[Music]
so the topic of this TEDx is hacking the
discussion about all the wonderful and
amazing ways in which technology and
technological innovation is going to
transform father in the words of the
blurb apostles to read it the farm is
transforming into a high-performance
high-growth enterprise that’s adding
value to crops turning commodities into
products and moving up the supply chain
the modern farm is a brand with the USP
and a target audience today’s farm is
experimenting with new production
methods and processes biotechnology big
data GPS drones and autonomous systems
even the adjectives are changing the
farm can now be smart precise vertical
lean organic hydroponic aeroponic or
aquaponic the farm like the future is
not what it used to be that sounds
wonderful doesn’t it I’m not much of a
techie in fact I’m not to take you at
all that’s why they know PowerPoint
slides I’ve always believed that
technological innovation should be for a
purpose a purpose that’s grounded in the
real lives of people not more technology
just for the sake of more technology the
farm
our slogan says is not what it used to
be I couldn’t agree more and in that
fact lie some of the deepest and most
pressing social problems in this country
the real question is where the
technology can really change that
personally I have my doubts and this the
techie start thinking about things that
are much more important than technology
so what do I mean when I say the farm is
not what it used to be farming used to
be primarily about two things
firstly it was about producing the food
without which a community could not
survive and secondly it was about
providing a dignified livelihood for the
people who produce that food in that
letter respect South Africa’s not made
that standard for a very long time 120
years ago the
was a thriving class of black family
owned and worked farms that produced the
bulk of the food for the new towns
around South Africa an apartheid land
and labor policy put an end to that
today most farm workers in the very
bleak lives their own appearance they
often live in subhuman conditions their
lives are also very precarious millions
and millions of farmworkers have been
evicted from farms all around the
country over the last 25 years some of
them children who were born on those
farms their livelihoods are also
precarious because of seasonal
variations in agriculture the current
drought in the Western Cape means that
thousands of families have lost their
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to earn
an income from picking fruit cruelest of
all farm worker communities have among
the highest levels of food insecurity in
South Africa the people who produce our
food are those least likely to be able
to afford to eat it how will technology
make these people’s lives better has
anyone even asked themselves that
question or will we all continue to act
as if farm workers and their families
simply don’t exist it’s not just farm
workers and their families that need a
better deal land restitution and land
reform which are critical to healing the
wounds of the past in this country will
never succeed because it is almost
impossible for new farmers to make a
decent living out of farming why because
the ability to earn a living from
farming has been on a steady downward
trend for 30 years and not just in South
Africa okay and why is that it’s because
the price that the farmers get paid for
the food that they produce as a
percentage of the retail price of food
that’s what you and I pay when we go to
the supermarket is on a steady downward
trend and it’s important for the rest of
the story that you remember that when
food prices are going up it’s usually
not the farmers who are benefitting the
most or sometimes even at all even
though they’re often the smokescreen
that is used as a reason for why prices
have gone up it’s just one example in
the latest drought in 2015-2016 we were
told that the retail price of milk had
gone up because of the drought the
reasoning was that farmers were under
pressure to feed their cars they needed
to have a higher income now that last
part of the story was certainly
but while the price that you and I paid
for milk went up about three random
litre the farmers only got an extra 70
cents a litre and in fact during the
drought hundreds of dairy farmers went
out of business the farm gate price of
milk between of milk between what the
farmers get and the retail price has
been increasing steadily 12 years ago it
was about 6 Rand Anita that’s just over
10 random that means that when you go to
the supermarket and buy a liter of milk
for 15 rand the farmer who produced it
is only getting about four and fifty a
liter for that same milk and at the same
story with almost every single
agricultural commodity you and I pay
more and more and farmers are going out
of business because they cannot afford
to make a living out of farming and we
need to understand that the implications
of this go far beyond just threatening
land reform and land restitution and
farming enterprises even though we
understand that those are very important
issues
farming’s had a lot of bad press because
of its often negative impact on the
environment we read about massive feed
Lots crowded with animals feed lots of
scary things and pumped full of
antibiotics we read about animals being
given growth hormones to make the mature
in a shorter period of time we read
about lots of water pollution from
chemical fertilizer runoff and from
those same feed Lots and we think hmm
