from Hacker News

In Sri Lanka, Organic Farming Went Catastrophically Wrong

by sdepablos on 3/7/22, 6:27 PM with 7 comments

• by JoeAltmaier on 3/7/22, 7:32 PM

  If it's not oligarchs and despotic dictators that drive us into a apocalypse, it'll be these idealists. They have no real grasp of the topic (in this case agriculture) and forced a whole country to use organic farming. The resulting collapse in productivity and export bankrupted the country.

  What did they expect? Well, they expected their aura of moral superiority to magically save them I guess. Instead, the cruel math of output vs input (rice and tea vs fertilizer) ground their idealism to dust.

  We need to start keeping a scoreboard of countries ruined by clueless idealism. Chile, Venezuela, Sri Lanka. What others?

• by sdepablos on 3/7/22, 6:32 PM

  Doea anyone know about this Breakthrough Institute?

  > The Breakthrough Institute is a global research center that identifies and promotes technological solutions to environmental and human development challenges.