Eating

Most of us have been in a situation where we experience temporary hunger. It might be that we forgot to pack our lunch, or missed a meal and had to wait for the next one to be served. But mostly we did not give it a second thought.

Imagine a scenario of regularly not having enough to eat, or living under the anxiety of wondering where the next meal was going to come from. In a world which grows enough food, around 800 million people right now are hungry, while you are reading this. The former FAO Director General Jacques Diouf rightly called it "the world's largest tragedy and scandal".

There is a good chance that your views on food security (or food sovereignty) reflect your conditioning and investment in society. If you are part of the agro-food value chain, you will most likely dismiss any responsibility for world hunger because you, to be fair, are doing your part to put food on the shelves! And if you earn your money in a different sector (and are not dependent on this one, at least not financially), you might be more critical of it.

And if you are not earning money?

South Africa is food secure on a national level, thanks mostly to our farmers. Why is it then that around 14.1 million people (26% of the population) are "predisposed to hunger and malnutrition" (DAFF, 2016)?

Hard work and profit encourage our entrepreneur farmers to produce food and to take the risks that accompany this. And they should be supported. Emerson praised them, saying farmers cause food to be where there was not food before.

Increasingly, questions are being asked about how that food finds its way to the consumer.  In the light of eating or not eating, it is right that attention falls on agriculture and on the agro-food system, and that there is debate around the process which brings food to our plates.

Follow the debates on the Centre of Excellence in Food Security website, http://www.foodsecurity.ac.za, or take a look at chapters like Food security in The Agri Handbook. There are overviews of all crops, livestock, inputs, markets etc. Find the free pdf download under "Order". The first chapters of the 2016/17 edition will be available online from 1 July 2016.

A letter from Judy Stuart

We received the following letter from Judy Stuart who started and runs the Future Farmers Foundation. Naturally we receive feedback on the Agri Handbook gratefully, but it is the hope and positive perception on youth and on agriculture that shines from Ms Stuart that we would like to share with you.

Dear Craig,

Last year, you gave me some of your books.   I have one and found good homes for the rest.  The book is really good.   It is a huge amount of work.  The research and dedication that goes into it must be massive!

Doug Greenshields is assisting Future Farmers and I would love him to get a copy from you.  Is the new one out yet?

At the moment, we have 17 interns gaining experience overseas and we are working on visa applications for a further 12.  We are active in many sectors, albeit on a small scale.   We expect to send the first horse intern to Australia later this year, he is from the racing industry and is well qualified.

The biggest difficulty is getting new farmers on board.  Change does not come easily.  We need many more farmers to work with us to create opportunities for our amazing young people.   We have probably 15 new people to interview every week.   Far more than we can help.   The industry could absorb most of them, but we do not have the resources to do the work.

There is a misconception out there, that young people do not want to get their hands dirty.   It could not be more wrong.   The potential is there to produce hundreds of top commercial farmers.   How to get people to believe this is the big question.

Even the Department of Agriculture invests resources in subsistence and small scale farmers.  They do not seem to believe that impoverished rural communities may be the best source of top commercial farmers in the future.  We need them to put food on supermarket shelves!

On Wednesday, I am due to meet with someone who may be able to teach our future farmers environmental conservation.   Not sure how we are going to do this.   Farmers are custodians of the land.   It should be their goal to hand it on in a better state than it was when they took over.   Farms are not just about crops and livestock.   Every one of them has a niche for flora and fauna and it is often unnoticed.   If only we could create an awareness of this amongst the landowners.

We have taken on a big challenge at Future Farmers.   We are helping young people to achieve more than they ever dreamed possible.   But, we are scratching the surface.

If you are in KZN sometime, please come and visit our Howick office.  It would be great to see you again.

Kindest regards,

Judy

Politics, conflicts, global warming, the world economy and the future of agriculture in South Africa

Media release

The 16th AMT Agri-Outlook Conference will be held on 28 September 2016 at the CSIR Convention Centre in Pretoria. The aim of the 16th AMT Agri-Outlook Conference is to improve on what is one of the premier platforms to communicate and interrogate pertinent issues in the South African agricultural sector. 

The theme of this year’s conference is: Politics, conflicts, global warming, the world economy and the future of agriculture in South Africa. World renowned speakers and commentators will be assembled to make presentations, facilitate and support the discussions. Building on the success of the past, we are confident that delegates will be provided the opportunity to obtain improved insights and to tackle and stimulate a greater understanding of the current pertinent issues faced by the agricultural sector in South Africa.

