Mark Almond \u2013 Daily Mail July 11, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\nThe anarchic scenes in Sri Lanka are enough to make the blood of any world leader run cold. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s residence overrun by furious protesters. Crowds cavorting on his four-poster bed and in his swimming pool and gym. Sections of the Prime Minister\u2019s home in flames.<\/p>\n
This burning building not only serves as a symbolic funeral pyre for Rajapaksa\u2019s government. It is a smouldering lesson for all governments in pursuing an economically illiterate green agenda at the expense of common sense.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake: The roots of this chaos can be traced to Rajapaksa\u2019s wrong-headed thinking on farming. In his 2019 manifesto, he pledged to transform Sri Lanka into an \u2018organic\u2019 nation within a decade \u2013 reducing and eventually banning chemical fertilisers, herbicides and insecticides.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Sri-Lanka-protestors-storm-govt-buildings.jpg\")
<\/a>Sri Lanka protestors storm govt buildings. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n
It\u2019s a pledge that would probably win votes here, too. Who wouldn\u2019t, in principle, want a greener future, free of nasty chemicals? But the trade-off, as Sri Lanka learnt the hard way, is food production tumbling over a cliff. For them, going green meant going hungry.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Covid struck, hollowing out Sri Lanka\u2019s finances and causing its vital tourism industry to grind to a halt.<\/p>\n
Any rational government would have abandoned the pledge to hobble agriculture with eco-strictures. But Rajapaksa doubled down, announcing in April last year a total and immediate ban on fertiliser, to the outrage of Sri Lanka\u2019s two million farmers. He was lauded by the world\u2019s pampered eco-dignitaries at Glasgow\u2019s Cop26 conference that November, feted as a green torch-bearer for developing nations, receiving warm praise and Covid-friendly elbow bumps in every corridor.<\/p>\n
But what was spun as Rajapaksa\u2019s green revolution was, in fact, cynical cost-cutting. With fewer tourists, Sri Lanka\u2019s foreign cash reserves dried up. The government wasn\u2019t prepared to use what little it had importing fertiliser. So it must have looked to Rajapaksa as a win-win: eco-credentials burnished and the treasury saving money.<\/p>\n
There was only one problem: farmers couldn\u2019t produce the yields they needed.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka feeds itself with rice. In the six months following the fertiliser ban, domestic production collapsed by 20 per cent, while prices rose 50 per cent. The tea crop was also devastated: the country\u2019s most important export, and from which the lost revenue outweighed any savings made by not importing fertilisers.<\/p>\n
What started as a dream that Prince Charles, with his organic Duchy estate, would surely approve of turned into a sorry mess of over-tilled soils, empty supermarket shelves and the hungry bellies of Sri Lanka\u2019s poorest.<\/p>\n
Selling your country as \u2018organic\u2019 appeals to visitors jetting in from Islington and Hollywood to enjoy lush scenery in five-star retreats \u2013 and assuage their guilt about flying thousands of miles. But today, the misery it inflicted on Sri Lanka\u2019s people can be read in the smoke signals billowing from the presidential palace.<\/p>\n
And let me be clear: this is not some abstract crisis taking place far away. Similar chaos looms in the West. In many countries, the rock of the \u2018green agenda\u2019 is meeting the hard place of economic reality. Farmers in Italy, Germany and Poland have been objecting with increasing anger to the destructive green pressure inflicted by their governments.<\/p>\n
The biggest tinderbox is the Netherlands, one of the biggest meat exporters in the EU. This should be a point of pride for PM Mark Rutte at a time of world food shortage and rocketing prices. Instead, because meat production typically uses fertiliser, Rutte sees Holland\u2019s success in this field as a stain on his green ambition.<\/p>\n
