Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Ukraine was the bread basket of Europe, and Russia was a major source of fertiliser. Yet as the interruption of grain and fertiliser supplies raises the spectre of crop failures and severe food shortages, senior British politicians are ignoring frantic pleas from farmers to release arable land reserved for “re-wilding” projects, and other whacky green schemes.
Green Agenda: Minister Ignores Ukraine Food Crisis Warnings in Favour of Solving ‘Nature Emergency’
PETER CADDLE 14 Mar 2022
A UK minister has ignored the pleas of farmers to take action against the forthcoming Ukraine food crisis in favour of maintaining her leftist government’s green agenda.
As the Ukraine crisis causes Europe’s food security situation to significantly worsen, British farmers have asked authorities to allow land earmarked for “rewilding” to be used for crops in the hopes of curbing ever-rising food prices.
However, Scotland’s leftist Biodiversity minister, Lorna Slater, has outright rejected the farmers’ pleas, instead prioritising pushing her government’s green agenda.
…
“We want to do as much as we can for nature and the environment, and we have done that for a long time and yes we will do more,” said the president of the National Union of Farmers Scotland, Martin Kennedy.
“But right now the world has changed and we need to focus on what is really important… food and water is something we take for granted far too much,” he warned.
However, despite the serious supply problems the Ukraine crisis poses for Britain’s supply of food, Minister Slater has outright dismissed the request in favour of her administration’s green agenda.
“We are still in a nature emergency that hasn’t gone away… so it’s a no,” Slater is reported as saying in response to the pleas of farmers.
…
Read more: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/03/14/green-agenda-minister-ignores-ukraine-food-crisis-warnings-in-favour-of-solving-nature-emergency/
If you can’t get your hands on enough fertiliser, the next best option is to expand the acreage of cultivated land, to bring every acre of arable land you can get your hands on into production, like Britain did in WW2.
Fertiliser production is an energy intensive process, which is why it has long been outsourced to countries like China and Russia, the number one and two global producers, countries which have plenty of cheap energy. Just under 2% of the world’s global energy production is expended producing ammonia, a first step in the production of agricultural fertiliser. The USA and Canada produce significant amounts of Ammonia, but US and Canadian production is dwarfed by Russian and Chinese production.
The chemical factories which produce ammonia are very large, and contain enormous, multi-story, high pressure reaction vessels. Not something which could be built in five minutes – especially in nations which have also outsourced most of their heavy industry to Russia and China. I fully support starting construction of new fertiliser plants, but plants which have yet to be built won’t solve this year’s problems.
Fertiliser application makes a big difference to crop productivity – around 35 – 60% of modern crop yields is attributable to application of fertiliser. We might get away with one year of reduced fertiliser application, but If soils are depleted by a series of years in which inadequate fertiliser is applied, crop yields could drop by more than 60%.
It doesn’t take much to trigger a food crisis. In 2007-2008 the world experienced a food crisis. The 2007-2008 crisis was not severe enough to significantly affect rich nations, but it led to mass starvation and riots in poor countries. The root cause in that case was a series of droughts, and excessive biofuel subsidies. Just a small blip in production and use of food was enough to push millions of people into hunger.
There is no way of knowing how the current food crisis risk will play out, and who will be affected.
Time is running out to make a decision – northern nations like Britain have very well defined planting and growing seasons. Some high nutrition plants like potatoes grow well throughout Britain, including Scotland, but planting must start in the next month, for most crops, or it will be too late to harvest by the end of Summer.
I strongly suggest people in Britain let green obsessives like Minister Lorna Slater know their “nature emergencies” and re-wilding projects can wait, before British food prices spiral out of the reach of poor people.
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re: “The Ukraine was the bread basket of Europe,”
And ‘The Texas’ used to be known for oil … (sorry, could not resist)
And Russia is the main source of BS globally so…
Fertilizer it is
The Plan
In the beginning, there was a plan,
And then came the assumptions,
And the assumptions were without form,
And the plan without substance,
And the darkness was upon the face of the workers,
And they spoke among themselves saying,
“It is a crock of $hit and it stinks.”
