"At the root of this economic catastrophe is a bizarre overnight flip by Rajapaksa’s government on 29 April to ban the import of chemical fertilisers and any other agrochemicals to make the Indian Ocean nation the first in the world to practice organic-only agriculture. The result: prices of daily food items like sugar, rice and onions have soared over twice, with sugar even touching record Rs 200/kg"
Fortunately, Western environmentalists won't be affected - they can continue arguing about the need for a transition to organic-only farming while sipping their organic kombucha made by what is left of Sri-Lankan tea industry - which they can afford thanks to welfare created in their countries by cheap food from modern agriculture 🤷
@kravietz lets discredit them effeminate tea sipping western environmentalists by blaming them for any and all government actions towards sustainability (including the timing of measures and precise apportioning of pain)
My point about "tea sipping" being, they treat developed countries as an experimental field for their poorly designed and often utopian proposals, using their disadvantaged economic position and weak democratic institutions. But for the people on the ground it's not about abstract ideas or experiments, it's life-or-death situation.
Do you think an overnight ban on "inorganic" fertilizers and pesticides could be passed in any EU country?
That's why they've gone to Sri-Lanka.
The result of the sectarian approach is that the "certified organic" farming actually uses *more* land, has more impact on diversity, results in higher CO2 emissions... and to add to that is way much more expensive for consumers.
But in the West it's kind of the whole point of it - we buy "more natural food" than the ordinary mortals because we can afford it. "Hand-picked", "artisan", "home-made", "organic" is all part of the same marketing targeted at rich people.
