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Why is South Africa falling behind every other emerging economy when it comes to developing a sustainable and progressive national organics programme?
South African politicians and elected officials are very good at talking. They love to hold endless seminars, weekend retreats, talk to the media and anyone else who will listen. They all sound good, say the right things ....then nothing happens. This applies to housing for the poor, job creation, tackling HIV/Aids issue, eliminating corruption, taking action on crime, getting our hospitals to provide just a minimum level of service and so on.
Yes, I understand all of these are big and complicated issues and cannot be fixed overnight. I have a programme that can be fixed overnight - a sustainable organics programme - an Organic Freedom Project that will provide thousands of jobs, free our people from poverty, provide a food supply that will combat HIV/Aids, create a viable export programme and promote a sustainable lifestyle for all those who want to work.
Why organics? The worldwide organics industry is now 25 years old in the modern era. Actually it's how most of our crops were grown from the beginning of time until 1950. Since 1950 over 100,000 new chemicals have been introduced into our food supply - and now we wonder where the increase of cancer, bird flu and mad cow diseases have all come from?
The organic (chemical free) industry is the fastest growing industry segment worldwide - and is growing at 25% annually. Compare this with conventional produce using chemicals and GM seeds - this segment is only growing at 2% per year. But this is not just about making economic sense.
Organics is about going chemical free. It's about soil health, which leads to plant heath, which ensures human health. But it's far more than even this; it's about creating a lifestyle for all economic levels of our society that is totally sustainable.
As a South African, look around you, what do you see? A culture of fast food consumption - high in fats and salts, washing it down with sugar based soft drinks and alcohol. What destroys the immune system the fastest? High sugar and fat diets - no wonder we have the highest HIV/Aids infection rate in the world; with obesity a close second. Then, when the Minister of Health talks about the nutritional value of fresh fruit and vegetables she is ridiculed. Why have we gotten it so wrong?
Let's do a quick comparison with other emerging countries that we would consider at a similar developmental stage to our own - India, Cuba, Mexico and Brazil. India launched a very innovative 9 Seeds programme. This is a community-based project that has been set up in 110 different sites all over India; this programme is 100% organic. It has created thousands of jobs, eliminated poverty, provided a healthy diet - but more than that has educated countless families, mainly those on the lowest rung of the economical ladder, to living a healthy lifestyle with a respect for the earth's natural resources.
Cuba launched a Greening of Cuba campaign over 10 years ago. They have been faced with political isolation, oil restrictions, trade embargos, and a lack of agri-chemicals. The Cuban government took a proactive stance. They converted the vast majority of their schools to solar power. They promoted organics as the only viable alternative. Today 80% of all their fresh produce is organic. Having been forced to make the"mind-shift" there is no turning back.
Mexico's organic story is a little different. Their biggest customer base, the North American market, has over the past 10 years demanded chemical free production. It was a case of go organic or lose their customers. Today there are 35,000 certified organic farmers in Mexico and that number will continue to grow significantly.
Brazil should be an organic inspiration to all of us. They have 7100 certified organic farmers. The government of Brazil has targeted organics as their national growth initiative. They are planning to capture 10% of the worldwide organic market by 2010 - a staggering US$3 billion. The export potential and the inflow of cash is great. What really is great is that the programme creates jobs for people at the lowest economical level, it eliminates poverty, and it gives their people hope and instils pride that they too are making a difference for their families, their communities and their country.
Brazil is also leading the way to becoming less dependant of oil importation. They have made a massive investment in bio-diesel. Not surprising as petrol cost 70% more than"alcohol", the bio-ethanol fuel derived from sugar cane. Fuels such as bio-diesel are renewable and can be made from agricultural products, like palm oil or soy beans, which can then be mixed at up to 30% with petroleum-based products such as diesel.
Few countries can compete with Brazil as a bio-diesel producer. This is a vital project for ensuring more independence for Brazil, and they may become a large bio-diesel exporter.
The prime reason is that Brazil has dozens of vegetable species, which can be used to make bio fuels - and even cow tallow (fats) maybe used as raw material. The country's largest beef exporter is building a new plant to convert tallow into bio-diesel, with an annual output of 100,000 tonnes. Brazil doesn't just have the land mass - it also produces half the globe's ethanol output of 21m tonnes.
Bio-diesel, on sale in nearly 100 "bio" stations around Brazil and powering Rio's buses and refuse trucks, contains just 2% of vegetable-sourced diesel. But the plan is to achieve 20% by 2020, slashing carbon emissions, and, more crucially, the $1.1bn cost of importing 6bn litres of diesel each year."Flex fuel" engines power 80% of all new Brazilian-built cars, up from 17% in 2004. It will be at 100% in two years.
Brazil's government also views bio fuel as a way of helping rural parts of the country out of extreme poverty. The use in bio-diesel of castor beans, from Brazil's arid north-eastern Sertao, for example, is expected to create thousands of jobs in the impoverished region where tax breaks are being given to families producing the raw products used in bio-diesel production. The creation of jobs in rural Brazil by the sugar cane trade will reduce the strain on its overcrowded cities, many of which are dominated by tracts of shantytown housing.
Each of these 4 countries faced with the exact same issues that we are in South Africa face today and they have taken action. So, where does South Africa stand?
· Our Department of Agriculture still does not have a clear organic agricultural policy.
· There is no South African organic standard or certification legislation.
· We only have 200 certified organic farmers (against Brazils 7,100 and Mexico's 35,000)
· We have 5 active organic wine producers, and another 12 beginning programmes (Australia, Italy and the USA have more than 100 each. 80% of all France's vineyards are now chemical free)
The South African government has further confused the issue by supporting GMO programmes as a way to boost agricultural production. GMO seeds require chemical fertilizers. The GM seeds do not re-germinate and therefore must be purchased every year - along with many more supporting chemicals. This is tantamount to the multi-national chemical companies"enslaving" our African farmers - once on the treadmill; it's difficult to get off. The chemicals damage the soil - and that requires even more chemicals to fix the problem, and then at the end of this process most African countries are rejecting our GMO production - so most of it has to be consumed locally.
GMO's do not create jobs, do not enhance the quality of our lives, they have not eliminated poverty - their use has just lined the pockets of the global chemical companies - just look at any of their balance sheets.
What our government needs to do is to take the lead from programmes that work in India, Cuba, Mexico and Brazil. Define an organic strategy and implement a South African organic standard certification programme that will be recognised worldwide, and finally use our country's wonderful natural and people resources.
Empower our communities, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds to join an"Organic Freedom Project" and become esteemed by becoming organic farmers. We could create 100,000 new jobs, make a huge impact on eliminating poverty, educate our people to the values of good nutrition, and improve health by allowing South Africans to live a sustainable lifestyle.
Organics is the fastest growing market sector worldwide, it's about living a healthy, chemical free and sustainable lifestyle, it requires lots of land, employing thousands of people. There is huge international funding for a project like this and our government could not invest in a better programme.
It sounds like a win-win situation to me. Don't conference and workshop this to death - come guys, let's just do it.
David Wolstenholme, Exhibition Director of the Natural & Organic Products Exhibition.
20-22 October 2006, Gallagher Estate, Johannesburg.
Contact: 021-674-4026 or e-mail: |
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