farmers should be chastised they should
be taught to farm in a more sustainable
way but here’s the reality farming is an
incredibly low margin and precarious
business if you want to stay in business
as a farmer you have no option but to
adopt these farming methods it’s not
ignorant driving this kind of farming
it’s a desperate attempt to survive how
will technology help farmers to get a
better deal so that they can afford to
farm in a more sustainable and humane
way and then of course there’s the
argument which says we have to have this
industrial technology because we have to
feed so many millions of people in South
Africa the proponents of a destructive
inhumane farming system which treats
people as expendable inputs as much as
it treats animals as expense
such food insecurity and hunger as the
reasons why we have to embrace this
technology certainly no one can argue
that we don’t have a very serious
problem in this country three-quarters
of all South African young children do
not meet the minimum standards for
nutritional intake millions and millions
of children go to bed hungry every night
somewhere between five and seven
thousand children die of hunger in this
country every year a shocking statistic
that most South Africans are simply
unaware of that any of you know that
every day 15 children die of hunger in
the rainbow nation surely the horrific
reality of starvation and hunger is that
we need to embrace whatever technology
is up there in order to produce more
food well here’s a newsflash unless
there’s a draught South Africa already
produces enough food for everyone who
lives here it’s worth saying again we
already produce enough food for everyone
despite that fact millions of people are
going hungry or subsisting on a diet
that is completely inadequate or
sometimes dying of hunger and why
because who gets to eat and who doesn’t
get to eat in this country depends on
how much money people have to buy a food
relative to the cost of that food not on
how much food they actually is the
nutritional status of a family in Soweto
to pick they have to buy food and not on
how much food is actually available and
this is where the real social impact of
that growing gap between the farmgate
price of food and the retail price of
food becomes apparent mothers on social
grants cannot afford to buy their
children milk at fifteen Randall eater
and small dairy farmers cannot afford to
feed their families because they only
get paid for in twenty and eating for
that same look and don’t think that
because you are not a farmer or because
you are a member of that lucky minority
that can afford to feed themselves well
that this is not your problem we can
never address rural poverty and
inequality
lest we have a better deal for farmers
and farm workers how can we build a
thriving and inclusive economy when so
many of our children have the ability to
learn permanently damaged by hunger
there’s overwhelming evidence of a link
between severe childhood malnutrition
the kind that affects one in four
children in this country and an
increased propensity for violence in
adults through permanent damage to the
brain lack of food may be the single
most important factor explaining our
world-class levels of violence
believe me this is your problem it may
be your biggest problem
none of the sorry state of affairs has
got anything to do technology or the
lack thereof instead it has to do with
what we as a society value most and with
what we value least and the truth of the
matter is that what we value most is
corporate profit and what we value least
are the lives of the poor and the
vulnerable we have forgotten that food
is not a commodity or a product or a
brand it is together with water the
foundation of life and it’s the
foundation of social justice when we
condone a society in which so many
people go hungry we’re not just damaging
their health we’re fundamentally
damaging their humanity when you deny a
mother the ability to feed her child who
is crying from hunger you take away part
of her humanity when you force someone
to beg for food by the side of the road
you are making a mockery of our
collective dreams for ourselves and of a
constitution that is only one of a
handful in the world that guarantees the
right to food it’s not our technology
that needs a fix
it’s our hearts if we want change we
need to start thinking about morality in
our food system which means we need to
start thinking about the morality that
underpins our economy and our society
our deepest held beliefs about right and
wrong I don’t believe that any one of us
here would watch a child under our care
starve to death if we could possibly do
something about it
so why is it so different because it is
someone else’s child I believe we have a
moral obligation to see each other to
see and acknowledge the reality of other
people’s lives
apartheid succeeded for so long because
it was so successful at making us blind
to the reality of other people and we
can never build a new kind of society
and a new kind of food system while we
remain blind to other people and
ignorant is not an excuse
most South Africans have no idea that
children are starving to death in this
country every day but that information
is not a state secret it’s relatively
easy to find but first you have to want
to find it and no amount of technology
can compensate for a deficit of morality
or for our willful blindness to the
suffering of others nothing is going to
change until we change [Applause]
so the topic of this TEDx is hacking the
