The Left’s New War On Fertilizer Could Cause Mass Hunger And Starvation

(Stephen Moore) – Those over a certain age will recall that what gave birth to the modern “green movement” was Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” about how DDT was killing all the birds (stet). Not only was it completely fatuous, but the resulting war against pesticides contributed to the death of millions of poor people in third-world countries from the horrors of Malaria.

We might be facing a similar nightmare scenario as many advanced and supposedly educated countries are now declaring war on fertilizer – you know the stuff that makes plants and crops grow.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “Canada is urging farmers to reduce fertilizer emissions to curb greenhouse gases, triggering a backlash from farmers and concerns amid global food shortages.” Other developed nations have declared “emissions from agricultural sources” a threat to humanity, and they have set a goal of reducing 30% by 2030 and eventually ban nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer.

The net result could be a catastrophic decline in the aggregate food supply, and people may starve.

As Doug Casey, an investment guru and scholar, notes in his latest Newsletter: “The invention of synthetic nitrogen is what created the real “green revolution”- which was mass food production that allowed humanity to grow from a population of under 2 billion to almost 8 billion within a century.

His warning is worth heeding: “The hobgoblin of climate change is being used to obtain full and total control over the entire food industry. Quite a feat.”

We worry that this nutty idea will travel south from Canada to fill the brains of American intellectuals, who will also endorse crippling domestic food production. What happens when the planet’s two largest agriculture exporters cut their food output? World food security is already at dangerously low levels.

First, the greens set out to destroy our modern energy sources (so far they are succeeding), and now they want to restrict global food production.

We will say it again: climate change fanaticism is the world’s greatest existential threat to the health and prosperity of the planet.

Mr. Moore is the founder of Club for Growth, a Heritage Foundation economist, and former Wall Street Journal columnist. This column was originally published by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity on August 24, 2022.