It is believed that the theme and the programme will appeal to a wide spectrum of role players, from private sector, government to academia and other stakeholders. The annual AMT Agri-Outlook Conference is not to be missed and remains one of the highlights on the South African agricultural calendar.

Registrations are now open for the 2016 AMT Agri-Outlook Conference! Registration forms can be obtained from www.agrimark.co.za (click on Conference) or alternatively please contact Ms. Dalene Coetzer.

Do not miss this unique opportunity to network and meet up with experts in the South African agricultural context.

”Our endeavour is to provide you with a thought provoking experience that will help you to shape your business or organisation for future challenges.”

Enquiries:Dalene Coetzer:               Conference Co-coordinator:                     076 188 6533
E-mail:                                  liaison@amtrends.co.za

(Water again) The thing is ...

In the same week economists told us to expect a 50% increase in meat prices as a result of the drought, the SA Government News Agency brought the news of efforts being made to limit the drought's effect. Water tanks with some 80 000 litres of water were delivered to the Umjindi and Thembisile Hani Local Municipalities in Mpumalanga. Before leaving the drought-stricken area, the Department of Water Affairs & Sanitation (DWAS) told the people: "South Africa is a water scarce country and the current drought is making the water challenge severe". The situation "calls for all of us to change our water use behaviour and embrace water conservation in everything we do".

That someone in government knows that water is scarce (and thus precious) in this country is good news. And DWAS was joined by three other government departments days later. The ministers of Environmental Affairs; Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries; and Public Works informed the Sterkspruit community in the Eastern Cape of what accompanies water shortage -- desertification, loss of livelihoods and so on. Now we're cookin'! The thing is: will these ministers and government departments take the message to the Department of Energy (DoE) and others in government who still regard fracking as an option for future energy needs?

Environmental checks and balances, we are assured, will prevent problems and allow for fracking to happen safely. The country's track record of environmental "checks and balances" elsewhere, certainly with mining, sounds every alarm bell possible! (Take a look at the Mpumalanga crisis: why is nobody listening report, or the one done by the Bureau for Food & Agricultural Policy).

But leaving environmental incompetence aside ... Fracking by its very nature throws up unpleasant surprises. Scout the ecowatch.com website, or watch the gas in a river near a fracking site in Australia exploding.

We simply cannot afford to have vast amounts of groundwater polluted and lost.

Fracking is not only agriculture's problem.  The Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG) tells us that whole towns in the Karoo would be devastated: 94% of them depend on groundwater.  So, DWAS et al ... any hope that you will enlighten the others, those in government? Include the news of fracking projects cancelled/postponed elsewhere in the world over the past year. You will either speak to your colleagues, or, under a likely future scenario, you will be again addressing communities, this time apologizing for a human-caused shortage of water that could have been avoided.

Water and the three percent

When I first heard, years ago, that the name of a piece of music was Water Music, I chuckled, and chuckled even louder when the friend earnestly asked "Do you get it?" The name was whimsical, silly and the young man who was me had more important things to do.

I cover my face sometimes at the memory of where I've been - things done and said. You wish that sensitivity and wisdom were downloads, apps that could spare you making some of the dreadful mistakes you make as you sojourn through life. Denial is one response to mistakes. Another is projection where you criticise someone else who makes the same mistake (as if that lets you off the hook!) The best response is quiet acknowledgment, and a hope that somewhere in the process of forgiveness and taking responsibility there will be fruit like greater humility and patience.

In the Tao te Ching, water is used as a symbol for humility. Water is content to go to low places which people disdain [ch.8]. Water is like the supreme good since it nourishes all things without trying to. And the way in which it can wear down a rock is a picture of how an unassertive nature and gentleness can be the power that triumphs over the hardest thing [ch.43].

Water makes all life possible, without even being aware of it. It flows between countries that, we are told, may go to war because of their wanting to take ownership of it. It is one of the farmer's best friends (and farmers knew this before the drought).

Today there is a scratch-head moment. A certain character in the Strategic Water Partners Network, we read, said the agriculture industry is the biggest consumer of water in South Africa yet it contributed a mere 3% to the country’s GDP. It is said as a reprimand, something a naughty child might hear in the headmaster's office on Monday morning. "You greedy boy, taking all that water when you know you only produce 3% of the GDP!" Knowing that we've all made mistakes and said the darnest, stupidest things, let's count to ten before responding ...

