yields rose quickly, and the nation overcame chronic </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/fb2bbac6-11b8-4940-80e6-12a384060f7e?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">food shortages</a><span> and started earning foreign revenue through the export of </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/723f2a77-ea21-4b5f-bb5b-7239e5f3c091?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rubber and tea</a><span>. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>As yields rose, young people were able to get jobs in cities. Salaries </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/404cb128-a52a-464f-89ff-53f1152ebf31?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">increased</a><span>—so much so that Sri Lanka became a middle-income nation.</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">But what looked like a dream to most Sri Lankans looked like a nightmare to many environmentalists in the West. In the 1970s, Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich and other activists raged against the Green Revolution. They claimed that overpopulation would cause mass death and suffering and that humankind needed to play “triage.” In other words, we had to let some people die so the rest of us could live. </p><div style="display:none;font-size:16px;line-height:26px;"></div><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>In their 1977 book, </span><em>Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment</em><span>, Ehrlich and his co-authors, Anne Ehrlich, his wife, and John Holdren, who would go on to become Barack Obama’s science adviser, argued that the world did not have enough energy to support the economic aspirations of the world’s poor. “Most plans for modernizing agriculture in less-developed nations call for introducing energy-intensive practices similar to those used in North America and western Europe—greatly increased use of fertilizers and other farm chemicals, tractors and other machinery, irrigation, and supporting transportation networks—all of which require large inputs of fossil fuels,” they wrote. The better strategy, they argued, was “much greater use of human labor and relatively less dependence on heavy machinery and manufactured fertilizers and pesticides.” </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>In other words, they were calling for poor nations to do what Sri Lanka did </span><em>before</em><span> the Green Revolution. Such labor-intensive farming “causes far less environmental damage than does energy-intensive Western agriculture,” they </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/fec80e4e-dab3-4feb-b60f-13a681ea2eec?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claimed</a><span>. The “secret” to “alternative farming methods” was for poor, small farmers to remain poor and small. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>The Ehrlichs and Holdren were followers of the late 18th-century British economist Robert Thomas Malthus, who thought human beings were doomed to overpopulate and starve. Malthus </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/fec80e4e-dab3-4feb-b60f-13a681ea2eec?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">professed</a><span> concern for the poor while advocating for policies that would keep them poor. He urged governments to prop up the old aristocratic system by prioritizing agriculture over manufacturing, and pointed to the superiority of the country life that he, as an aristocrat, enjoyed. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>Some defend Malthus by claiming that he wrote his famous 1798 book, </span><em>An Essay on the Principle of Population</em><span>, when it was still too early to know that the Industrial Revolution would radically increase food production. But that didn’t stop his ideas from leading subsequent generations of environmentalists to obsess over population—and oppose economic growth.</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">In the 1960s and 1970s, neo-Malthusians like Paul Ehrlich and Holdren justified their opposition to the extension of cheap energy and agricultural modernization to poor nations by using the left-wing language of redistribution. It wasn’t that poor nations needed to develop. It was that rich nations needed to consume less.</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>Over the years, this language was picked up by the United Nations and influential environmentalists, from </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/de1d0296-c410-4798-a607-a59ee2be16c7?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Greta Thunberg</a><span> and </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/30223c78-7c29-450b-812b-d649192a1ed4?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Michael Pollan</a><span> to Vandana Shiva, the Indian ecofeminist, and Frances Moore Lappé, the author of the bestselling book </span><em>Diet For a Small Planet</em><span>. Organic farming, they said, would reduce environmental harm. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">They had a deep impact on Sri Lankan intellectuals and policymakers. </p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>Dr. Ranil Senanayake, for example, was one of the first students to study organic agriculture at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1970s. He received a </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/6437ebcb-9c12-4307-833a-bd4e39109a32?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">grant</a><span> from the Ashoka Foundation and was an advisor to the U.N. Environment Program, and, since the early 1980s, he has spearheaded Sri Lanka’s organic-farming movement. