Energy Colonialism Will Worsen the Urban-Rural Divide -
Joel KotkinAlthough now
a mere slice of the population, rural areas
remain critical suppliers of food, fiber (like cotton), and energy to the rest of the economy.
- Residents in agricultural areas have good reason to feel put upon.
Their industries are often targeted by regulators and disdained by the metropolitan cognoscenti...
- Meat and dairy producers are assaulted in a hysterical article in the New York Times that predicts imminent “mass extinction” caused by humans and suggests that to keep the planet from “frying” we will need to reduce meat and dairy consumption in short order.
- This is occurring at a time — following decades of remarkable boosts in agricultural productivity — when food insecurity and high prices are again plaguing even wealthy countries but particularly the poorer countries in Africa.
Regardless, the inhabitants of the periphery — the vast area from the metropolitan fringe to the deepest countryside — and the farming that flourishes there will face an extraordinarily well-funded green movement that is now depicting “industrial farming” as one of the principal villains in their ever-expanding climate melodrama...
