'It's going to keep getting worse': Australian pundit blasts Trudeau's fertilizer cuts

The editor of The Spectator Australia Alexandra Marshall appeared on Mark Steyn's show on GB News, to talk about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's fertilizer ban.

The Trudeau Liberals seek to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizers due to its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions that they say cause man-made climate change. The Liberals claim they're looking for a 30 percent reduction in emissions, not fertilizer. Farming advocates, however, say that reducing nitrous oxide emissions can’t be done at this point without reducing fertilizer use.

While speaking to Steyn, Marshall said "there's only one way to achieve net zero, according to these people, and that's to basically destroy your agriculture industry. Not to shut down transport, not to maybe reign in the sprawl of cities, but to destroy the food production of the country.

"That's going to be very nifty when there's a surprise famine, they can claim it's because of climate change and give themselves yet more power. So, whether or not they screw up a country, they still win in some way, and this is not good for people."

Steyn interjected: "No, you're right, when we're all starving they'll say that's due to all the global warming and they'll introduce even more crazy things. We've had a couple of inspiring developments with the Canadian truckers and with the Dutch farmers, but you're rather pessimistic of the idea that the masses are going to rise up and actually say to their leaders, 'enough of this rubbish. We're done with it.'"

Marshall responded, "Well look, during COVID I was kind of hopeful that the spirit of humanity would come together and protect each other. Especially in Australia where we have this whole generation of mateship, we believe in helping each other. but nothing came of that protest, nothing came of the Canadian protest for vaccines.

"Now we have farmers desperately begging people they're trying to feed, 'help us, we're not going to be able to keep producing food,' and nothing will happen until every person in the middle class, the working class, can't pay their bills and can't feed their children, nothing's going to happen."

Farming groups have cried foul over Trudeau's proposed changes, including pro-farming group Fertilizer Canada. The group said that Trudeau's plan was short-sighted, and argued that reducing nitrogen fertilizer will have a considerable impact on Canadian farmers' incomes and reduce overall Canadian exports and GDP.

According to Fertilizer Canada: Under Canada’s A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy, the Government of Canada is envisioning a 30 percent absolute emissions reduction target for on-farm fertilizer use by the year 2030. Elsewhere, the European Union (EU) has proposed an absolute emissions reduction target and aims to achieve it through a 20 percent reduction of fertilizer use compared to 2020 levels.

They write that if Canada were to adopt the EU model, that potential economic impact of reduced fertilizer could be "devastating to Canadian farmers."

"To avoid this, any plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must be done through sustainable agricultural intensification; an approach that allows for significant reductions in agricultural emissions without risking Canada’s contribution to global supply of food or economic growth within the sector," they say.

Marshall concluded: "We watch it happen in every separate generation, we always do things the hard way, I don't know what it is about humanity, we have this fault where we're quite apathetic and lazy until it affects us personally, and this is going to be our great undoing unless everybody goes 'we should start paying attention,' it's going to keep getting worse."