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">Where in 1977, the Ehrlichs and Holdren proposed international control of the “development, administration, conservation and distribution of all natural resources,” many green NGOs and U.N. agencies today similarly seek control over energy and food policies in developing nations. Only they do so in the name of climate change and biodiversity. The Ashoka Foundation, for example, is funded by MasterCard, Disney, and J.P. Morgan, among other multinational firms. There’s no evidence these corporations have any interest in organic farming per se. But the cause of organic farming in places like Sri Lanka has become a signal that one is on the right side of history.</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>Progressive economists, along with the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and other globalizing institutions, have since promoted “sustainable” agriculture and tourism for poor and developing nations like Sri Lanka. “Given its education levels,” </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/bafd5fd5-325b-4bea-99b3-ce1b12d9cae3?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a><span> progressive economist Joseph Stiglitz for the World Economic Forum in 2016, “Sri Lanka may be able to move directly into more technologically advanced sectors, high-productivity organic farming, and higher-end tourism.”</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">It was into this context that Sri Lanka went organic. </p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>In 2015, then-President Sirisena announced plans for a “toxin-free nation.” President Rajapaksa, who came to power in 2019, built on this theme. He called for a return to the pre-Green Revolution days—demanding the use of </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/1f7e2d9c-a97a-43de-997f-1ffac7f2252c?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">biofertilizer</a><span>s and drawing on superstitious </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/f82de401-bc71-44dd-b4c6-6e5dd51a13ae?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claims</a><span> that farm chemicals caused </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/e85b57d9-2b0a-4f8e-8e34-fd966669141d?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">kidney </a><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/4231014d-53b8-4691-8578-27cdd77fc29f?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">disease</a><span>.</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>Rajapaksa was elected on a platform to </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/54c8454b-1d59-42eb-960c-2ea6b1b08b27?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">transition</a><span> the nation to organic agriculture over a </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/54c8454b-1d59-42eb-960c-2ea6b1b08b27?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10-year</a><span> year period. “Sustainable food systems are part of Sri Lanka’s rich sociocultural and economic heritage,” he </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/304daefb-be11-444c-8de8-34cc9be052ca?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told a U.N.</a><span> summit. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>In December 2020, Sri Lanka’s environment minister </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/1873fd96-be6e-4431-8919-3323378e26dd?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a><span> a government program to save the planet from “our own geoengineering misuse, greed and selfishness” before a conference on cutting nitrogen fertilizer waste. It was part of a broader effort by the Sri Lanka government to seek the blessing of Western banks and the UN under so-called ESG goals. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">Then, in April 2021, the government made good on its pledge by banning chemical fertilizers. </p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>The move enjoyed support in Washington, D.C., and Brussels. One month after Sri Lanka announced the fertilizer ban, in May 2021, the World Bank </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ad8fd092-77b6-4be5-b94c-c0ad3418fd2e?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rewarded</a><span> Sri Lanka a $125 million grant for small farmers on top of $2 billion in other grants targeting transportation, agriculture, education and healthcare. The EU </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/ad8fd092-77b6-4be5-b94c-c0ad3418fd2e?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">provided</a><span> a $1 billion grant to reduce poverty, among other things. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>But at the very same moment, Sri Lanka’s agricultural scientists and economists </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/2277c2ba-b2b6-43ec-b17f-43890091268d?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">were warning</a><span> Rajapaksa that the fertilizer ban would be disastrous—leading to dramatic reductions in rice paddy yields. They also warned of the impact on tea, predicting a loss of nearly $233 million.</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">Organic agriculture around the world is fueled by the appeal-to-nature fallacy, which holds that “natural” things—wild fish, manure, wood fuel—are better for the environment than “artificial” things like farmed fish, chemical fertilizers, and fossil fuels. This ignores the fact that the so-called artificial things are as natural as the “natural” things. They’re simply newer.