Sometimes, it almost seems like they’re working to a plan. Governments across the Western world dance in a conga line to the tune of the Pied Piper of Davos. During the pandemic, they robotically chanted the mantras of “Build Back Better” and a “Great Reset”.
Then there’s the obsessive drive to shut down coal-fired power stations and replace them with wind turbines and solar panels. When these inevitably drive up prices and drive down grid reliability, instead of admitting their error, they insist that they just need to do more of the same.
All this at a time when more and more people are having to choose between heating and eating.
And a time when disrupted supply chains are already seeing shortages of foodstuffs and spiralling grocery prices even in the affluent West, left-wing governments are moving to shut down large swathes of primary food production.
The Dutch government has led the way, with its plans to confiscate farms and dramatically cull livestock herds. But many others are following in their wake, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
It seems inconceivable that at a time of hyperinflation and global unrest, any government would deliberately destabilise the agricultural sector by introducing policies that would increase costs to primary producers, reduce production, and fuel price increases. Yet that’s what Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government is planning to do.
Almost like they’re working to a plan.
Our Prime Minister, the poster child of modern-day socialism, wants once again to boast on the world stage that she’s taking the lead in climate policy – this time by introducing a price on agricultural emissions of greenhouse gases.
That she wants the owners of ruminant livestock to pay a penalty for a by-product of a digestive process that is older than the dinosaurs, is madness personified.
Or is there a method to the madness?
The PM plans to tax the agricultural sector so heavily that by 2030 an estimated 20 per cent of sheep and beef farmers and five per cent of dairy farmers will be forced out of business.
Agriculture is New Zealand’s biggest industry, generating more than 70 per cent of our export earnings and about 12 per cent of our gross domestic product.
The impact of Ardern’s tax on the sector will be significant. Prices of homegrown protein – including milk, cheese, and meat – will undoubtedly rise as local production falls. Our crucial export returns will decline – by up to an estimated 5.9 per cent for dairy, 21.4 per cent for lamb, 36.7 per cent for beef, and 21.1 per cent for wool.
The Australian
All this at the same time that governments and their media camp followers have been spruiking “plant-based meat”, “lab-grown meat” and “insect protein”. In Britain and the Netherlands — naturally — authorities are “encouraging” school children to eat mealworms and crickets.
It’s almost like there’s a plan in operation.
You will own nothing, you will eat bugs, and you will be happy.
Or else.