Mass Protest in the Netherlands by Farmers.

2 years ago, the plan was sound and an excellent idea which would have brought much needed stability to their complete overreliance on agriculture, it was supposed to be phased in over 10 years, it was arbitrarily phased in basically over night because they didn't have the foreign currency to pay for it.

To replace it they went for a far "cheaper" organic substitute which turned into a complete corrupt cluterfúck.

They reversed the ban, but due to bad weather (climate change) and missing the harvest the yields were down.

Now fertiliser is up 10 times more expensive and with the increase in fuel prices they can't get their product to market.

But again it has fúck all to do with green ideology and all to do with mass corruption and mismanagement by the chuckle brothers, one of which is currently trying to find a country where he can't be forced back from.

So you believe that the answer to all problems world wide are countries to become self sufficient in food by farming organically where every country would become a self sufficient agricultural utopia. There are any number of flaws in that idea as I already mentioned, plus the fact that in living memory the creation of an agricultural utopia was the primary policy of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, and that really did not work out well. That is not the only example. The history of communism is littered with similar.

What is happening in Sri Lanka with food production, or more aptly the drop in food production, is a direct result of green ideology around climate change. One of the main plank of their arguement on climate change is that it is not an issue that is going to be solved by countries on an individual basis and has to be tackled globally, and I agree with them on that. Yet when it comes to food the idea of tackling the problem globally gets turned on its head with nothing other than each country individually becoming self sufficient by farming organically. It really comes down to on farming greens attempting to get rid of anything they do not like while not having a viable alternative. And it`s not just confined to Sri Lanka, they same is happening in the EU with wheat, sugar beet and other crops.

So you believe that the answer to all problems world wide are countries to become self sufficient in food by farming organically where every country would become a self sufficient agricultural utopia

Nope, again you are seeing things I'm not saying.

I suggest you re read.

But simply, if the vast majority of your economy is agricultural based and the success of that is based on a foreign commodity that can fluctuate widely in price and availability then that is beyond daft. Again evidenced by Sri Lanka.

Absolutely nothing to do with green ideology.

We made data centres strategic. Probably one of the states daftest decisions. The stupidity of it was highlighted at the time but shouted down.

Now it's a problem. A big one.

At least I`ve made an attempt to read what you have posted, which from your replies avoiding the points I raised is more than you have appear to have done.

Organic farming is part and parcel of green global ideology. When it comes to global agriculture it`s the only ideology greens have. It`s an ideology at the COP26 beanfeast Gotabata Rajapaksa fell all over himself embracing and then attempted to put into practice with disastrous results.

The realities are that the Sri Lankan attempt highlighted with such massive drops in yields of staple foods and agricultural export commodities the fallacy. To even get back to where they were with agricultural output using organic farming will require much more land being planted. Not only will that require more labour input it will increase prices. It would also most likely in Sri Lanka require large areas of forest having to be cut down to provide that extra land. For green ideology, the practice of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

All that to just take them back to where they were before the insanity, and that is not even taking into consideration the projected growth in populations of countries that are barely able to feed themselves as they are. The idea that global food problems can be sorted by all individual countries becoming self sufficient through organic farming is nothing other than a glib green nonsense reply when questioned on the harm their ideology would do to agricultural output globally.

I couldn't give a bollíx about green ideology, but that doesn't mean I can't see the benefits in some of it's ideas.

I never claimed organic farming isn't part of green ideology. In fact I have offered no opinion on organic farming whatsoever. You sure you are reading my posts?

My point was which is not my opinion but a fact, is that Sri Lanka moving to ban chemical fertilisers over night was fúck all to do with green ideology and all to do with the fact they had no money to pay for it. Which is exactly what is happening.

For someone that supposedly could not give a bollix about green ideology and has no opinion on organic farming you are certainly going through a lot of contortion attempting to avoid acknowledging that it was being forced to farm organically that was the reason for the huge drop in crop yields in Sri Lanka.

Economies of scale. The average farm in Ireland is approx. 32.4 hectares or 80 acres in old money. That's a small farm. Ireland has an awful lot of small farms and it's harder to make a decent living off a small farm than a large farm.

Multiply any of those figures above by 80 (average farm 80 acres) and you'll see figures that won't have the average farmer driving around wearing a fur coat and a crown.

They have a different mentality to townies. The townies want their 9-5. Their evenings and weekends is their "me" time.

For the part time farmers you are referring to, their evenings and weekends are just the opportunity for them to look after the place at home. That is what they were brought up doing and they generally want to mind the family place to give it to the next generation.

