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. […]
Eucalypts and other honey bee forage plants – what you can do to help our honey bees
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog By Mbulelo Mswazi and Carol Poole, South African National Biodiversity Institute A recent study undertaken by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) revealed that gum trees, certain crops, indigenous trees and shrubs, flowering plants in suburban gardens and even roadside wildflowers or weeds are all critically important […]
Out in the streets
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog This afternoon, whilst I was mid-stream checking updates for the “Forage & pastures” chapter in the next Agri Handbook, the power went off. Step one in such an event is to go stand outside in the street. If you are the only one out there, then proceed with step […]
Living with other people’s narratives
This past week a certain country disputed the findings of a United Nations report, saying it rejected the UN’s “narrative”. It is not the name of the country that is important here, but this: if you lived in that country, what would your response have been been? Considering its frame of reference (or narrative), every […]
Farmers in France (and elsewhere)
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog It is with great concern that we read the article High suicide rate highlights plight of French farmers. Let us remember that most of us have lost touch with the vocation which allows us to be businessmen, doctors, bankers, lawyers etc. Somebody else cultivates the food that sustains you, and so […]
Do penguins eat white maize or yellow maize?
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog Hats off to Dr Herman van Schalkwyk, CEO of the AMT, for including a contribution by Philip Lymbery, author of Farmageddonand CEO of Compassion in Worldwide Farming, at the AMT Conference in the week just passed. The book and the presentation pose serious questions to future scenarios of agriculture. Included […]
Matatiele farmer reaps reward of a dream come true
In David Mongoato’s office is a picture of himself as a small child, standing in a field of tall, ripe maize plants. He knew than that he wanted to be a farmer. But the path to your destiny is seldom a straight one. David and his wife Selloane worked as teachers for many years before […]
Growing meat and houses in science labs
By Craig Macaskill Posted 2017-06-05 In Blog Human evolution has gone hand-in-hand with the eating of meat. Over the centuries, the days and nights around the fires of feasts where meat was cooked must be countless. And the barbeques (braais in South Africa) of today go on. If you are unfamiliar with the production of meat […]