</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">What the proponents of organic agriculture really want, like the Malthusians of yesteryear, is to stop economic growth, which they believe drives overpopulation, which they insist is the real basis for environmental disaster. They believe that by targeting innovations like chemical fertilizers, they get to the root of the problem: They cut off the growth at its knees.</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>Nonsense. Humankind needs chemical fertilizers to produce sufficient food and use land efficiently. Around three or four billion acres of </span><em>additional</em><span> farm land would be </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/fff3bd9b-b73d-47f6-b035-f08bf5bbe4e8?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">required</a><span> to meet today’s food demand without chemical fertilizers.</span></p><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;"><hr style="background:rgb(235,235,235);border:none;min-height:1px;margin:48px 0px;padding:0px;"></div><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin-bottom:16px;text-align:center;"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin:8px auto;"><tbody><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;"></td><td align="left" colspan="1" rowspan="1" width="1456" style="text-align:center;"><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/71668453-1b91-4c56-9c94-ed438f6a48fe?u=2888016" style="border:none;display:block;height:auto;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration:none;width:auto;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img alt="" width="550" height="366.7925824175824" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_2912,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0127688f-d78c-4589-a37c-3488727887a6_5472x3648.jpeg" style="display:block;height:auto;margin:0px auto;vertical-align:middle;border:none;max-width:100%;width:auto;"></a></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;"></td></tr></tbody></table>Sri Lankans occupy the president's official residence on July 10, 2022. (Tharaka Basnayaka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)</div><div style="font-size:16px;line-height:26px;"><hr style="background:rgb(235,235,235);border:none;min-height:1px;margin:48px 0px;padding:0px;"></div><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">So what, exactly, were Sri Lanka’s leaders thinking? They weren’t. They were following a rigid, pro-scarcity dogma, which was developed in the 18th century and has been recycled and greenwashed through the centuries by global elites who use nature as cover for their anti-human, anti-civilization worldview and policy agenda.</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">Not everybody got Sri Lanka wrong. The United States Department of Agriculture warned against it. “The lack of organic fertilizer productive capacity, coupled with the absence of a formalized plan to import organic fertilizers in lieu of chemical fertilizers, raises the potential for an adverse impact on food security,” it warned in 2021, around the same time the World Bank announced its grant in support of Sri Lanka’s efforts. “There has been no mention by the government yet as to how it would tackle a food security crisis brought about by drops in crop yields.”</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">The Green Revolution, fossil fuels, and chemical fertilizers were—and remain—more good than bad. High-yield farming produces far less nitrogen pollution run-off than low-yield farming. While rich nations produce 70 percent higher yields than poor nations, they use just 54 percent more nitrogen. Nations get better at using nitrogen fertilizer over time. Since the early 1960s, the Netherlands has doubled its yields while using the same amount of fertilizer.</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;">To be sure, we should continue the trend away from dirtier to cleaner fuels, or what is known as “up the energy ladder,” from wood to coal to natural gas to nuclear. But the way to do that is gradually, not abruptly, and with greater scientific, technological, and economic progress, not less. Such a process will allow us to use less fertilizer more precisely over time.</p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>Environmentalists, Norman Borlaug once </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/f08d34be-a44f-4e99-89be-0e6862eee887?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">observed</a><span>, “have never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they would be crying out for tractors and fertilizers and irrigation canals, and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things.”</span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px 0px 1em;"><span>Sri Lanka must deal with other factors beyond its immediate agriculture policy, including the willingness of its people and elites to fall for such obviously wrong dogmas, including around Covid, and the country’s </span><a shape="rect" href="https://substack.com/redirect/b8779dce-776e-44ae-abcc-ef7943452160?u=2888016" style="color:rgb(26,26,26);text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deference to China</a><span>. But at bottom, Sri Lanka will fix itself when its people understand that they must move from a biological economy to a chemical one if it is to sustain its population and return to middle-income status. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(26,26,26);font-size:16px;line-height:26px;margin:0px;">Sri Lanka’s deposed president was right that organic farming and wood fuel use were part of Sri Lanka’s rich sociocultural and economic past. 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