You standard 9-5 is only half the week to them.

You really are running all over the place attempting to ignore well documented facts on organic farming. Crop yield over all crops is 16% lower farmed organically with some crops having much higher percentages. There have been numerous reports by Reuters, The New York Times etc journalists in Sri Lanka who saw how low the yield was for rice and other staples. As much as 30% - 40% lower. If you do not believe the journalists how is your take on science ?

Professor Buddhi Marambe a world renowned expert on crop science told the BBC "We cannot achieve total food security only with organic farming" and that was not just something he came up with off the top of his head. He cited the study carried out by the Department of Agriculture, where he was Senior Professor at the Faculty, over 22 consecutive seasons at Batalagoda, the rice research center, showed yields using just organic fertiliser dropped between 21.5 -33%. He was far from alone among agriculture scientists in Sri Lanka to point that out on rice as well as other crops. Including Ceylon tea which is a major export commodity for Sri Lanka.

I presume the Chinese boat with the organic fertiliser you are referring to is the Hippo Spirit ?

If it is the reason "the organic substitute was floating off the coast for 2 months" was that the Sri Lankan authorities refused to accept the cargo after testing it and identifying bacteria harmful to plants like carrots and potatoes.

Btw, nothing to do with me believing Organic is the Devil" Over more than 20 years I grew potatoes and vegetables using seaweed I harvested myself at Spring tides, artificial fertiliser, and once purchased dried seaweed. I didn`t measure the exact percentage but the potato harvest from the harvested seaweed was substantially lower than that from artificial fertiliser, and the dried fertiliser was a complete waste of time and effort.

Christ you know nothing about pesticide use if this is the kind of amateur dribble you’re spouting - “breathing pesticide fumes” dear Christ.

This is the problem with agricultural policy today- too many hysterics with zero clue what they’re talking about driving insane policies that are driving rapid food prices increases and potential future famines

I also get the feeling that this is why the EU globalists hate farmers so much.

The don't like nations to be self sufficient, the EU project is dependent on inter-dependence, it's rather hard to leave if the food/money/oil can be turned off by a third party (a hard lesson the EU is currently grappling with itself).

Also, think of all that land 'going to waste' in the hands of people rather than corporations, hoarded by 'traditionalists' or (the horror) those of a more nationalistic persuasion. Certiantly farmers that have lived on the same plot of land for generations are not a diverse and multicultural group which is rather problematic....

I'm not ignoring anything nor am I debating the disadvantages of organic fertiliser. It certainly has disadvantages but pertinent to Sri Lanka it has one glaring advantage, they can produce it.

It's very simple, Sri Lanka cannot afford any fertiliser. Let that sink in. Imagine if they had an alternative that they could actually produce themselves and more importantly know how to use.

Guess who are not effected by this current crisis? The 10% of farmers who were not dependant on foreign chemicals.

The reality is one way or another they will be forced to diversify and reduce their dependency on imported chemicals, not because of green ideology but because they can't afford it.

By not embracing at least partial self sufficiency they are just going to remain poor engaged in a cycle of misery fuelled by fluctuating foreign markets and climate change.

That actually suits certain countries, but that's a different debate.

Fair enough....that's not much good to most farmers unless its reflected in the price....how long before it filters down because my input costs are still sky high.

Again, they can't afford to import fertiliser.

You seem to be leaving that pertinent fact out.

No fertiliser of any description = zero yields.

This 10% of farmers you mention that were not affected by the current crisis due to not using chemicals, what was their crop yield and was it different to that of Sri Lanka`s Agricultural Research Institute that over 22 consecutive seasons found that using organic fertilisers reduced yield by 21.5% - 33%.?

80% > 0%

Oh that's a real rabbit hole to jump down through. Look at who are the major shareholders in these groups the same names keep on popping up. State Street, Vanguard, Blackrock, Berkshire Hathaway, Geode Capital management, Charles Schwab Investment Management etc here's the main institutional investors in Pepsico and it's main competitor Coca Cola. If you don't see it automatically scroll down to see the list of institutional investors. It's similar for the likes of Kellogs and Mondelez among others. This information is publicly available on the likes of Yahoo Finance and CNN Money.

But that's only food production, look at BP and Shell and the other major energy companies making out like bandits. Then see who owns the major media that controls the news cycle and you'll see the same names cropping up, so is it any wonder that we don't see reports on these protests, the same way we'd be guaranteed to see them if similar protests were happening in Russia right now?