And the workers went unto their Supervisors and said,
“It is a pile of dung, and we cannot live with the smell.”
And the Supervisors went unto their Managers saying,
“It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong,
Such that none may abide by it.”
And the Managers went unto their Directors saying,
“It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide by its strength.”
And the Directors spoke among themselves saying to one another,
“It contains that which aids plants growth, and it is very strong.”
And the Directors went to the Vice Presidents saying unto them,
“It promotes growth, and it is very powerful.”
And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him,
“This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigor
Of the company With very powerful effects.”
And the President looked upon the Plan
And saw that it was good,
And the Plan became Policy.
And this, my friend, is how $hit happens.
The The The The The The The ..
I don’t think you got The point of my The post.
I live here in The Texas, and presently, we have far more going on than just The oil …
The The The The The The The.
(See, if I HAVE to spell it out for you, it is NO LONGER HUMOR! Its like explaining a political joke to a five year old, losing ALL its impact if it has to be painfully explained … “Brevity is the soul of wit” and we are far past that point now …)
The, the ,the, that’s all folks (wink)
I was just adding to your laundry list
Was it ever humor?
I live in the United States. There is a crisis in the Ukraine. Convention has it that you don’t live in “the” Texas; you live in the State of Texas and the oil in Texas provides the State much revenue. There is no humor in attacking an article based upon its use of “the Ukraine,” which is a proper use of the word the.
No, it isn’t. Do you even know why?
Stercus accidit, as the Romans used to say.
And Gump, Forest Gump
Putin sure wants to make it “the Ukraine” again though.
He must be a Beatles Fan at heart
It looks more like he is trying to build a carpark while inflicting the most carnage possible.
Your comment motivated me to look into why it is sometimes called “the” Ukraine. So for the benefit of others like me who didn’t easily get your point I would recommend this explanation: https://theconversation.com/its-ukraine-not-the-ukraine-heres-why-178748
Quell: your link doesn’t have the real reason re “the” Ukraine. ‘Ukraine’ comes from the word “край” (Kray) which means “outer fringe”(of the empire) and still is applied to Russian “counties” in the Far East of Russia. Probably ‘The boondocks’ or or ‘out in The sticks’ conveys the meaning.
Ukraine became an important part of the empire in the 900s and in tsarist Russia in the 1600s. Re Crimea, most seem not to know that it was where Catherine the Great kept the Russian fleet after the peninsula had been taken away by conquest from the Ottoman Empire. It was part of Russia when the Soviet Union was formed and was only gifted to Ukraine by Kruschev (a Ukrainian) in the 1950s. By population it was largely Russian.
Just sayin’. I am a staunch old fashioned free enterprise conservative who happens to like world history!
Yes the Crimean population was largely Russian after the deportation of Tatars, the Greeks and others,
The politics, the politics, the politics; I don’t follow the political disputes between Russia and Ukraine. [See, I can uses it without the, but there is a crisis in the Ukraine as it now politically exists.]
It’s always been “The Ukraine” for some reason. As I understand, it had to do with it once being a territory?
I have lately been endeavoring to eliminate the “the” when referring to Ukraine.
As a country it should be rightly considered ‘Ukraine’ but I remember at school back in the 70’s we’d look at ‘the Ukraine’ and ‘the Crimea’ as distinct geographical areas.
Its the same as The Palouse in Eastern Washington, and The Ohio State University.
Palouse as in “Appaloosa” horses?
Or, as we in Michigan refer to it, “Ohio”.
“The Ukraine” is a geographic name for a region that is composed of wide, well-watered plains, ideal for agriculture.
“Ukraine” is a (sometimes) political name for, variously, a province of the Kingdom of Poland, Imperial Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and, on occasion, a separate nation. (The part of “The Ukraine” under the Hapsburgs was technically the “Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria” – but that was simply a client state of the Hungarians.)
“Ukraine” is not synonymous with “The Ukraine.” Not all of the geographic region has ever been included within the political borders – and rather large portions of other geographic regions have been included within those borders.
Covid ….war …. famine … death .
(Not good at spelling pestilence )
Now , where did I hear that ?