And what do you think farmers do with all that water? Is it possible that it is used to produce the food you ate this morning? And to produce the food you ate yesterday and the day before and - let me just check - yes, the food you've eaten your whole life! The farmer's 3% makes the other 97% possible. It is because of the farmer that you can get on with another job, like sitting in Strategic Water Partners Network meetings, knowing that the question of food is being attended to.

The question is: how humble and unassertive (and waterlike) should the farmer be about this? Do we expect the pilot to convince the passengers that it is important for him and not them to be in the cockpit, even if they are envious of the privacy there? Or the ambulance to persuade the other cars to let it through? We could use a host of other comparisons, but really, it should be obvious to everyone who ate (or who did not eat) today what the farmer's role is. Like water itself, agriculture's three percent is indispensable to life as we know it.

Davos: #4IR, the middle class and saving ourselves

The news from the World Economic Forum 2016 (WEF) is abuzz with reports of the Fourth Industrial Revolution - #4IR. [The first two used water/steam and then electric power to create mechanised and mass production. Electronics and information technology followed, and now we have digital which is “characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres” (WEF, 2016). ]

We hear today that the 62 richest people in the world now own as much as the bottom 3.5 billion (WEF Trust Survey). The rich continue to get richer, the poor poorer and the middle class is being “hollowed out”.

Generally, commercial farmers fall in the middle class bracket. Agriculture in Greece faces the knockout punch as a result of the latest austerities; there are challenges for farmers worldwide, but a brief look at the SA picture: SA operates on a planet that had its hottest year on record in 2015. The drought here (the worst on record) is a major blow to many, compounded now by rumours of another, giant leap in the energy price. With over half the population in SA already food insecure, the drought will place the price of food further beyond the buying power of the poor. And measures like energy price hikes in this context threaten the production of food itself.

US Deputy President Joe Biden spoke of the danger of losing something special when we lose our belief in the possibility of a better life, namely “the soul of our humanity that no machine can replace”.  His speech outlines steps to strengthen the middle class and the way to it:

• Invest in education and training
• Strengthen core social protection and obligations to employees
• Modernise infrastructure
• Ensure a progressive tax regime so that all pay their fair share of the taxes
• Make capital more widely available

Writing on the WEF today, Lionel Bisschoff offers suggestions for SA, after pointing to the unlikelihood of the current 8 million unemployed ever being able to find work in agriculture, manufacturing or corporate services (machines and “digital clones” will do the work as a result of #4IR). Bisschoff says we need to reform our current monetary system: our debt and interest based system of money creation will not work for us. Following on this, through the creation of “locally constrained money”, millions of our unemployed will build infrastructure. These two points are explained in his article.

We don’t have much more time to stop the alarming patterns of inequality. If we don't strengthen the middle class and the way to the middle class, #4IR will have made these patterns worse next year this time. The steps proposed by Biden and Bisschoff hold promise but do we have the will to change?

New Agri Handbook on the horizon

Of interest to agricultural stakeholders is that the next edition of The Agri Handbook for South Africa is in the pipeline.
 
As visitors to this website and role players familiar with the previous editions know, the publication gives you an orientation to every part of the agricultural value chain. This is helpful whether you have inherited some land and want to see what the options are, or if you have been farming for years and are thinking of diversifying your operations. What does processing milk entail, for example, and who can help me? What should I consider before farming with fish?

The next edition will be released electronically, in modules, while we wait for the print arrangements to come together. As opposed to an in-house production, much here depends on arrangements and co-operation outside of the (small) company. Patience is involved - thank you so much - and the result is always worth it (find the comments and feedback under the The Book option on the website).

The first module will be an introduction along with a supplier guide. Chapters will include agriculture in the provinces, organised agriculture, labour and agriculture, agribusiness and an introduction to SADC (the Southern African Development Community).

These will be followed by:

• MODULE TWO: Agricultural training & careers
• MODULE THREE: Infrastructure
• MODULE FOUR: Mechanisation
• MODULE FIVE: Inputs
• MODULE SIX: Marketing & finance
• MODULE SEVEN: Services & technologies
• MODULE EIGHT: Agronomy
• MODULE NINE: Horticulture
• MODULE TEN: Forestry & industrial crops
• MODULE ELEVEN: Livestock
• MODULE TWELVE: Natural resource management
• MODULE THIRTEEN: Value add & processing
• MODULE FOURTEEN: National & international issues 

 This will begin happening in stages next month and into the early part of the new year. Watch this space!