lets be scared of fungicides, ok?

Having my ear to the ground, as I now do, (having been forced to turn my attentions from my own work, business and career by the fact that pesticides make me ache all over and become disabled with chemically induced arthritis in the summer (google 'pesticide drift' - and start reading- aso pesticides and disabiltiy is interesting) as well as quite a lot more ... but more baout that later. ... )

I am particularly concerned about fungicides. An outfit in the Northern part of South Africa that deals in seed despatch has had 70% of the staff develope cancer, and in fact, sadly, 40% of the staff have died.

This matter is currently sub-judice.

The point is that pesticides- the generic name for the biologically active substances - herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and plant hormones as well as their carrier substances - will have an effect on human biochemistry and physiology - our bodies.

Where they have no place .

And furthermore, while science can study one pesticide at a time, it cannot study groups of them and their combined effects on cells and bodies- about combination effects, and the pesticide cocktails we live within, because of the incredible effectiveness of mist blowers - it is silent.



coming soon - the law on pesticide usage - made in 1947 - a bit out of date surely? being legal in terms of the letter of that law does not offer rural communities protection from current technology.

French-style farming is the answer! Mais Oui!

Well, I'm casting about all over the place in my researches around the problem of how farmers can maintain volume and cosmetic quality in agricultural production, whilst not causing both short and long term health problems for farm workers and residents, given that the technology in use - mist blowers have a drift distance of, some researchers suggest - 5 kms

(The researcher in question here, is the mother of a 17 year old boy in the Cape winelands who contracted Hodgkins Lymphoma, received chemotherapy, and is now sterile - so she has been researching what she believes to have been the cause of the problem).

A first option seems to be to favour low impact farming methods that reject preventative pesticide usage, which is obviously, (as it sells more product), favoured by the pesticide industry. Preventative pesticide usage means you spray even when you dont have the problem, by rote, eg in 2 week cycles, and the whole farm gets treated as identical.

Very successful farmers (such as a viticulturist who is one of the top ten wine makers in the world- who is willing to take part in a conference here - cue Toursim group, in the Helderberg region), favour pro-biological farming, which greatly reduces pesticide consumption, saving farmers money. But of course bad news for pesticide vendors, so we can expect squeals of well orchestrated protest.

Farms are sectioned into small units and are monitored fpr specific pests, and then the small segments are individually sprayed, if neccessary. The soil is made complex to enhance plant strength. Roundup for example is avoided (which simplifies soil structure, as well as being carcinogenic). Natural predators are part of the picture, impossible when whole regions are sprayed with, for example, an organophosphate.

Preventative pesticide usage is the norm in America but is not practiced in the vast grape growing regions of France, evidently, where 80 % of grapes are grown using pro-biological, low or minimal pesticide usage methods.

Tiny Villages everywhere

The reason for this is easy to understand by glancing at maps of rural Southern France, dotted everywhere with tiny hamlets and villages, every kilometre or so.

The pesticide drift problem that has become normalised in South Africa, would mean that most rural people would live in a pesticide cocktail.

I think that Van Niekerk Bruwer should rush off to France now to see just how they do it, on a study tour, and bring the answers back to the village!

And I'm prepared to contribute towards his air ticket to help make the fact finding trip possible! I'm sure others would help too!

Lets make the slogan - 'The meditterranean magic of the Riebeek Valley' become more than just a catch phrase.

making sustainability mainstream

a really really really cool website that I'm sure Eric wont like, as it tries to find ways of acheiving the same results (in farming) without using strillions of tons of pesticides! As well as lots of other stuff.

treehugger.com

pesticides a problem? an oftentimes unneccessary cost for farmers?


No Way Jose! - the pesticide industry

we love love love love love Van Niekerk Bruwer

well I do anyway

What a breath of fresh air! The lights are on and at last somebody is at home!!! Mega-Yay

In the Riebeek Valley Reporter no 18 (June 2007), Chairman of the Riebeek Valley Farmers Association Van Niekerk Bruwer States:

"Organic farming is an excellent idea, but unfortunately there isn't a single successful table grape farm left in the Berg River Area. There is one near Piketberg and it's not going that well. The biggest hurdle for farmers in the Valley, when it comes to organic grape farming, is the density of crops in the valley. The concentration of fruit trees is so high that pest and disease outbreaks are almost guaranteed to spread from one area to the next. Organic methods in combating these diseases and pests are not as effective as their chemical counterparts. This means that organic farmers often have to spray more than the traditional farmer. Ironically there are some chemical sprays that organic farmers are allowed to use.

I think the long-term answer for grape farming in the Valley (and the rest of South Africa) lies somewhere between agro-chemical and organic farming: bio-dynamic equilibrium farming. This is a fairly new buzz-word and it can also be called biological farming.

It basically means that the producer's goal is to achieve the natural equilibrium (or symbiosis) between the plant/tree and its environment with the use of biological agricultural methods, supplemented by agro-chemicals when necessary. Farmers in the Valley are commercial - not lifestyle farm owners. An ugly description would be 'mass producers of agricultural produce for financial gain'. We're not producing grapes for the shop around the corner - the volumes are huge and the profit margins are VERY, VERY low (otherwise Bill Gates and other influential businessmen would own commercial grape farms in South Africa by now!). Organic grape farming without substantial backing from the Department of Agriculture and other industry role players would be disastrous for many farmers."