Did you mean “Where did I hear that explained?, or “Where did I hear that being performed?”
The performance (of course) part is ever on-going, as we speak, dictated by our overlords (the elite, the John Effing Kerrys et al of the ‘whirled’) via their minions in the compliant (to their will) MSM ‘press’ …
Speaking of deranged Scottish Government persons, our little Furher has announced the sheeple will remain muzzled for now,
We have had an increase in
I am currently holidaying in Scotland, it is my fifth holiday in Scotland since November 21.I have not worn a mask and no one has said anything. Sometimes other customers in shops stare at me, I stare back at them. The mask mandate ends before my holiday, I wonder how many will continue to wear them?
You mean the four horsemen of the Apocalypse?
It is also the playbook of the WEF.
Does Four Horsemen have any connection Bob?
I recall that Norte Dame football called it’s backfield the four horsemen.
If we relax the ethanol mandate for a year, the demand for fertilizer is reduced while the availability of corn for food is increased.
Again, too lazy to look this up, but wasn’t there a big increase in food prices after ethanol mandates caused farmland to be used for growing corn for fuel instead of food?
Yes it was.
Yes, it also caused more marginal land usage with subsequent topsoil erosion.
Yeah, the crop growing system needs another massive shake-up that will drastically shift prices on crops the farmers have already planned for 2022. Once a system has shifted to a given paradigm, even if that paradigm is massively artificial, changes to the paradigm will have consequences.
The impending food crisis could well last for more than a year, e.g. if major sanctions against Russia remain in place and/or Ukraine is completely devastated/looses access to the sea and is unable to export grain.
Therefore the ethanol mandate shouldn’t be relaxed, it should be permanently scrapped, especially as the amount of fossil fuels involved in it’s production mean the carbon footprint is very similar to petrol (gasoline).
While they’re at it governments should ensure that the only biodiesel is the small amount that can be made from waste cooking oil, thus reducing mass deforestation in the tropics to produce palm oil.
I’m all in favour of rewilding, provided it doesn’t reduce food supplies and cause poverty in the West and possible starvation in the developing world. Stopping burning food instead of fossil fuels would increase the food supply and possibly some land for rewilding.
It seems like a no brainer to me, which must mean certain politicians have less than no brain.
You’re absolutely correct. The current mandate is for 15B gallons ethanol-
~5B bushels of corn (30M acres), 1/3 of the U.S. crop. The current
biodiesel mandate- 1B gallons = 670M bu soybeans (13M acres), ~ 15% of
our crop. These are ~11% & 5%, respectively, globally.
One thing about agricultural products is that they have an inelastic price
curve which means given a steady demand, the less that is produced in
aggregate, the more it’s worth. A corn crop that is 10% smaller than normal
will be worth more as the price will rise > 11% to make up the difference.
An increase in demand will raise the price even more.
When it comes to policy, just remember this- a crisis is a terrible thing to
waste so they will be pedal-to-the-metal in implementing Net Zero (which
is anything but Net Zero concerning pollution & dead birds), regardless of
how much it kills us. They’re obviously not on our side!!!
I forgot to mention the residuals of these two processes. For each
bushel of corn, you get a pound of corn oil- think Mazola- & 17# of
distillers dry grain (DDG- which can also be bought wet) @ 25-30%
protein. A bushel of beans will have 48# of meal @ 44% protein &
had.always been used as a source of high protein for animal feed.
Corn has ~ as much protein as barley, sorghum (milo), & soft winter
wheat, but more than oats. So DDG now competes with soybean
meal as a source of high protein.
Yes, but the decision to plant edible corn must be made right now. Humans are unable to digest yellow corn #2, the corn planted for ethanol production.
Unfortunately, most politicians are lawyers – too stupid to be able to act quickly.
There’s a good video just produced that discusses a recent study done at the University of Wisconsin that concluded that corn-based ethanol actually increases CO2 emissions by 24% as compared with gasoline.
Humans may be unable to digest yellow corn, but without ethanol mandates farmers wouldn’t grow yellow corn and would instead grow crops that could be used as food for humans.