discussion about all the wonderful and
amazing ways in which technology and
technological innovation is going to
transform father in the words of the
blurb apostles to read it the farm is
transforming into a high-performance
high-growth enterprise that’s adding
value to crops turning commodities into
products and moving up the supply chain
the modern farm is a brand with the USP
and a target audience today’s farm is
experimenting with new production
methods and processes biotechnology big
data GPS drones and autonomous systems
even the adjectives are changing the
farm can now be smart precise vertical
lean organic hydroponic aeroponic or
aquaponic the farm like the future is
not what it used to be that sounds
wonderful doesn’t it I’m not much of a
techie in fact I’m not to take you at
all that’s why they know PowerPoint
slides I’ve always believed that
technological innovation should be for a
purpose a purpose that’s grounded in the
real lives of people not more technology
just for the sake of more technology the
farm
our slogan says is not what it used to
be I couldn’t agree more and in that
fact lie some of the deepest and most
pressing social problems in this country
the real question is where the
technology can really change that
personally I have my doubts and this the
techie start thinking about things that
are much more important than technology
so what do I mean when I say the farm is
not what it used to be farming used to
be primarily about two things
firstly it was about producing the food
without which a community could not
survive and secondly it was about
providing a dignified livelihood for the
people who produce that food in that
letter respect South Africa’s not made
that standard for a very long time 120
years ago the
was a thriving class of black family
owned and worked farms that produced the
bulk of the food for the new towns
around South Africa an apartheid land
and labor policy put an end to that
today most farm workers in the very
bleak lives their own appearance they
often live in subhuman conditions their
lives are also very precarious millions
and millions of farmworkers have been
evicted from farms all around the
country over the last 25 years some of
them children who were born on those
farms their livelihoods are also
precarious because of seasonal
variations in agriculture the current
drought in the Western Cape means that
thousands of families have lost their
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to earn
an income from picking fruit cruelest of
all farm worker communities have among
the highest levels of food insecurity in
South Africa the people who produce our
food are those least likely to be able
to afford to eat it how will technology
make these people’s lives better has
anyone even asked themselves that
question or will we all continue to act
as if farm workers and their families
simply don’t exist it’s not just farm
workers and their families that need a
better deal land restitution and land
reform which are critical to healing the
wounds of the past in this country will
never succeed because it is almost
impossible for new farmers to make a
decent living out of farming why because
the ability to earn a living from
farming has been on a steady downward
trend for 30 years and not just in South
Africa okay and why is that it’s because
the price that the farmers get paid for
the food that they produce as a
percentage of the retail price of food
that’s what you and I pay when we go to
the supermarket is on a steady downward
trend and it’s important for the rest of
the story that you remember that when
food prices are going up it’s usually
not the farmers who are benefitting the
most or sometimes even at all even
though they’re often the smokescreen
that is used as a reason for why prices
have gone up it’s just one example in
the latest drought in 2015-2016 we were
told that the retail price of milk had
gone up because of the drought the
reasoning was that farmers were under
pressure to feed their cars they needed
to have a higher income now that last
part of the story was certainly
but while the price that you and I paid
for milk went up about three random
litre the farmers only got an extra 70
cents a litre and in fact during the
drought hundreds of dairy farmers went
out of business the farm gate price of
milk between of milk between what the
farmers get and the retail price has
been increasing steadily 12 years ago it
was about 6 Rand Anita that’s just over
10 random that means that when you go to
the supermarket and buy a liter of milk
for 15 rand the farmer who produced it
is only getting about four and fifty a
liter for that same milk and at the same
story with almost every single
agricultural commodity you and I pay
more and more and farmers are going out
of business because they cannot afford
to make a living out of farming and we
need to understand that the implications
of this go far beyond just threatening
land reform and land restitution and
farming enterprises even though we
understand that those are very important
issues
farming’s had a lot of bad press because
of its often negative impact on the
environment we read about massive feed
Lots crowded with animals feed lots of
scary things and pumped full of
antibiotics we read about animals being
given growth hormones to make the mature
in a shorter period of time we read
about lots of water pollution from
chemical fertilizer runoff and from
those same feed Lots and we think hmm
farmers should be chastised they should
