AMCU, FAWU and Numsa to strike again for 1% pay rise

Just kidding. But it is the amount that the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK are on strike for.

Here in South Africa it is more common to demand double digit pay rises. The Communication Workers Union (CWU), for example, is currently demanding a 15% pay rise.

The strikes are mainly viewed with annoyance or alarm by business owners and other people who don't strike (find the Zapiro satirical cartoon of the CWU, for example). But perhaps the 2014 Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (PACSA) Food Price Barometer gives us food for thought.

Poor and working class households spend most of their money on food. Well, this is after other expenses - funerals, electricity, furniture repayments, transport and school fees ... Money spent on food must adapt to what is left. The figure that statisticians bandy about is actually different to what SHOULD be spent on food, and actually hides "the food affordability crisis in South Africa". 

The Core staples measured in the Barometer include maize meal, rice, flour, bread, potatoes, sugar and oil. These are increasingly more expensive and unaffordable, and as the price increases the poor settle for cheaper brands.

Um, what happens when they can no longer afford the cheaper brands ...?

What's for dinner, luv?

Four blocks from where I live is an intersection on Louis Botha Avenue where unemployed men wait during the day, hoping that someone will offer them a job. That's not permanent employment, just something to keep hunger at bay.

South Africa is food secure as a country -- but 14-million people do not know where their next meal will come from. And another 15-million are only just not as desperate.

Some talk of the nature of agriculture, that increasingly it exists to produces food for the wealthy. Others roll up their sleeves and get on with teaching the vulnerable to grow food gardens. Some, like the Mail & Guardian newsroom, have a challenge out today to try live this day on #6Rand [just over half an American dollar], like many of the people in this country do.

At the same time, the world's scandal is that one-third of the food produced is wasted and lost. Find the Youtube clip, just over three minutes, on this.

Today is the United Nations' World Food Day.

Today, especially, food should be eaten with great awareness.

Find the chapter on food security in The Agri Handbook here.

Do penguins eat white maize or yellow maize?

Hats off to Dr Herman van Schalkwyk, CEO of the AMT, for including a contribution by Philip Lymbery, author of Farmageddon and CEO of Compassion in Worldwide Farming, at the AMT Conference in the week just passed.

The book and the presentation pose serious questions to future scenarios of agriculture.

Included in the opening slides by Lymbery was one of penguins, victims of recent trends in agriculture: food which is in their diet has been removed (to feed animals in industrial farming) and this has led to some very hungry penguins.

We were expecting more challenges from the audience which included a prominent GMO activist and several agribusinesses with some stake in intensive meat production enterprises (also referred to as "factory farming" and "industrial farming").

There were two contributions from the floor. The first, a humorous enquiry whether penguins preferred white or yellow maize (corn). The second, a professor from the University of the Free State, thanked Lymbery for his presentation and said he felt agriculture in this country had not reached the same levels of industrialisation as elsewhere in the world, but that the presentation was a welcome marker to be borne in mind for the future.

We don't know if we agree completely with the last sentiment (there are several intensive meat production enterprises is this country). Nonetheless, it is International Animal week this week (4 to 10 October) and the question about how we treat our animals is one the globe faces, not just this week but every week!

Lost opportunities: another ten-year look ahead

Prices for meat, dairy and fish worldwide are expected to rise faster than those for cereals over the next decade. This is according to the latest OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook which is released every year.

In Africa, although production of meat and cereals is expected to increase over the next decade, consumption will grow faster. This will be a result of increased population levels rather than individuals eating more than normal.

As the editorial comment in the CTA's Bi-weekly Agricultural Update points out, this will result in "increased import dependency" and can be seen as "a lost opportunity for African producers". More than ever before, African states need to pay more than just lip service to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

Agricultural trade between Russia, China, Brazil steps up

We all knew there would be a vacuum to be filled after Russia banned agricultural products from the countries which had slapped sanctions on her -- the USA, EU, Canada and Australia (with Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain being the biggest losers in the tit-for-tat move).