The deep fried Mars bar will save them….
Its not like that anymore, the British Government has campaigned hard to convince Scottish people to eat their greens.
To convince children across the UK to eat more vegetables. Next step is to stop them eating burgers and meat.
Eat their greens – like Soylent Green?
” … eat their greens.”
I wouldn’t eat a politician of any party, and certainly not one of the greens, even if they were a Government Minister.
Chaswarnertoo, don’t insult our national dish.
The deep fried Mars bar will save them….
Chaswarnertoo, don’t insult our national dish.
Haggis isn’t on the menu anymore. Although Kestrel lager is.
Let them eat haggis!
Good idea jeffery p. but the Haggis Hunting Season is now closed.
They need to be left in peace and quiet so as to make, hatch and bring up next year’s crop of baby haggii
Think of the children and all that jazz….
In any case, there’s a world shortage of ammunition and despite best efforts of the windmills to kill their main predator (apart from well-heeled visitors toting 12 bores) the Kestrels have eaten most of them already
Up here we use Haggis Hounds not guns.
The Scottish National party has formed an alliance with the Scottish Green party so that they can claim a Scottish parliamentary majority for Scottish independence. Unfortunately, the Scottish Greens are absolutely bonkers, to use the correct medical terminology.
The only reason that there are any Green members of the Scottish parliament is because of the proportional representation system which is used for elections to the Scottish parliament. For all practical purposes, the Scottish Green party is now governing Scotland despite having minimal support in Scotland. This explains some of the recent bizarre decisions made by the Scottish government. The Scottish National party is now against new oil and gas fields in Scottish waters because the Greens demanded it. However, the financial case for Scottish independence depends on the revenue from the North Sea oilfields. This is just one illustration of the the Cloud Cuckoo politics which is now happening in Scotland.
Thanks for the explanation Bill.
I grew up near and went to school in Crieff, Perthshire famous for 17th and 18th century Cattle Trysts where cattle and sheep were driven down drove roads every autumn and wealthy English buyers bought walking meat.
These moved to the Falkirk area and in the mid 19th century nearly 100,000 cattle, over 100,000 sheep were sold.
Scotland had an important farming industry, particularly livestock. Although oats were also an important crop as oats and the Scottish climate suit each other.
I think taken per head the Island of Islay has the highest value exports of any part of the UK. A population of 3,228 and 9 distillaries is the reason.
Peterhead is consistently the UK fishing port with the largest quantity and value of landings.
Visit Scotland’s most recent findings conclude: In 2019 alone, there were over 150 million visits to Scotland (pop: 5.5 million) from around the world.
I’m not particularly a Nationalist, but do think that countries should have the right to leave a union if they so wish and remain independent, but Scotland has a lot of resources apart from oil and gas. Just like the rest of the UK it would need competent political leaders who are thin on the ground
Scotland should definitely have the right to leave the U.K.
When given the option in 2014 the majority voted no.
There’s no point holding a referendum unless the result is respected.
We were told at the time it was a once in a generation choice, therefore I would support another referendum in say 2035 (although I would again vote no).
Democracy needs to balance the need for stability with the possibility of change, which is why most democracies hold general elections every 4 or 5 years not every 1or 2. Since the implications of Scottish independence are far more profound than a change of government the time interval between votes needs to be much greater to maintain some degree of stability.
You’re completely correct but the SNP would be utterly devoid of purpose if no-one wanted to leave the Union – it’s all they’ve got.
We have the same insane political system in New Zealand as in Scotland I would think .
For all practical purposes the Greens are running the government here as they are pushing insane policies designed to look good at GOP 27 to ? .Doing nothing for New Zealanders.,
The greens keep the Labour Party in power so they are trying.to bankrupt our country pushing Carbon Zero and the very worst initiative is carbon farming .
There is probably a stoush going on behind closed doors as at least one Labour Minister has come out and said exactly what I have been saying that planting pines with no pruning or harvesting will be an ABSOLUTE disaster .
