Gauteng Smallholder July 2017 | Page 3

GAUTENG COMMENT, by Pete Bower MAGAZINE HOW TO MAKE YOUR PLOT PROFITABLE Vol 18 No 7 July 2017 PUBLISHED BY Bowford Publications (Pty) Ltd Established 1985 (Reg No 2004/019727/07) PO Box 14648, Bredell 1623 Tel: [phone] or 076 176-7392 Fax: [phone] website: www.sasmallholder.co.za facebook.com/gautengsmallholder PUBLISHER & EDITOR Pete Bower email: [email protected] RESEARCH EDITOR Vanessa Bower email: [email protected] GRAPHIC DESIGNER Mark Hageman email: [email protected] ADVERTISEMENT SALES Pete Bower email: [email protected] ADVERTISING RATES ( All Rates Full C o l ou r , incl VAT ) Full Page - R7480 Half Page - R 4 620 Quarter P - R2570 1/8 page - R1360 Smaller sizes: R 104 per col cm (Minimum size - 4 col cm) ( Black only: colour rate less 2 0% ) Booking discounts Payment lumpsum in advance. Not applicable to SuperSmalls. 3 insertions - less 10% 6 insertions - less 15% (other payment and discount options are available) Circulation More than 1 9 000 copies * distributed free through outlets in the Agricultural Smallholding settlements of Gauteng and adjoining provinces. * excluding on-line readers. By Mail To receive the Smallholder by mail 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 As good as the original: a depiction of a national botanical garden ~ part of the Sanbi Kirstenbosch Chelsea Flower Show exhibit, reconstructed at Garden World in Muldersdrift. # SAFoodCrisis: Get this I t is well-understood that South Africa has many pressing problems, but you would be wrong to think that Jacob Zuma, the Guptas, corruption or the parlous state of the economy are the biggest and most pressing that we face. And you would be equally wrong if you thought it was our dreadful education system, crime, unemployment or the threat of fracking in the Karroo. For while it is true that Jacob Zuma and his cronies are conspiring to turn this country into the biggest banana republic Africa has ever seen, there is an issue so big, so historic, so complex and so all-encompassing that, if we as active citizens don't do our bit to rectify it, the crisis will lead to the death of thousands and the collapse of the country. Literally. We're referring to what we will call the food crisis , for want of a better name. While it's not really a crisis in that it hasn't suddenly arisen, but has in fact been a part of South African life for many decades, it is without a doubt slowly getting worse and will one day develop into a full-blown crisis of epic proportions. Because we can’t go on like we are. For example, the billions disbursed each month to Social Grant recipients constitute not only the recipients’ only real income, and thus the only wherewithal that they have with which to buy food, but also represents a sizeable chunk of the country’s gross national product ~ its cash-flow, if you like. But there are now more social grant recipients in South Africa than there are people in formal employment, and the number of grant recipients is more than three times the number of individual taxpayers in the country. Does that sound like a sensible, sustainable situation? We don’t think so. But what food crisis are we talking about, you may ask? There is food on shop shelves, the recent good rains have seen to it that there will be a heartening surplus of maize (the price of which has halved as a result) and starvation is really not the problem it was a few decades ago. So what's the problem? Well, the first problem is that there's not just one problem, but a myriad of interrelated issues affecting farmers, farm workers and consumers ~ you and me ~ alike. The simplest and most visible way to see this issue is to ask yourself the question, “why does my food shopping bill seem higher every time I visit the supermarket?” But if you were a farm worker you may ask “why are my wages so low?” and if you were a farmer you'd be asking “why am I paid so little for my produce?” We believe that too few people are aware of, and angry about, the problems in the food industry. We also believe that the politicians have abrogated their responsibilities in relation to the Constitution, choosing rather to take cover behind the convenient phrase “food security.” And we believe that the time has come for us as citizens to take matters into our own hands and force the necessary changes to take place. But we can only do that if we are fully informed as to the nature and scale of the problem. As a result, the Smallholder will, over the next few months, be publishing a series of articles with a common theme of #SAFoodCrisis. These will draw on a recently- published book by agri-economist and activist Dr Tracy Ledger entitled An Empty Plate which, if you are interested, we urge you to read (order it from Loot or Takealot.com), and various discussion papers and government reports. Our articles will look at seemingly unrelated issues such as inequality, unemployment and wages, the parlous state of the farming industry, land restitution and why so many new Black farmers fail, the food value chain and agricultural marketing, corporate greed, nutrition and nutrition education, public health and social security, the futility of charitable works and grow-your-own efforts, government policy and the wrong assumptions upon which many of these policies are founded, and even economic theory and philosophy. Why are we going to all this effort on this one subject? For two reasons. Firstly because problems in the food sector affect all of us, rich and poor, black and white, as consum- ers and citizens. And secondly because the development of a thriving smallholder farmer sector (of which by our very name we are part) will not succeed unless various aspects of agricultural policy are changed. Thus, for us, it's become a personal fight, and we have become increasingly angry and alarmed and the way we are heading as a country. And for you, too, it should become personal because you are being fleeced each time you buy food and although you don't know it yet, there is going to come a time when there are insufficient farmers left to produce the food you consume unless you become angry and alarmed, too. SAY YOU SAW IT IN THE GAUTENG SMALLHOLDER