Obviously the current situation where vast amounts of uncontrolled pesticide drift is 'normal' is not sustainable.
Obviously, again, it is reasonable for ordinary people like myself to want to quietly get on with our lives without suffering from for example, pesticide induced arthritis.
Nevermind other, terminal, conditions.

The current pesticide industry and pesticide-vendor orientated ways of farming need to be replaced by farmer, worker, community and environmentally forms of agriculture.

Thanks Van Niekerk for acknowledging this and for looking for a way forward.

Bio-dynamic status would be a great marketing tool for the valley!!! And help sell lakes of wine!

Hooray for Chris Wright

Intrepid journalist and publisher, Chris Wright of Riebeek Valley Handbook and Riebeek Valley Reporter fame has kicked our snoozing blog into life !

Well done Chris!!

You caught us napping (as anyone reading our intermittent postings can see)

Chris has declared to the world the existence of our invisible Blog, that no one has ever read.

History will thank you Chris!

Time to get our pencils and journalist's pads out - watch out, here we come!!!

night time crop spraying over village

On Thursday 21 June, this week, under cover of darkness, a crop plane buzzed the village 'for hours' reported a resident who lives only a few houses away from the Northern edge of the village.

A professional pilot has stated that this is 'VERY DANGEROUS', as the pilot when flying low could crash into a tree or obstacle and kill himself and people on the ground.

In addition it is illegal to fly over a residential area without lodging a flight plan, and anyone doing so under cover of darkness if caught would automatically lose thier pilots licence.

But hey! there are fruitflies in the village! And if Jurgen photographs planes flying over the village spraying in daylight, then the fruitflies must be got by other means! N'est pas?

BUT SURELY

If safety guidelines, the law, interdicts and court orders are being adhered to, there is no need for clandestine spraying?

I think we should be told!

Will the pilot in question please own up and attach a post explaining what were doubtless perfectly reasonable activities.

Some background

From SAPA 5 May 2007

Quiet Organic Revolution in South Africa

Author: Clare Byrne

South African Press Association. (Source)

In an emerging market such as South Africa the move to organic production is usually a economic rather than an ideologically-driven decision. A quiet revolution is taking place in the orchards of the Western Cape. After decades of trying to coax fruit onto the trees with the aid of chemicals, fruit farmers are packing in the pesticides and deciding to grow green. Organic farming has come to South Africa, where it is being billed, not only as a profitable enterprise, but as a panacea for poor soil quality in growing regions. From an estimated five million rand before 2003, sales of organic food grown in South Africa - domestic sales and exports combined - jumped to R155m in 2005, with an exponential increase expected again in 2006/2007, according to Organics South Africa trade organisation. After a slow start the rate of conversion to organic farming has accelerated. Of the 230 certified organic or in-conversion operations in South Africa in 2005, 75% have started organic processes in the previous two years. South African retailers are also, belatedly, falling in behind organics. Organic tomatoes, apples and potatoes are now widely available in supermarkets, from the mass-market Pick 'n Pay and Checkers chains to Woolworths. In an emerging market such as South Africa the move to organic production is usually a economic rather than an ideologically-driven decision.

Cheap labour

With the global market for organic food growing at a runaway 35%, new suppliers are being urgently sought, particularly in Europe and the United States. In these markets, high labour costs act as a deterrent to a shift to organic farming. South African farmers, on the other

hand, have access to a large pool of cheap labour. With a minimum wage of R885 a month for farm workers in rural areas, most commercial farmers can afford several pairs of hands when it comes to weeding. For Modderfontein Farm's Mike Stekhoven the shift to organics on his 2

500-hectare farm two hours north of Cape Town was the only way to secure future profitability.

"I'm a businessman," he says. "Conventional farming offers no return."

The citrus industry, like the wine industry, is periodically beset by gluts in production, pushing down prices and squeezing producers' margins. Stekhoven produces 56 hectares of citrus and 130 hectares of rooibos tea on 800 hectares of arable land, with plans to expand the citrus crop to 100 hectares. Although five years after beginning the conversion to organic, Modderfontein's citrus crops are still a fraction of what they used to be, Stekhoven estimates that the profits, when they come, will be mouthwatering. Apart from higher prices for organics, farmers in the Western Cape give another reason for eschewing conventional agriculture: decades of heavy nitrate and fertiliser usage has robbed the already poor soil of its nutrients.

Killing off friendly bacteria

Hennie Saaiman, a potato farmer-turned consultant on biological agriculture, notes that in the late 1970s, 20kg of nitrates were recommended to secure two tons of wheat in South Africa. Today, to

obtain the same yield requires an input of 55kg. "If we hadn't made that change (to organic farming) we wouldn't still be here," says Mike Prevost, owner of Lorraine Farm in the Elgin Valley, who pioneered the production of organic apples and pears in the area east of Cape Town in

the late 1990s. Fruit farming is notorious for heavy spraying regimes, he says. While it rids the fruit of pesky bugs it also kills off friendly bacteria. The more Mike sprayed, the more fertiliser he needed, locking him into a vicious cycle of rising inputs costs. Eight years after deciding he was "tired of working for the chemical industry", Prevost is now in his fourth season of fully organic farming, producing 700 tons of apples and 100 tons of pears for the domestic and export markets.