50 to 100 year old pine trees will become a fire hazard as the trees blow over and die and the carbon credits will go up in smoke
Farms are being brought up that are producing sheep meat, beef and wool .employing many people directly and off farm and earning valuable overseas exchange to be spent in the local areas .
Back to Scotland and Europe .I would say that the crunch will come when crops fail because of lack of fertilizer and less fertilizer being applied due to the cost of fertilizer .
Food prices will increase rapidly as growers will need a lot more for their crops to cover the cost of fertilizer .
Nitrogen Fertilizer has increased 400 %in less than a year in New Zealand .
Scotland was at one time a sort of “bread basket” in its own right. The nation’s wealth was mostly in cattle and grains. Then what happened? The combination of elite poor-thinking that decided on the Darien project combined with a climate that became too cold for ridge and furrow. By 1706, or whenever, Scotland had joined in union with England to just get by. Too cold has consequences.
That’s a romantic memory.
If only Darien hadn’t been such a disaster.
The Union was because Scotland had gone bankrupt and had to be bailed out by the English.
Uh huh. And how does one go bankrupt? Why does it happen? Bad planning, poor ideas?
Darien was a bad idea
Scotland was bankrupt because it had no money. The idea of Scotland being a breadbasket happened after the clearances when the land was used for food not people.
The ruling class lost lots of money in speculative and fraudulent investments, many in faraway countries. You go bankrupt when you run out of money.
Who is this Caddle?
“A UK minister has ignored the pleas of farmers to take action against the forthcoming Ukraine food crisis in favour of maintaining her leftist government’s green agenda.”
It’s not a UK minister. It is a minister of the devolved (SNP) Scottish government.
The ironic thing is the UK government should be asking the English if Scotland should be an independent nation again.
The Scottish equivalent of the NSDAP is as far left (fascist as they support some free markets) and woke etc as it is possible to be, so this planet before people stuff is no surprise to me. I’m sure it might be to others.
CO2 monitoring was seen as a way of measuring classroom ventilation (for covid etc) but was there a better way?
“Nicola Sturgeon has a genius new plan to improve ventilation in schools and crack down on Covid: hack the bottom off classroom doors. To the tune of £300,000, the Scottish government plans to “improve the natural flow of air” by taking an axe to over 2,000 “problematic” class doors over the next few months, all in the name of the SNP’s “common sense” long-term plan to protect pupils from Covid. A move which Sturgeon dubbed the “basic rectification of the structure of classrooms”…
Surprisingly, the idea didn’t go down well in Holyrood. Met with derisive laughter from Douglas Ross and opposition MSPs during First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Sturgeon doubled down on her plan to fetch her axe and hardhat…”
https://order-order.com/2022/02/04/sturgeons-300000-plan-to-cut-bottom-off-classroom-doors/
And then somebody mentioned Fire Doors and Fire Regulations…
The McIdiocracy.
Then today the little psychopath has decided to retain muzzles ‘for another couple of weeks’
You see “cases” of WuFlu have risen in Scotland recently, and as muzzles are so effective in stopping WuFlu increasing she said they must remain.
Are you with me so far?
However when they are removed in a ‘couple of weeks’ and the “cases”are forced to show a decline, our Dear Leader will be vindicated.
I think I lost myself there somewhere, you can see what living in a cold Scottish Gulag with strict prison guards can do to your mind
Watching the West commit economic suicide is nothing but amazing! The world is not burning one gram less coal today than it was yesterday. We have just ceded economic development to Asia and fossil production to Russia. This has not happened by accident as the Socialist/Communist movement has invested wisely in the Western educational system and media. It really does not cost all the much to purchase a politician or researcher today.
When political decisions destroy a country everyone assumes that the politicians made an error. Well you know what, you must consider the fact that these “poor” decisions might be purposeful and part of a plan by the few to create a new world political system.
“Socialist/Communist movement has invested wisely in the Western educational system”
It has dumbed down and indoctrinated incrementally over the last 40 years or more.
Teens in Ukraine are signing up to fight. Teens in the West are agonising over their profiles and pronouns.
Many people foolishly thought the end of the cold war was a victory against Marxism and Communism.
Fools.
