Check It Out: Are food shortages man made?

By Joan Janzen

The couple opened their door and discovered a cow had been delivered to their front door. The wife explained to her husband, “I joined one of those sites where they send you fresh ingredients and you cook it yourself.”

Sounds crazy, right? I just returned from a fun holiday in B.C., to discover some of the crazy things that continue to take place at home and around the world. You probably heard that our country is now home to the world’s largest cricket processing plant in London, Ont., funded by $8.5 million of our tax dollars. The co-founder of the cricket ranch known as Aspire Foods said, “Our longer-term vision is to make sure this is a protein source that can be available and affordable to genuinely address food insecurity in many countries around the world.” This new source of protein was introduced at this year’s Calgary Stampede, where customers could purchase a cricket and worm hot dog for $17. Does it sound appetizing?

The representative for Aspire foods continued to explain, “We’re seeing a significant reduction in arable land and resources to produce food.” MP Leslyn Lewis observed large corporations and rich Individuals like Bill Gates (269,000 acres of farm land) are buying up farmland and putting small family farmers out of business. Farmers are already dealing with high costs and rising carbon taxes, while going to great lengths to host carbon reduction strategies.

Meanwhile Wytse Sonnema from the Netherlands Agricultural and Horticultural Organization, explained the massive protests in his country. “Over a month ago the government made a map outlining nitrogen reduction targets up to 95%. There’s no future for farming with those goals. If you have to reduce nitrogen by 50%, farmers are done in a year.”

Netherland farmers have already reduced nitrogen by two-thirds since 1990. Another reduction is possible, but it needs to be realistic, Sonnema said. Massive protests have been the result, garnering equally massive public support, but no political support. Protests are also taking place in Rome, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Sri Lanka and Panama.

Journalist Kim Iversen reported, The Dutch government has announced more buy out arrangements, but has also stated they will take land from these fifth generation farmers who do not comply to the new regulations. This will result in looming food shortages, since the Netherlands is one of the top five agriculture exporters in the world. The Netherland farmers are sounding the alarm bell, not only for themselves, but for the world.

This battle has been going on since 2015 when the UN revealed its 2030 agenda for sustainable development and its aggressive actions to curb climate change. The protests by Dutch farmers began back in 2019. What is the result of carrying out these aggressive regulations by politicians? We can look at Sri Lanka for the answer.

An article written in Nov., 2021 in The Hindu states, “Government ends restrictions on all agrochemicals, including herbicides and pesticides”. Sri Lanka abandoned its quest to become the world’s first completely organic farming nation, announcing it would lift an import ban on pesticides and other agricultural inputs. The restrictions have caused a severe economic crisis, shortages of food and other essential goods. The Agricultural Ministry said “Considering the need to ensure food security, we have taken this decision.” Vast tracts of farmland were abandoned after the import ban was introduced. It’s no surprise the masses are protesting in Sri Lanka, since they have no other options available.

Iversen admitted she is a staunch environmentalist, but questioned what would happen if farmers are bought out or wiped out due to rising costs, in lieu of government owned large scale farming to mass produce food? “A lot of people don’t want mass produced, genetically modified food,” she said.

Let’s pause and take into consideration cricket farms, increasing carbon taxes, inflation, Dutch farmers sounding the alarm regarding unrealistic restrictions, and Sri Lanka’s devastating results after living out stringent restrictions. And then carefully reconsider Canada’s plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agriculture sector by 30% below 2020 levels within ten years, and capping oil and gas sector emissions to net-zero emissions by 2050 and reduce oil and gas methane emissions by 75% by 2030.

Let’s ask the question, “Are food shortages a man made problem?”