be taught to farm in a more sustainable
way but here’s the reality farming is an
incredibly low margin and precarious
business if you want to stay in business
as a farmer you have no option but to
adopt these farming methods it’s not
ignorant driving this kind of farming
it’s a desperate attempt to survive how
will technology help farmers to get a
better deal so that they can afford to
farm in a more sustainable and humane
way and then of course there’s the
argument which says we have to have this
industrial technology because we have to
feed so many millions of people in South
Africa the proponents of a destructive
inhumane farming system which treats
people as expendable inputs as much as
it treats animals as expense
such food insecurity and hunger as the
reasons why we have to embrace this
technology certainly no one can argue
that we don’t have a very serious
problem in this country three-quarters
of all South African young children do
not meet the minimum standards for
nutritional intake millions and millions
of children go to bed hungry every night
somewhere between five and seven
thousand children die of hunger in this
country every year a shocking statistic
that most South Africans are simply
unaware of that any of you know that
every day 15 children die of hunger in
the rainbow nation surely the horrific
reality of starvation and hunger is that
we need to embrace whatever technology
is up there in order to produce more
food well here’s a newsflash unless
there’s a draught South Africa already
produces enough food for everyone who
lives here it’s worth saying again we
already produce enough food for everyone
despite that fact millions of people are
going hungry or subsisting on a diet
that is completely inadequate or
sometimes dying of hunger and why
because who gets to eat and who doesn’t
get to eat in this country depends on
how much money people have to buy a food
relative to the cost of that food not on
how much food they actually is the
nutritional status of a family in Soweto
to pick they have to buy food and not on
how much food is actually available and
this is where the real social impact of
that growing gap between the farmgate
price of food and the retail price of
food becomes apparent mothers on social
grants cannot afford to buy their
children milk at fifteen Randall eater
and small dairy farmers cannot afford to
feed their families because they only
get paid for in twenty and eating for
that same look and don’t think that
because you are not a farmer or because
you are a member of that lucky minority
that can afford to feed themselves well
that this is not your problem we can
never address rural poverty and
inequality
lest we have a better deal for farmers
and farm workers how can we build a
thriving and inclusive economy when so
many of our children have the ability to
learn permanently damaged by hunger
there’s overwhelming evidence of a link
between severe childhood malnutrition
the kind that affects one in four
children in this country and an
increased propensity for violence in
adults through permanent damage to the
brain lack of food may be the single
most important factor explaining our
world-class levels of violence
believe me this is your problem it may
be your biggest problem
none of the sorry state of affairs has
got anything to do technology or the
lack thereof instead it has to do with
what we as a society value most and with
what we value least and the truth of the
matter is that what we value most is
corporate profit and what we value least
are the lives of the poor and the
vulnerable we have forgotten that food
is not a commodity or a product or a
brand it is together with water the
foundation of life and it’s the
foundation of social justice when we
condone a society in which so many
people go hungry we’re not just damaging
their health we’re fundamentally
damaging their humanity when you deny a
mother the ability to feed her child who
is crying from hunger you take away part
of her humanity when you force someone
to beg for food by the side of the road
you are making a mockery of our
collective dreams for ourselves and of a
constitution that is only one of a
handful in the world that guarantees the
right to food it’s not our technology
that needs a fix
it’s our hearts if we want change we
need to start thinking about morality in
our food system which means we need to
start thinking about the morality that
underpins our economy and our society
our deepest held beliefs about right and
wrong I don’t believe that any one of us
here would watch a child under our care
starve to death if we could possibly do
something about it
so why is it so different because it is
someone else’s child I believe we have a
moral obligation to see each other to
see and acknowledge the reality of other
people’s lives
apartheid succeeded for so long because
it was so successful at making us blind
to the reality of other people and we
can never build a new kind of society
and a new kind of food system while we
remain blind to other people and
ignorant is not an excuse
most South Africans have no idea that
children are starving to death in this
country every day but that information
is not a state secret it’s relatively
easy to find but first you have to want
to find it and no amount of technology
can compensate for a deficit of morality
or for our willful blindness to the
suffering of others nothing is going to
change until we change [Applause]
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