They literally believed we were post history
We are definitely not
Need more proof of government stupidity?
https://youtu.be/VpLtcYXzSNs
I watched video and stupidity is not the correct word at all. Try corruption on for size!!!
The world emissions are also going up … prohibition never works it has failed on anything it has been tried Nukes, Drugs, Alcohol and Religion to name just a few.
When a government program or policy causes more people to become dependent upon the government for basic wants and needs such as food, that’s a feature, not a bug. It gives politicians and bureaucrats more control over people’s lives.
For their part, most of the people are grateful. They simply aren’t paying attention and are unaware they wouldn’t need assistance if the government hadn’t mucked things up in the first place.
jeffery, your thinking exactly chimes with a guy name of Dr. Patrick Gentempo
He’s put together a series of interviews, 18 in total and is ‘broadcasting’ them, 2 per day, as we speak.
Generally on the theme of ‘prepping’ but the folks go into great depth of ‘why’ and not especially how.
You will love it but sadly, today is Day 7 of 9. It will probably be repeated
Look for the above name and the series is called ‘Endgame‘
And her “answer” to the problem of food shortages is….Curb food waste!
Yes, and let them eat cake. And if cold, put on a sweater, and so on.
Nick Stokes just adds a blanket.
Nick would redefine food shortages to make sure green policies had less of them.
I wonder what this will do for gas tank corn?
There will be a tipping point one day when food and energy sources become so scarce things will change, especially if the Earth continues to cool. Growing seasons will grow shorter with crop failures more common and arctic outbreaks will freeze people in their homes.
If I was living north of 45N, I would seriously do a little planning and even hoarding, or better yet look at packing up the house and moving south.
The 2007 crisis was triggered by the sudden removal of about 10% produce from the food supply diverting it to the production of biofuels. Another great success of green policies.
At least the Scots will know where to point their pitchforks when push comes to shove.
That’s what you get when the brainless ‘libs’ get voted into office. They f#@k up everything. Everywhere.
“There is no way of knowing how the current food crisis risk will play out, and who will be affected.”
I’ll make a bet it will not be the politicians who are short of food.
Where there’s a green policy there’s 10 new problems
There’s huge swathes of Scotland with nobody there.
I wonder why?!
Slater ain’t a UK minister, she is a green in coalition with the SNP in the Scottish devolved administration. And she actually got less than 2000 votes.
Scottish land intended for rewilding is NOT arable land… is is hill/mountain rough pasture at best, or commercial forestry.
Then why on Earth do the farmers want to farm it???
That doesn’t compute with griff
He’s a believer
I’m sure they don’t.
I’ve just looked at a whole bunch of projects and they are all Highland wilderness.
griff has never heard of “Highland” cattle. ..
Or sheilings, summer grazing where black cattle were fattened up before being taken down to lower ground or sold before winter.
The Scottish Highlands and Islands could support large populations in the 18th century for example North Uist some 5000 or so people. Now less than 1300.
Rewilding is a smokescreen for making sure farming never returns to certain parts of the country. The key to all this is making people believe that things have always been the way they are now
Griff has never heard of the Highland Clearances either. Before 1745 the Highlands and Islands supported a far larger population than today who farmed the land.
“are all Highland wilderness.”
So already “wild”.. ok !
There is your problem you look at something on the internet rather than think the locals might know something more than you … Village Idiot comes to mind.
I love the way griff puts his feelings up against actual data.
I believe you are right Griff, currently it is only in England that farmers can get paid to convert arable land back to grassland, but Scotland is sure to follow. With wheat prices likely to spike I wonder how many English farmers will regret re-wilding.
It appears in this case that griff is not wrong. Only about 10% of agricultural land in Scotland is in crops. The great majority of the rest is in grazing.
Most of Scotland’s land area is used for agriculture – Scottish Agricultural Census: June 2018 – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
A small country deliberately reducing the area available for grazing… dumb !
Productive land deliberately made unproductive.. dumb !
Thanks griff for pointing that out.
Sheep can grow there. I do believe that they are quite edible and tasty.
Hey Ian, leave Aberdeen supporters out of this!
