What Happened in Sri Lanka? ACSH Explains on The Lars Larson Show

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Sri Lanka's ban on imported synthetic fertilizers and pesticides devastated the country's farm sector, causing mass food shortages that helped drive the president out of office—and out of the country. ACSH director of bio-sciences Cameron English appeared on the Lars Larson show to explain the situation in more detail.

People often take drastic steps when they're hungry. Sri Lanka's leadership discovered this firsthand after it banned imports of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides last year. As experts predicted, this policy sparked widespread food shortages and price increases that left millions of people without enough to eat. These warnings from agricultural scientists, both inside and outside Sri Lanka, were summarily dismissed by the government, which chose instead to follow the advice of organic-food activists.

When the country collapsed into chaos, the same groups that cheered Sri Lanka's shift toward all-organic farming fell silent or tried to deflect blame for the ensuing food shortages. What lessons should governments learn from Sri Lanka's tragic experiment? I joined Lars Larson last week to discuss just how dangerous the anti-GMO movement can be.