Rustlers Valley and agriculture (Part II): What problem do you most want to solve?

“What problem do we most want to solve?” The question is posed by Gino.

Gino has a history of organising and strategy, in trade unions and human rights organisations. His path has led him here, to being one of the founding members of EarthRise Trust, a not-for-profit initiative based on the Earth Charter. The setting of Rustler's Valley farm and its village, Naledi, is ideal to form and build a model of community organisation. This is all about more than Rustler's: the aim is to get a working, functioning model which can also be used elsewhere. The journeys of Jay and Kumi Naidoo, fellow trustees of Earthrise, have also brought them here. Jay’s book, Change: Organising Tomorrow Today, describes his journey, which includes visits to other countries like Kenya and Bangladesh, to learn from what is happening on the ground there, lessons which culminated in the “Naledi star”. (There are brief notes on Gino Govender, Jay and Kumi Naidoo under the “Trustees & partners” option at http://earthrisetrust.org.za).

Building (photo used courtesy of Earthrise Trust)

 Already the foundations of a local economy have been laid on the farm. It includes a brick making enterprise and a bakery. Medicinal plants are grown and a nursery established which supplies seedlings for the farm and village. Old infrastructure has been resuscitated and expanded, and so Rustler's hosts a yoga studio and old sweat lodge, a conference centre with facilities for weddings, workshops and such gatherings. The EarthRise Mountain Lodge offers seven different options for accommodation, and there are mountain bike and hiking routes, fishing and, on a neighbouring farm, horse riding.

Mountain biking (photo used courtesy of Earthrise Trust)

It has been a journey. Trying to get the papers for the land, registering the co-operative, getting buy-in from various quarters ... The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Old Mutual Foundation, Nelson Mandela Foundation have all played a part so far. Contact has also been made with organised agriculture, and bridges formed with neighbouring farm owners. 

In addition to basic food security, space (20ha) is also set out for commercial enterprises. Rustler's Valley farm previously grew and exported asparagus before being turned into a permaculture food garden to supply lodge and restaurant with food. The land thus has the selling point of not having seen chemical fertilisers or pesticides for over two decades. 

“What problem do we most want to solve?” 

“A society where no one goes hungry” is Gino's answer. If you look carefully, the sentence says at all. If you want footnotes or qualifiers, the EarthRise website sets out its philosophy and objectives and broader goals. A complementing perspective is offered by Lucie Pagé, another person linked to the project: “We put the human being first, and everything radiates around that”. She is speaking on a YouTube clip, EarthRise Trust – an overview.   

The week after our meeting with Gino, we received an invitation from Rustlers Valley and the Naledi Village Farmer’s Coop:

  

We found the invitation on Twitter too, under #HarvestFestival. The event is planned for Saturday 17th June. We will not make it to the festival itself but will be spending three days in the week following it at Rustler's to see for ourselves the progress made.  Watch this space!

 

Rustlers Valley and agriculture: the rumour (part I)

When I was growing up as a kid near Ficksburg in the Eastern Free State, Rustlers Valley was what its name suggests: a hold out for the lawless; a safe haven from polite society. The local community was scandalised by stories of what transpired behind those there mountains: music concerts, hippies from Jo’burg, dagga (marijuana) …

 

A typical Eastern Free State scene. Photo used courtesy of Brand South Africa.

Anyone who has lived in or near a conservative, rural town will be aware of the tales that become possible from a single anecdote or observation. The occasional person who drifted into town from Rustlers and/or the occasional rumour which blew in across the veld provided a rich source of speculation for the community. (Of course, humanity does this well no matter the pace of abode, and was doing so long before the so-called “post-truth” age linked by some to last year's American elections). Perhaps it is the absence of the relative cover and anonymity offered by a city that leaves the lives of inhabitant and stranger open to inspection and pronouncement in a small dorp.

Decades went by and the change that had been resisted for so long in the country came to pass. White rule - political rule anyway - was swept away. Mandela became president and the sun still came up the next day. Mbeki followed him. And then in 2007, a fire swept through Rustlers, ending an era. I daresay many of the old timers probably nodded their heads and whispered knowingly to each other.

The first I heard of the place again, in the so-called new South Africa (and the new century), was in 2014 when one Gino Govender made contact and came to collect a copy of The Agri Handbook. He, Kumi Naidoo and Jay Naidoo were starting an agricultural enterprise at Rustlers Valley in the Eastern Free State. I was familiar with those names. I had come across Rumi Naidoo several times whilst reading up for previous editions of the agricultural publication. An international environmental activist group like Greenpeace, of which he was executive director, has certain areas of common interest with agriculture – water and energy, for starters, and how the growing of food impacts on the environment. And anyone who lived through the cauldron of the years before the country's first democratic elections in 1994 knew of Jay Naidoo, General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Fancy that! It’s a small world, I thought.

Gino Govender, Kumi Naidoo and Jay Naidoo (photo used courtesy of Earthrise Trust)

I paid it no more mind until a colleague, Mike Stuart, brought news of developments at Rustlers Valley in the Free State. Did I know about it?

And so it came to pass on a morning in May 2017 that we met Gino Govender at the Sandwich Baron in Kensington to hear about their work and the developments at Rustlers. 

 

 

 

“Energy farmer”, wins R100 000 funding for project

Thabang Mabapa was announced the winner of the “business pitch challenge” at an event held in Mamelodi, Pretoria, over the weekend. His Limpopo-based project,  Selokong Sa Dimelana, involves engaging local small-scale farmers to grow castor seed crops. This is used for the commercial production of an alternative biofuel. Mabapa (pictured below) considers himself more “an energy farmer than a chemical engineer”. 

Thabang Mabapa who initiated a biofuel project in Limpopo

Mabapa says the castor seed crop takes three months to grow and requires little water. A hectare yields around 1.8 tons of castor beans. He explains the process and vision of the project in a 3-minute YouTube clip here.

The annual competition is a collaboration between Red Bull Amaphiko Academy and the Old Mutual Foundation.

• The Red Bull Amaphiko Academy offers “a powerful launch pad for grassroots social entrepreneurs who are making a positive difference in their community”.
• The Old Mutual Foundation invested over R25-million in community projects last year.