GAUTENG
COMMENT, by Pete Bower
MAGAZINE
HOW TO MAKE YOUR PLOT PROFITABLE
Vol 17 No 2
February 2016
PUBLISHED BY
Bowford Publications (Pty) Ltd
Established 1985
(Reg No 2004/019727/07)
PO Box 14648, Bredell 1623
Tel: 011 979-5088
or 076 176-7392
Fax: 086 602-3882
e-mail: [email protected]
website:
www.sasmallholder.co.za
facebook.com/gautengsmallholder
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
Pete Bower
RESEARCH EDITOR
Vanessa Bower
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Michelle Urquhart
ADVERTISEMENT SALES
Call 011 979-5088
ADVERTISING RATES
(All Rates Full Colour, incl VAT)
Full Page - R7480
Half Page - R4620
Quarter P - R2570
1/8 page - R1360
Smaller sizes: R104 per col cm
(Minimum size - 4 col cm)
(Black only: colour rate less 20%)
Booking discounts
(Payment lumpsum in advance)
3 insertions - less 10%
6 insertions - less 15%
(other payment and discount
options are available)
Circulation Area
More than 19 000 copies distributed
free through outlets in the Agricultural
Smallholding settlements of
Gauteng and adjoining provinces.
Also available by mail and online.
By Mail
To receive the Smallholder by mail
send us a supply of stamped, selfaddressed A4 envelopes.
Or, subscribe for only R210 per year.
See coupon in this edition.
Online
http://www.sasmallholder.co.za
Copyright
Title and contents protected by
copyright. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or stored in any
form whatsoever without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Disclaimer
While every care is taken to ensure
the accuracy of the information in
this journal, neither the Editor nor the
Publisher can be held responsible
for damages or consequences of any
errors or omissions. The Publisher does
not stand warranty for the performance
of any article or service mentioned in
this journal, whether in an
advertisement or elsewhere.
FRONT COVER
If you neglect to pick an artichoke at
budding stage it turns into a
beautiful mauve flower, not
unlike an oversize Scotch Thistle.
The epoch of man
O
bscured in the newspapers after New Year by the furore over
racist utterances on social media by people who were clearly
suffering bouts of brainfart was the announcement by scientists
of the Anthropocene Epoch, or the epoch of man.
This, they tell us, started in the middle of the 20th Century when Russia, the US and
others started fiddling around with atom bombs, and when industry started to invent
modern materials such as plastics and carbon fibre, and use metals such as titanium
and aluminium in manufacturing.
An epoch is measured by future generations by examining samples of sedimentary
deposits laid down over the years. In the case of the Anthropocene Epoch, future
analysts will notice the sediments being laid down now will contain high levels of
radioactive isotopes, and high levels of carbon associated with the burning of fossil
fuels, manufacture of plastics, use of chemicals etc.
Whether the announcement of the Anthropocene Epoch is a good thing or a bad thing
is open for discussion. One thing is for certain however: it's a pretty solid observation
on what happens to a planet when you stock it with seven billion inventive people hellbent on consuming as much of its resources as they can.
Something else happened over the holiday period which is potentially related to the
Anthropocene Epoch, namely the COP21 meeting in Paris at which the world’s
governments (South Africa included) pledged to reduce carbon emissions.
Whether most of the signatories to the COP21 resolution actually believe their
countries will meet those targets is another matter. In South Africa, for example, the
cost of fitting out Eskom's existing coal-fired power stations with the kit necessary to
reduce their emission levels is prohibitively expensive so it's unlikely we will ever meet
our COP21 obligations.
Regardless of how cynical signatories to COP21 were, the conference achieved one
notable thing, namely an increasing awareness among ordinary citizens of the need to
do SOMETHING to slow down global warming etc. And the reality is that much of
what needs to be done will have to be done at an individual or household level.
At an individual level, of course, is one's right to vote. At any election, voters should
(and, we believe, will) start to support candidates or parties that espouse green-ness in
the most vigorous way. From the parties' and candidates' side, winners will be those
who develop and announce the best-thought-out green policies, and not merely a lot
of vague platitudes and hot air.
Candidates who, for example, push through the laws necessary to enable households
to sell their surplus solar-generated electricity back into the grid (as happens in
Germany and elsewhere) will get our vote. For only when that sort of initiative happens
will it become truly enticing for ordinary households to invest in solar panels, batteries
and inverters, the costs of which will drop dramatically as a result.
But there's another observation which the green lobby often overlooks. It's no use
talking about “cutting down” on the use of fossil fuels etc when, firstly, more than half
of the world's population lives below the breadline in horrible poverty and secondly
we're adding humans to the population at an exponential rate. People naturally want to
consume more, not less, as they rise out of the poverty trap by dint of their own hard
work or because they are lifted out by some socia [