Nourished by compost made of cow manure, bird droppings, mulched apple and other natural ingredients, the soil now boasts a richer moister texture, and, Prevost maintains, his fruit has "better legs" to withstand extreme weather. The Western Cape is at the coal face of climate change in South Africa, with rising temperatures, increased drought and altered rainfall already making an appearance.

A market for their output

Fruit farmers complain of mildew on grapes from unseasonable rains and of unduly hot spells robbing apples of moisture. Whatever the reasons for the shift, organic farmers are assured of a market for their output, with signs of South African, European and American importers all

starting to vie for supply. Tired of being thrown low-grade fruit by producers who send the cream of their crop overseas, Pick 'n Pay is backing a scheme to boost production and ensure a more varied supply. Organic Freedom Project, a non-profit organising, recently announced plans to create 100,000 jobs in organic food and biofuel production in South Africa by 2014. Europe's largest organic fruit and veg importer, Dutch company Eosta is also looking to secure its supply lines in South Africa against competition from American importers willing to pay almost

double for a carton of oranges. The Nature & More label - developed by Eosta before being spun off into a separate foundation - aims to bring consumers closer to growers in faraway countries. A sticker on the product contains a code that customers can enter on a website to obtain a rating of the farm's environmental and social commitment.

From the website of the Rotterdam Convention 5 May 2007

Overview

The text of the Convention was adopted on 10 September 1998 by a Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The Convention entered into force on 24 February 2004.

The objectives of the Convention are:

• to promote shared responsibility and cooperative efforts among Parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm;
• to contribute to the environmentally sound use of those hazardous chemicals, by facilitating information exchange about their characteristics, by providing for a national decision-making process on their import and export and by disseminating these decisions to Parties.

The Convention creates legally binding obligations for the implementation of the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure. It built on the voluntary PIC procedure, initiated by UNEP and FAO in 1989 and ceased on 24 February 2006.

Major Provisions:

The Convention covers pesticides and industrial chemicals that have been banned or severely restricted for health or environmental reasons by Parties and which have been notified by Parties for inclusion in the PIC procedure. One notification from each of two specified regions triggers consideration of addition of a chemical to Annex III of the Convention, Severely hazardous pesticide formulations that present a hazard under conditions of use in developing countries or countries with economies in transition may also be nominated for inclusion in Annex III.

There are 39 chemicals listed in Annex III of the Convention and subject to the PIC procedure, including 24 pesticides, 4 severely hazardous pesticide formulations and 11 industrial chemicals. Many more chemicals are expected to be added in the future. The Conference of the Parties decides on the inclusion of new chemicals.
Once a chemical is included in Annex III, a "decision guidance document" (DGD) containing information concerning the chemical and the regulatory decisions to ban or severely restrict the chemical for health or environmental reasons, is circulated to all Parties.

Parties have nine months to prepare a response concerning the future import of the chemical. The response can consist of either a final decision (to allow import of the chemical, not to allow import, or to allow import subject to specified conditions) or an interim response. Decisions by an importing country must be trade neutral (i.e., apply equally to domestic production for domestic use as well as to imports from any source).

The import decisions are circulated and exporting country Parties are obligated under the Convention to take appropriate measure to ensure that exporters within its jurisdiction comply with the decisions.

The Convention promotes the exchange of information on a very broad range of chemicals. It does so through:

• the requirement for a Party to inform other Parties of each national ban or severe restriction of a chemical;
• the possibility for Party which is a developing country or a country in transition to inform other Parties that it is experiencing problems caused by a severely hazardous pesticide formulation under conditions of use in its territory;
• the requirement for a Party that plans to export a chemical that is banned or severely restricted for use within its territory, to inform the importing Party that such export will take place, before the first shipment and annually thereafter;
• the requirement for an exporting Party, when exporting chemicals that are to be used for occupational purposes, to ensure that an up-to-date safety data sheet is sent to the importer; and
• labeling requirements for exports of chemicals included in the PIC procedure, as well as for other chemicals that are banned or severely restricted in the exporting country.

From Legalbrief 24 April 2007

Agriculture: Major retailers court organic market
SA's three largest food retailers are actively courting the organic produce market, while government agencies are hoping, paradoxically, Business Report notes, to have the first genetically modified crops on supermarket shelves soon. Last week Pick 'n Pay said it would not stock a GM potato, which the Agricultural Research Council hopes to commerc ialise, until it could provide conclusive scientific evidence on the biosafety of the product. Pick 'n Pay has recently co-founded a massive job creation project known as the Organic Freedom Project, in a bid to boost the availability of organic foodstuffs. Big local retailers, including Woolworths and Shoprite Checkers, are taking their lead from Europe, where demand for organic food is growing at 42% a year.