The environmentalists truly hate farmers and farming.
They denied it vigorously right up to the point they attacked. Now it is obvious.
What sort of sick twisted people would cut off their own food supply?
Why are people still listening to them?
There is a similar issue with glyphosate (Roundup), some German states have banned it, but that means a lot more ploughing, which means a lot more diesel, which means a lot more cost.
Others have already commented on the 10% ethanol petrol. Apart from dissolving the fuel pipes in my ancient MG, this edict is now going to starve the Third World.
Another victory for the Greens to go with subsidising Putin’s war, making the EU dependent on Russian hydrocarbons, e porting Western production to high CO2 countries..
Do you think they’ll apologise?
JF
In the US, we’re stuck with ethanol mandates because of presidential politics. Those mandates are very popular in farm states such as Iowa. Iowa is the first stepping stone toward being elected US president. I don’t see those mandates going away as long as the Iowa caucuses remain first in the nominating process.
They are mostly popular with the agri-corps, not so much with the commoners. Remember that Ted Cruz won the Iowa Caucus AFTER advocating ending the ethanol madness.
Votes have consequences.
Depends if the voters are alive 🙂
Lorna Slater is described as being ‘leftist’. That may or may not be the case. What is indisputable is that she is one of the two co-leaders of the Scottish Green Party. Her full ministerial title is Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity,
whatever Circular Economy is. She is also Canadian.
But I don’t think that the Greens forced the SNP to oppose further development of North Sea oil. The SNP are stupid enough to come up with that idea all by themselves. It does, however, mean that they have got their tartan kn….rs in a bit of a twist. Remember “It’s Scotland’s Oil”?
1) Green Skills: Wildly inaccurate UN IPCC CliSciFi climate models and propaganda.
2) Circular Economy: Leftists chasing their ideological tails round and round to destroy capitalism, farming and industry.
3) Biodiversity: Whatever the current “Mother Earth” craze is to stop all development.
…because starving people prefer the promise of nice weather someday over three square meals. 🙄
An enormous amount of land in the UK is used to grow heavily subsidised energy crops. It is far more profitable in the UK to grow energy crops than food crops.
How about we stop burning food by abolishing E10 petrol? Then, we could eat the food instead….
Just a thought.
Stop making sense
We need to immediately suspend ( I mean kill) the ethanol mandate. Grain prices are high enough the farmers won’t squak too much, and it could keep people from starving.
Its purely a US pork barrel issue… no relevance to renewables
The same is true with most renewables. Purely pork barrel, nothing to do with saving fossil fuels.
Lower food production because of the Ukraine invasion and the restrictions on Russia will be blamed on “the climate crisis”.
Green Agenda: Scottish Monster Ignores Ukraine Food Crisis Warnings in Favour of Solving ‘Nature Emergency’
The Russians are not targeting the agriculture sector so if they can get this wrapped up in a few months the grain supplies will hopefully be transported to where they are needed.
So, Scotland opens up the rewilding land for crops. Could it be available for sowing crops in time for this northern summer? Trees to clear? Is there enough fertiliser for this new land as well as currently cropped land? Maybe it would be better for Scotland to set up a fertliser plant?
I still can’t find any examples of actual sites or actual farmers wanting to plough up something destined for rewilding…
…and every rewilding scheme I can find is in areas which you can’t plant arable crops on.
I conclude this is fake news…
“I strongly suggest people in Britain let green obsessives like Minister Lorna Slater know their “nature emergencies” and re-wilding projects can wait, before British food prices spiral out of the reach of poor people.” – article
The ONLY way you will get the result you want is to shut off that Minister’s food supply, along with all the “comfort zone” stuff like heat and water and electricity.
Now, I know that won’t happen unless there’s a mass movement of some kind, but the populace has to tell that “minister” to go pound sand.
Food and clean water are more important that she is.
Britain’s ruling class intentionally starved the Irish in the 19th century.
There’s no reason to think Britain’s ruling class does not intend to starve their own plebes this time.
That reminds me of a quote by Otto Von Bismark:
“Stupidity is a gift from God.
But it should not be abused.”