Saturday, July 20, 2024

ESG push for net-zero emissions in agriculture will destroy farms, raise food prices, group warns





Consumers’ Research, a consumer advocacy nonprofit group, launched a six-figure campaign this month to raise awareness about the threat posed by environment, social and governance (ESG) on agriculture. This effort will, according to Consumers’ Research, will drive up the cost of operation on America’s farms and increase food prices at a time when consumers are already struggling with the impacts of inflation on their grocery bills. 

“A lot has been made of the net zero push on the fossil fuel industry, and people are starting to wake up to the implications it has on the electrical grid. The reason we launched this campaign is we want to make sure people understand it goes farther than that — all the way to the apple that you buy at the grocery store,” Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, told Just the News.

The six-figure Consumers’ Research campaign includes television ads airing in Washington, D.C., and New York, a billboard in Times Square, a website, a series of mobile billboards in D.C., New York City, and Charlotte, North Carolina, and a digital campaign.

Targeted

Agriculture has become a favorite target of climate activists and the ESG movement. Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released a report on models for financing a “sustainable transition” in agriculture. 

“Global food systems need to shift rapidly to more sustainable forms of production as part of broader food system transformation efforts. Food systems accounted for more than 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2020,” the report warns

Modern agriculture has led to massive increases in crop yields for just about every crop across multiple regions of the globe, but according to the WEF report, it’s causing climate change, destroying rainforests, and draining global freshwater supplies. 

Among other initiatives it proposes, the report says farmers should be “offered a flexible stack of financial and non-financial services” to get them to switch to regenerative agriculture. Regenerative farming is an organic approach to agriculture that, among other things, uses manure instead of modern fertilizers. 

In 2022, Sri Lanka became an organic farming experiment when it banned modern pesticides and fertilizers, which resulted in a complete collapse of the Asian nation’s agriculture sector and economy. 







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