Amsterdam has pledged to halve the use of nitrogen compounds in animal manure and ammonia fertilisers by 2030, requiring a 30 per cent reduction in livestock. Dutch farmers are understandably apoplectic and have sprayed manure over government buildings in protest. A confrontation last week in Friesland saw police firing warning shots and several arrested.<\/p>\n
You still think green-inspired anarchy is confined to the developing world? If you push the people to the point of hunger, they revolt. Politicians the world over, captivated by the dream of a glorious green future, will do well to heed these dire warnings.<\/p>\n
Mark Almond, Director Of The Crisis Research Institute In Oxford<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>Sri Lanka protestors storm govt buildings. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n
It\u2019s a pledge that would probably win votes here, too. Who wouldn\u2019t, in principle, want a greener future, free of nasty chemicals? But the trade-off, as Sri Lanka learnt the hard way, is food production tumbling over a cliff. For them, going green meant going hungry.<\/p>\n
In 2020, Covid struck, hollowing out Sri Lanka\u2019s finances and causing its vital tourism industry to grind to a halt.<\/p>\n
Any rational government would have abandoned the pledge to hobble agriculture with eco-strictures. But Rajapaksa doubled down, announcing in April last year a total and immediate ban on fertiliser, to the outrage of Sri Lanka\u2019s two million farmers. He was lauded by the world\u2019s pampered eco-dignitaries at Glasgow\u2019s Cop26 conference that November, feted as a green torch-bearer for developing nations, receiving warm praise and Covid-friendly elbow bumps in every corridor.<\/p>\n
But what was spun as Rajapaksa\u2019s green revolution was, in fact, cynical cost-cutting. With fewer tourists, Sri Lanka\u2019s foreign cash reserves dried up. The government wasn\u2019t prepared to use what little it had importing fertiliser. So it must have looked to Rajapaksa as a win-win: eco-credentials burnished and the treasury saving money.<\/p>\n
There was only one problem: farmers couldn\u2019t produce the yields they needed.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka feeds itself with rice. In the six months following the fertiliser ban, domestic production collapsed by 20 per cent, while prices rose 50 per cent. The tea crop was also devastated: the country\u2019s most important export, and from which the lost revenue outweighed any savings made by not importing fertilisers.<\/p>\n
What started as a dream that Prince Charles, with his organic Duchy estate, would surely approve of turned into a sorry mess of over-tilled soils, empty supermarket shelves and the hungry bellies of Sri Lanka\u2019s poorest.<\/p>\n
Selling your country as \u2018organic\u2019 appeals to visitors jetting in from Islington and Hollywood to enjoy lush scenery in five-star retreats \u2013 and assuage their guilt about flying thousands of miles. But today, the misery it inflicted on Sri Lanka\u2019s people can be read in the smoke signals billowing from the presidential palace.<\/p>\n
And let me be clear: this is not some abstract crisis taking place far away. Similar chaos looms in the West. In many countries, the rock of the \u2018green agenda\u2019 is meeting the hard place of economic reality. Farmers in Italy, Germany and Poland have been objecting with increasing anger to the destructive green pressure inflicted by their governments.<\/p>\n
The biggest tinderbox is the Netherlands, one of the biggest meat exporters in the EU. This should be a point of pride for PM Mark Rutte at a time of world food shortage and rocketing prices. Instead, because meat production typically uses fertiliser, Rutte sees Holland\u2019s success in this field as a stain on his green ambition.<\/p>\n
Amsterdam has pledged to halve the use of nitrogen compounds in animal manure and ammonia fertilisers by 2030, requiring a 30 per cent reduction in livestock. Dutch farmers are understandably apoplectic and have sprayed manure over government buildings in protest. A confrontation last week in Friesland saw police firing warning shots and several arrested.<\/p>\n
You still think green-inspired anarchy is confined to the developing world? If you push the people to the point of hunger, they revolt. Politicians the world over, captivated by the dream of a glorious green future, will do well to heed these dire warnings.<\/p>\n
Mark Almond, Director Of The Crisis Research Institute In Oxford<\/a><\/p>\n