I want you to panic

Canada is a breadbasket: it is the 4th largest exporter of grains and vegetables in the world. This country also has one of the most efficient harvesting techniques available. However, its food stalls will no longer be as well stocked, and this in the near future, because the federal government has just decreed a 30% reduction by 2030 in its emissions due to the use of fertilizers. From then on, the whims of Trudeau & Co. will cost (according to the Western Canadian Wheat Growers) between 2 and 4.5 billion dollars to the various Canadian provinces. The drastic cut of a third of all fertilizers of chemical origin will therefore transform this major exporting country into a net importer of its food consumption in a few years.

The Netherlands, for their part, which was already subject to an obligation to use 70% less nitrogen fertilizer, has just been notified of an additional constraint to further reduce by half the residual use of this fertilizer by 2030. More than 11,000 farms will thus be condemned to bankruptcy out of the 35,000 currently operational, and it is the Dutch government statistics that indicate this. Nearly 18,000 of them will have no choice but to part with a significant part of their livestock, between a third and half of their animals, according to this same official study. In fact, the authorities are even demanding that some breeders simply cease their activity, to sabotage – consciously or not – their nation which is the largest exporter of meat in Europe and the second in the world in volume of agricultural products generally, which is a remarkable performance because the Netherlands are ranked just after a huge country like the United States.

As for Sri Lanka, it finds itself in a desperate situation which daily sees whole sections of its population having to fight for its simple food survival. Having suffered the collapse of the Rupee by more than half of its value in a few months, the Sri Lankans are today paying the price of a colonialism 3.0 which forces them into a constant battle to obtain just one meal a day. This general famine of the country also comes from an eradication of fertilizers having led to a liquefaction of its crops, within the framework of the famous “ESG” program – dictating an environmental governance strongly suggested by the World Economic Forum and widely promoted by the UN and its various organisms. An exemplary student for having reduced almost all (90%!) of his fertilizers in one year, this nation was able to benefit from a score of 98 ahead of a country like Sweden, which is at 96. The result in a single figure is both eloquent and cruel: Sri Lanka has seen its harvests drop by 85%, even though 16 million Sri Lankans out of the 22 million in this country are directly dependent on agriculture. Official statistics published this week show an annualized inflation of 93.7% for food products for the month of August, after 90.9% in July.

I remember the prophetic threats made in 2019 in Davos in front of an audience of heads of state and economic leaders by a triumphant Greta Thunberg: “I want you to panic”. Her country – Sweden – is now consuming much more oil after shutting down one nuclear power station after another. The rest of the world, after Sri Lanka and many other poor nations that have largely passed this stage, will soon have to arbitrate and choose between food or heating and lighting. Thank you, Greta, because now we have every reason to panic.