Floods are bad. Whether you are rich or poor, sudden floods can cause widespread damage to life and property. The impacts of Hurricane Katrina and Harvey still linger in the mind.During severe floods, families may lose property they’ve held for generations. In the worst cases they may lose family members. Farmers lose livestock, and businesses suffer long-lasting damage. Though insurance covers some losses, the damage has a lasting impact on livelihoods.But in parts of the world prone to long … [Read more...]
Can Green Energy Cause a Global Food Shortage?
China is one of the world’s largest food producers. Recently an acute power shortage there reduced food output. This sent markets into panic. Severe global food shortages and increased prices could follow.What caused China’s power shortage? Over-reliance on renewable energy. It led to insufficient and unreliable electricity generation. That harmed domestic food production and global food security.Many people condemn coal. They espouse “green” policies. But these lead to power blackouts. And … [Read more...]
The Perils of Idolizing Organic Farming in Sri Lanka
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 practice organic-only agriculture.” It requires all farming to be organic within 10 years. This puts farmers in the country in a dreadful situation.World Famous … [Read more...]
Beyond Industries: Why Half a Billion Other Indians Need Fossil Fuels
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 anytime soon. The agricultural sector in particular is completely dependent on fossil fuel-based crop enhancement systems.Indian agriculture … [Read more...]
The Gates of Hell (or Heaven) in Africa?
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 communities.That’s the conclusion of a major report from Germany entitled False Promises: The Alliance for a Green … [Read more...]
Food Security in a Post-Covid World
European Conservatives and Reformists Party hosts another ‘Europe Debates’ webinarUS-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 to adopt EU-style organic farming, precautionary and other regulations if they want to remain trading partners with Europe. … [Read more...]
11 Months and Counting—Wrapping our Heads around Florida’s Raging Red Tide
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 near. Conditions change daily, even hourly. For example, the map below shows decreased red tide levels for Septemper 21–28 in Collier County. However, the morning of … [Read more...]
Does the San Francisco Jury Verdict against Monsanto Spell Doom for Roundup?
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 active ingredient glyphosate) is not a carcinogen. The answer: No. The reason: Because the case provides no convincing evidence that glyphosate causes … [Read more...]
Time to End Ethanol Mandate and Subsidies
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: ... the production of biofuels [in the U.S.] may have led to at least 192,000 additional deaths and 6.7 million additional lost … [Read more...]
Does Monsanto’s Roundup (Glyphosate) Cause Disease?
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” in the past making similar claims but have always seen quickly that they weren’t based on sound … [Read more...]
