Sri Lanka shows what happens when we follow radical environmentalist principles: Leftist ideas always look good on paper and invariably fail in practice

American Thinker ^ | 05/10/2022 | Andrea Widburg

[SeekAndFind]

Sri Lanka is facing agricultural collapse, which is a disaster in a nation that has only recently raised itself out of poverty...thanks to its agricultural growth. The cause is the outgoing government's decision to follow the environmentalist path and use only natural fertilizer. Meanwhile, here in America, Samantha Power, who is the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, is pleased that the War in Ukraine is stopping the flow of fertilizer from Russia, allowing the world to go organic.

The news out of Sri Lanka is grim.  (Hat tip: Power Line.)

What turned Sri Lanka's economic situation from difficult to catastrophic was the decision by the Rajapaksa government to implement a nationwide ban on synthetic fertiliser. It was made not at the behest of neoliberal economists doing the bidding of global capital, but rather on the advice of environmentalists in the name of sustainable agriculture.

[snip]

[T]hat strategy backfired in spectacular fashion. Domestic rice production fell by 14 per cent from 2021 to 2022, forcing the nation, long self-sufficient in rice production, to import hundreds of millions of dollars of rice and more than eroding all of the savings from ceasing fertiliser imports. On top of that, the ban decimated tea production, leading to a $425 million economic loss to the industry in its first six months of implementation. Tea, one of the nation's primary crops, is a key source of its total export income, making a bad foreign exchange situation far worse.

What's so ironic about the situation is that, according to the same article from the London Times, it was synthetic fertilizer that turned Sri Lanka into a major agricultural exporter. Still, the greenies had to have their way, and now the economy is collapsing, and domestic food prices in Sri Lanka have quadrupled.

[SeekAndFind]

Additionally, the prime minister who spearheaded this disaster has resigned; there are running battles in the capital city and troops on the street; there are major shortages of essentials such as food, medicines, and oil; and power cuts are becoming the norm.

[jdsteel]

Quoting Jim Quinn: Liberalism always results in the exact opposite of its stated intent.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

he prime minister who spearheaded this disaster has resigned;

But otherwise won't be held accountable. That is the problem with these long-term Lib policies, including deficit spending. The people who put them in place resign or retire or get voted out and a new group comes in with NEW liberal policies to fix the old liberal policy mess.

[Reily]

Did they do something similar back in the 1960s-1970s time range when they elected a Trotskyite Prime Minister?
Sri Lanka of course ended up in total economic disaster then too. I guess they didn’t learn!

Oh, I know, “This Time it’s Different!”

[dsrtsage]

Demonrats proposals only look good on paper if they are printed in an artistic calligraphy. If one is not illiterate, or understands mathematics, history, or philosophy they are the bubbling toxic miasma seeping out of Bidungs nether regions when he visits the pope.

[hinckley buzzard]

Socialist Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Alienated the Tamil minority and instigated a bloody civil war.

[blam]

"Oh, I know, “This Time it’s Different!”"

Looks like they picked the wrong people again, eh?

[Reily]

Yep that’s right! Couldn’t remember the Socialist idiot’s name but remember the news broadcasts on the war.

[The Great RJ]

American agriculture runs on diesel fuel for planting harvesting and transportation of the agricultural products to market. There are no electric tractors, combines or large haul trucks. Diesel prices are skyrocketing and there are concerns about possible shortages of diesel fuel. Combined with a shortage of fertilizer we could begin to see empty shelves in grocery stores by this fall.