It is with interest we read this evening that China and Brazil have begun (or are about to begin) stepping into the gap. China will supply vegetables and fruit, and import grain, rapeseed (canola) and honey from Russia. Brazil will supply dairy products (and surely meat products? Russia used to be a major market for Brazil until 2011). Brazil will in turn import fish and grains from Russia.

On RT, find the Russia-China and Russia-Brazil articles.

Scotland votes: William Wallace and tomorrow

You think I'm curious about tomorrow and the Scottish vote? You bet I am! I have followed the 18th September vote with great interest. Although it's in the other hemisphere, it’s very much a humanity vote, and which way will it go?

Tomorrow has been compared by some here with the 27 April 1994 vote, a day which heralded democratic rule after centuries of colonialism and then apartheid. It’s as significant, of course. I'm not sure how far to take that comparison. Apartheid was sold, to the white population anyway (and some of the black elite), as self determination: "Here's some land for the Zulus, there's some land for the Xhosas, there's some land for the [etc] ... and here is our land. You may work here, but your own country is over there". On the 27 April 1994, the people living across South Africa (at least 11 "nations" as there are 11 official languages!) all expressed confidence in the very diverse mix that is this country. In many ways it was a "Better together" vote.

The human psyche loves the I-thou, us-them definition. We know who we are if we have drawn a line in the sand to separate us from the other. And we use these lines for far more than nationality (do some reading up if you are not familiar with Jung's idea of Shadow)!

What if we are all on the same side?

The clans of Scotland are its glory. The lines between them have also been its weakness. The land was kept in servitude, subjugated through a divide-and-rule strategy by outsiders. Clans and classes were turned against each other. What William Wallace had to contend with!

Some have taken cynical advantage of unity, of course, and people are drafted into wars which have nothing to do with them! What did the Scots have to do with Blair's Iraq or Cameron's adventure in Libya? How sincere is "Better together"?

Tomorrow raises interesting questions for various corners of the globe (sshh! and some discomfort). What about the Ukraine? Spain, Morocco and China? There are reports this evening that the Shetland Islands would consider their own independent future if Scotland secedes from the U.K. (so much for Scotland's dreams of wealth from oil!) My goodness, what about Lesotho? Some have suggested incorporating that country as the 10th province of South Africa. Remember also that the US fought its civil war to prevent the Southern States from going it alone.

It's understandable that we want boundaries, but what if the lines we draw are artificial and we are more than the human beings wanting to mark off our own caves? It might take centuries still for us to learn this but what if we are all actually on the same side?

Shucks! Until then, let's make our way as best as we can with the light that we have ...

Going to Pretoria this year?

At the end of this month, September 30, the AMT South African Annual Agricultural Outlook Conference will be held once again at the CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.

Presentations are done on aspects across the agricultural value chain.

• Vusi Thembekwayo’s presentation will be titled “Leading at the edge of chaos”.
• The futurist, Neil Jacobsohn will discuss “Thriving inside the Perfect Storm – Finding opportunity in an world of radical change”.
• Daniel Silke will address the conference on “Outcome of the 2014 Election and the Effect on SA Agriculture 2015”.
• Mike Schüssler will present the Domestic and Global Economic Outlook 2015: Prospects for higher and sustained economic growth in the medium term.”
• Johan van den Berg (Santam Agriculture) will give a Weather Outlook for 2015 – Climate variability and climate change in the agricultural context.”
• Ernst Janovsky, (ABSA Agribusiness) will provide the global and SA outlook for the supply and demand of grains, oilseeds and livestock.”

The Keynote speaker will be Philip Lymbery from the UK with his presentation “Farmageddon: The true cost of Cheap meat – the Dark side of the Global Food system”.

A panel discussion on land reform, the economic and political future and how the different sectors will be influenced by these, will follow.

Find the programme with booking form here. Alternatively, find "Conference proceedings" on the Agrimark Trends website.