Sri Lanka, the island country off the coast of India, is in political turmoil and the president says he will resign. A big factor in the tragedy is the country’s “going green,” banning synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Aljazeera reports: “President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s drive to make the country the world’s first to fully adopt organic agriculture—by…
Tag: Agriculture
Big Wind and Solar Companies Using ‘Hardball Legal Tactics’
Should rural communities be able to limit the number of wind and solar projects in their regions? Or do the renewable companies have a legal right to put turbines and solar panels on any property they can buy? Complicating the issue is the fact that many renewable projects would not be built without billions of…
New Zealand Proposes a Methane Tax on Farmers
Nearly half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from sheep and cattle. To reduce them, the government is negotiating a plan to tax farmers for methane emissions, beginning in 2025. The tax is part of an effort to reduce agricultural emissions by 24 to 27 percent by 2050. “The proposal includes incentives for farmers…
Why Is the Economist Magazine Pessimistic about Agriculture when the Climate News Is Good?
According to the Economist, some investors are betting that, as the climate warms, agriculture will become more profitable in high-latitude regions such as Canada’s Manitoba. Russia is already leasing uncultivated acreage on its eastern edge to Asian investors to produce soybeans. Furthermore, more carbon dioxide (the supposed cause of warming) helps vegetation grow. “The buildup…
The Coming War against Meat
“A small but highly influential contingent of liberal extremists in our media has fired the opening salvos” in a war against meat, says Gary Taustine in the New York Post. (Hat tip to John Baden). The first salvo was a New York Times article saying that the meat-packing industry was racist because its workers workers…
The Surprising Spread of Free Market Environmentalism
This is the second post by Shawn Regan of PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center, on “what free market environmentalists support.” Those who support the role of property rights and markets in environmental protection may not realize how many organizations agree with them. Here are a few examples (for others see Part I of…