Western Canadian agricultural producers of canola, peas and oil cake are facing crippling retaliatory tariffs from China, because Canada imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs, in line with the USA, to protect our ‘homegrown’ non-existent EV industry.
Fact: Canola contributes $43 billion to the Canadian economy, slightly less than the subsidies thrown at EV battery plants, the manufacturers of which are bankrupt or teetering.
And no one on the federal election trail seems to care about the Chinese tariff risk to farmers. Central Alberta farmer John Kowalchuk posted on X some “Farmer Math” in front of a bin of canola, showing that he is selling a $62,500 bin of canola at a $2,500 loss. He’s trying to impress upon people the grim financial losses farmers face.
Both Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland are Albertans by origin. Though Carney claims the Northwest Territories as his birthplace, he grew up in Alberta from age six; Freeland comes from a Peace River farm family. They are silent.
But is there a more sinister reason that Climate Carney and Climate Chrystia are unconcerned about the multi-billion-dollar revenues at stake?
In reading the US House of Representatives Judiciary Interim Report titled “Climate Control: Exposing the Decarbonization collusion in Environmental, Socials and Governance (ESG) Investing," which is about the anti-trust violation investigation into Net Zero groups like Mark Carney’s Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and others, I was struck by the 'climate cartel’s' mindless view of agriculture.
So was the committee. They write, “…despite the fundamental human need for food, the climate cartel sees agriculture as a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions.”
The report refers to World Resources Institute (WRI) [which] frames the issue more starkly:
“Feeding the planet would . . . release enough GHG emissions to exceed the 1.5°C and 2°C warming targets enshrined in the Paris Agreement — even if emissions from all other human activities were entirely eliminated.”
…“the food and agriculture sector has a disproportionate impact on climate change.” Similarly, GFANZ has identified agriculture as having a high “[m]ateriality of emissions” and as being a high-priority industry sector.
GFANZ is Mark Carney’s Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero.
You are probably wondering what this has got to do with anything?
When I look back at the COVID lockdowns, I see them as the gateway for many of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s dystopian investment ideas. The so-called '15 Minute City' concept moved from being a concept of convenience to being a pilot run.
Conspiracy? Nope. Look at the enthusiastic videos the C40 cities produced after lockdowns. They laud the stay-at-home, remote-work, cozy neighbourhood confinement as a ‘new normal’ because, “Before the recent lockdowns around the world, we led hectic lives, with long commutes and not enough time to spend with our families and friends.”
Lockdowns force-fed a lot of new tech — FinTech was limping along with a 29% drop in the value of deals in 2019; lockdowns made it magic. Market capitalization soared more than 300%. ZOOM was a tiny start-up; lockdowns magically turned it into a company with a $70 billion market capitalization which was more than any airline by June 2020, as Klaus Schwab boasted in “COVID-19; The Great Reset.”
The point is that creating problems, like crashing and bankrupting real farmers could be a gateway to the ‘alternative protein’ biotech industry. Just this week a McKinsey report crossed my desk — they see biotech food as the future! Just give companies $100 to $150 billion to scale up and voila!
Lots of not-meat to eat!
“Fermented novel proteins could make up about 4 percent of total protein production by 2050… For proteins in particular, the global market today is sizable, at approximately $3.0 trillion, and is estimated to grow to approximately $3.5 trillion by 2050.”
Yes, why have cows if that is the new coal? Why plant and harvest canola if you can make something similar in a biotech reactor? Why milk a cow or raise chickens if all you need is some yeast, a little lab magic and a massive bioreactor to fester up some slime and then add various ingredients or flavors to enhance the ‘mouthfeel’ of the monster mash?
Why address Chinese tariffs on Canadian agriculture products when there’s a Fourth Industrial Revolution ‘solution’ waiting in the wings for just the right crisis?
I need a bigger tinfoil hat, right?