Energy/Empire: Part 2 Ideological War on Sri Lanka
Written by Fox Green Space Commune
In 2021, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka banned chemical fertilizers cold turkey. Shortly after that, Sri Lanka’s economy completely collapsed, and the president who made that decision had to flee the country. This video seems to suggest that the fertilizer ban was the sole cause of the economic collapse. However, they also go on to explore counterarguments. One argument is that, clearly, you cannot transition from industrial to organic overnight, no matter how dedicated or good you are. Cuba also made the transition, albeit much more slowly. Although Cuba is not a leading example of prosperity, its economy did not crash spectacularly like Sri Lanka’s. The video completely ignores other possible factors such as socialism. If you don’t think socialism could be a factor in economic collapse, I must congratulate you on learning nothing from 20th-century history.
The video then gets busy pointing a finger at Vandana Shiva and her role in destroying Sri Lankan agriculture. She is anti-GMO. She says GMO stands for “God, Move Over.” She has ties to people in high places. She promotes food sovereignty, organic agriculture and ending chemical fertilizers by 2030. She is accused of letting religious beliefs influence her thinking. I am not a die-hard follower of Vandana Shiva, but that last one especially forces me to throw the red flag.
Throughout much of this video, it is not clear what the main point is, but the filmmakers assert that organic advocates admit that organic agriculture cannot feed the world. I disagree. An organic—or better— farm may not be able to operate on the massive scale of an industrial farm, but that just means we need more farmers. Of course, that will take time, but it can be done and will work much better than chemical industrial farming. Because producing real food is a lot of work, governments can stop wasting time tracking unemployment—there will be none. Current economic systems in most countries are biased heavily in favor of large-scale industrial farming, and that bias needs to go away before other options can be given a fair chance. My thumb is DOWN for this one.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Fall 2024
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