Vandana Shiva and the Seeds of the Sri Lankan Farming Disaster

For decades now, we have been told by NGOs such as Greenpeace, well-meaning but uninformed celebrities like Mark Ruffalo and the threat to global food security herself, Vandana Shiva, that organic farming is more sustainable and produces comparable yields to conventional farming methods. We all, including myself, want this to be true but deep down we all know when we see the premium price tag on organic produce that it’s not. The sad reality is that the organic movement is simply marketing disguised as a grassroots movement relying on, and amplifying, the ignorance of its own consumers. It survives by distorting science and promoting a false narrative that organic food is somehow safer or is more nutritional than conventional foods. That is not to say there is no shortage of problems associated with chemical-intensive large-scale agriculture, but the solution to these problems is not to take us back to the dark ages and for us to ignore all the advancements in technology that have taken so many from the brink of starvation. Yet there are many among us who romanticise archaic food production and yearn to return to a time before synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.