By Paul Homewood
h/t Joe Public
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/ep Chap/m0018c87/newsnight-16062022?page=1
BBC Newsnight published a piece a week ago about the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, which is bankrupt. (13:30 minutes later).
While record energy prices and the pandemic have crippled the economy, the BBC is playing big with rising food prices. Food staples have quadrupled in price, and even carrots are considered a luxury.
All of these are placed on Putin’s doorstep. However, the BBC did not mention the main factor leading to the food shortage, which was the government’s ban on the import of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides last April to encourage farmers. organic industry.
The BBC itself covered this last September, long before the war in Ukraine had any impact:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-58485674
A most recent farm survey showed that farmers expected a 47% reduction in harvests due to the ban:
Such a fall in output would obviously lead to massive food shortages and high inflation. In addition, most of the affected production is diverted to exports, such as tea and rubber. This, of course, has hurt Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves, which is the root cause of the fuel shortage mentioned in the video.
In the BBC’s vision of the future, oil will become scarcer and in much shorter supply than it is now, and chemical fertilizers a thing of the past.
Funny Newsnight doesn’t bother to mention it!
FOOT
The UN published this summary in March, which supports previous reports:
Notice the sudden price spike last September, long before the war in Ukraine.
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