Water licenses and Obama’s ultimatum
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog On Friday, the Afrikaans agricultural magazine, Landbouweekblad, carried the article “Hoe moet boere vir droogte aanpas, minister?” [How should farmers adapt to drought, minister?] The piece was written in response to the national government’s lack of interest to assist the country’s commercial farmers in the face of the worst […]
West Coast media trip: part 1 (setting the stage)
In the week when farmer association KwaNalu reported that there were thousands of oil and gas exploration applications to prospect on KwaZulu-Natal farmland (Farmer’s Weekly 23 Sept 2016), a group of journalists and team assembled by the WWF Nedbank Green Trust were looking at how the possibility of a tungsten mine spurred a group of farmers to have their area classified as a Protected Environment.
Poultry in the mountains
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog We are in the process of finalising all chapters for the next edition of The Agri Handbook, and have been checking details in the poultry chapter this morning. We’d like to share information on a poultry enterprise that impresses us. Mikon Farms is based in Mpumalanga, an area which lies […]
Livestock, living stock and recently departed beasts
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog Many of us enjoy meat products, and the work of various red meat organisations mean that we do so with a measure of confidence that the process of turning live animal to meat product was a humane one. Our meal may be accompanied with a silent thank-you to […]
Agriculture stakeholder engagement meeting to address attacks on foreign nationals
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog Press release by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries (DALRRD), 22 April 2015 Business Sector stakeholders and Organised Labour had a constructive meeting with the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, General Bheki Cele, to discuss and share ideas to address the recent attacks on foreign […]
South Africa: increasingly a market for EU agricultural exports
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog South Africans are mostly aware that the EU is a prime market for its agricultural produce. After the De Doorns industrial action at the beginning of the year we heard at least once from disgruntled strikers that food security was not the issue since most of the fruit […]
Farming in Cape Town
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog Have you imagined producing your own vegetables, herbs and fish on a small scale for your own consumption or for a niche market? In its latest issue, Landbouweekblad reports on something happening at the V&A Waterfront within the Mother City. Moyo restaurant, with initial help from Stellenbosch University, grows its own vegetables, herbs […]
Agricultural metaphors
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog Energy doesn’t just disappear. It goes somewhere. So does life. Life is energy. And you are both. We may nod and agree intellectually … yes, yes … but does this assent go deeper, help us process the impulses behind our selves and what we are? You don’t just […]
Unearthed: farm girl’s award-winning international movie
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog The documentary Unearthed, by local farm girl Jolynn Minnaar near Graaff-Reinet, is drawing international attention. Its topic? Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) … Like many who grow up in rural areas or on a farm, Minnaar loved the wide uninhabited space of the Karoo. And when plans were revealed to […]
Eating
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog 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. […]