ON THE WATER
NEELS BLOM: Playing food security card has farmer and state on same side
Ownership must mean freehold — the right to exploit the land, to turn it into capital, to erect a shelter, to risk losing it all
A splendid piece of journalism by Business Day Writer at Large Giulietta Talevi reveals that, contrary to loose talk at the co-op, commercial farmers might have a friend in the government: agriculture minister Senzeni Zokwana. Could this be a good thing? That is, is it good for the country? Zokwana is quoted as saying that "we have to give comfort" to those who invest in farming and that they need to believe there is a future there. Well, yes. But in the same breath the minister says, "Without food security, we’d be breaching one of our constitutional obligations." Yes, again, to our obligations. But the link between commercial agriculture and food security is neither proportional nor direct. Food security — household and national — is contingent on availability and price. Yet farmers do not make food available; trade does, and farmers do not determine price; they take what they can get. To maintain food security, SA must nurture its trade relations. It is inconceivable that Zokwan...
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