Sri Lanka is on a path to agricultural collapse. Its president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, declared an economic emergency on August 31, 2021. Why? One reason is a bizarre agricultural policy. In April, Sri Lanka’s cabinet “approved a ban on importation of chemical fertilizers and other agrochemicals in the bid to become the first country ever to […]
The Perils of Idolizing Organic Farming in Sri Lanka Learn More »
India’s population is nearing 1.4 billion and plays an important role in the global economy. Industry, employing about three-fifths of the Indian workforce, and agriculture, employing the other two-fifths, are the twin engines of India’s soaring economy. Both sectors depend on fossil fuels, and the demand for fossil fuels in India is unlikely to diminish
Beyond Industries: Why Half a Billion Other Indians Need Fossil Fuels Learn More »
Agribusiness, Small Family Farms, or Both? According to many critics, Western billionaires do not make the best farmers. Perhaps it is their inability (or unwillingness) to downsize grandiose plans from a Western-style agribusiness model to merely helping millions of subsistence farmers that dot the African landscape succeed in providing nutritious diets for their families and
The Gates of Hell (or Heaven) in Africa? Learn More »
European Conservatives and Reformists Party hosts another ‘Europe Debates’ webinar US-EU trade talks are already stalled over agriculture issues. And yet the European Union’s new “Farm to Fork” strategy doesn’t just double down on the EU’s contentious agricultural regulations. It promises to use access to European markets to compel the United States and other countries
Food Security in a Post-Covid World Learn More »
The latest red tide outbreak on Florida’s Gulf Coast, with its awful stench, is in its 11th straight month. The noxious bloom started in November 2017, and the latest reports from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission before Hurricane Michael, whose effects we won’t know for some time, showed that the end was not
11 Months and Counting—Wrapping our Heads around Florida’s Raging Red Tide Learn More »
Now that jurors in a San Francisco court have awarded a man $289 million in damages in his lawsuit against Monsanto (and its parent company Bayer) claiming that his exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller gave him cancer, some people wonder whether the Cornwall Alliance will reverse its view that Roundup (the brand name for the
Does the San Francisco Jury Verdict against Monsanto Spell Doom for Roundup? Learn More »
Seven years ago Indur Goklany, an economist formerly with the U.S. Department of the Interior and associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since its inception in 1988 as an author, expert reviewer, and U.S. delegate to the organization, concluded a thorough analysis of the effect of American biofuels policy on the world’s poor with these words:
Time to End Ethanol Mandate and Subsidies Learn More »
Recently a friend asked me to evaluate an apparently scientifically substantial article that concluded that glyphosate—the active ingredient in Roundup, one of the world’s most widely used artificial pesticides—has caused a dramatic increase in a variety of diseases such as autism, inflammation, immune disorders, gluten intolerance, celiac disease, and cancer. I’ve been shown various “studies”
Does Monsanto’s Roundup (Glyphosate) Cause Disease? Learn More »
Less than two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which wants us to trust its prognostications about conditions a century from now enough to bet trillions on them, warned that global warming threatened global food supplies. But last week The New Indian Express reported, “International food prices dipped by 19 percent in
Whither Global Food Shortage Predictions? Learn More »
Humans should only be eating animals raised under humane conditions. Sounds perfectly innocent doesn’t it? After all who wants to think of animals suffering just so that he/she can have a cheap burger or chicken patty? This is essentially the argument cleverly proffered by Pete Letheby in the article “Farmers team up with the Humane
Think Carefully Before Welcoming Humane Society Policies Learn More »
