Dora Wood, my late mother, was a farmer in northern California for her entire adult life. Because she had a keen interest in California hydrology, she became an acknowledge expert in dams, rivers, water storage, irrigation, etc.
She also owned and operated a feed store on Highway 20 just west of Yuba City.
One day, county workers and equipment showed up at the intersection in front of her store and she naturally inquired as to what they were up to. They explained that they were going to rebuild the drainage system at the intersection, install some new pipes and re-grade the ditch.
What started as a friendly discussion quickly turned south when my mother pointed out that the water flowed in the opposite direction and that their completed work would cause flooding across the intersection when the heavy winter rains would appear.
However, the project engineer was certain that he was right and she was wrong. They completely ignored her experience of actually watching the water flow for 20 years, and she was unable to budge them even one inch.
And guess what? That winter the intersection flooded, causing significant damage to surrounding structures and closing the highway in both directions.
Stupid engineers. My mother had a few choice things to say after that.
Why am I telling you this?
Because this is exactly what is happening at scale all around the world, where scientists and engineers who are encapsulated in their own little group-think bubbles dish out blind advice to all sectors of society and along the way, they ignore the experience and knowledge of the people who actually live there.
This is beyond arrogance and ignorance. It is insane. How can “experts” re-engineer the world’s farms when they have never been to a farm, never planted a seed, never watched a crop grow or never driven a tractor. They know enough to be certain that they are right but not enough to know that they are wrong.
This is the endemic plague of ignorance that must be somehow overcome with common sense.
Patrick Wood is a leading and critical expert on Sustainable Development, Green Economy, Agenda 21, 2030 Agenda and historic Technocracy. He is the author of Technocracy Rising: The Trojan Horse of Global Transformation (2015) and co-author of Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II (1978-1980) with the late Antony C. Sutton.
