Villiera is just one of the many local wineries to join the green movement. This forward-thinking winery has always sought out sustainable initiatives to lessen its impact on the environment. By ensuring that its green strategies also make good economic sense, it keeps itself affordable both on local shelves and in the export market. Aggressive water management, natural pest controls, biodiversity initiatives and a strong culture of recycling have been the forerunners to its latest project - an estate-wide alternative energy solution, outfitted entirely by homegrown solutions provider, enerGworx, using locally designed and manufactured products.
So starts the No Carbon Week guide ' our guideline to navigate through a week of becoming more aware and living this awareness together with people from across the planet. The Green Times office is joining this united world-wide experimental effort, which starts this Sunday, 18 April. The No Impact Experiment is a truncated version of Colin Beavan's experience trying to live in New York City with no environmental impact. Three months into Colin's year-long experiment, he stopped consuming new goods (except food).
On a recent Saturday morning a group of members of our wine club and their family and friends gathered at the farm for a day of tree planting, wine tasting and a well-earned lunch. Part of being a Backsberg Wine Club member involves the opportunity to plant a tree in your family's name, on the farm. This ties into our philosophy of care for the environment; it was important for me to extend that view to the wine club.
Pick n Pay is now offering wine bottled in plastic - to be correct, PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate). There are considerable benefits to using PET bottles for wine. They are light-weight and therefore significantly more eco-friendly as they require less energy to produce.
Traditionally, PET was used for sporting events or in-flight catering, where there is a very fast turnover. Now with a new oxygen barrier technology, it is possible to achieve a significantly longer shelf life, making it ideal for wine products.
The greenest candles in the country ' Soylites Candles - landed the license as the official candle range for the FIFA World Cup. SoyLites are our country's first specialists in hand-poured and scented Soybean Massage and Moisturising Candles.
All FIFA long burning candles will be poured into re-usable glass or travel metal containers (with lids) and branded with various FIFA logos and marks using either screen printing or high quality digital stickers.
...any fresher and pigs might fly.
Porter's is a fresh food market, no mistake. The smell of moer koffie and bacon greet you. 'We styled it after old European markets where people come to hand-select fresh produce and catch up with friends,' said Gail Coetzee, the market manager, in a polo-neck jersey with her hair in a pony tail. 'About a quarter of the stalls are organic ' our policy is 'as natural as possible.'' The market is in a woodsy setting that attracts urbanites like flies. It's interesting how we long for Nature and to feel that we are getting out of doors and out of town. But even if it's the new urban shopping trend, and a little bit pretend, it's a positive move. Gail and her restaurateur clan started Porter's 3 years ago when they began having kids and wanted a place in Nature to take them. They leased a field on the Porter Farm in Tokai and put up the infrastructure ' wooden stalls, rustic tables, and a huge sandpit. Today cyclists are having a health breakfast, people are browsing with dogs and children, and everyone is choosing home-made food for a cold weekend.
In the southern hemisphere, the first of September is officially the beginning of spring. This is the time to be planting the vegetables that will feed you throughout summer and the early stages of autumn.
My bookcase groans with the weight of green literature. Permaculture for idiots, double digging for novices, you get the picture. You see I am passionate about gardens, food and the planet. My garden should, in theory, be prolific with delicious organic food.
Despite my cerebral imbibing of all knowledge organic, I have never been able to translate that knowledge into a food producing garden. Apart from some herbs and sometimes lettuce I have never found much favour with food gardens.
'Organic farming has been there for many years, sitting on the fringe, but not receiving much attention,' said Thabo Ramashala, Director of Plant Production for the Department Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries at a national organic policy workshop in Cape Town. 'Government wants to find a way for the organic sector to grow and find its place.'
The Uitkyk wine estate is the newest winery to become a Biodiversity & Wine Initiative (BWI) Champion and the 20th to do so. The estate is at 591 ha one of the largest in the Stellenbosch area. Uitkyk has set aside more than 312 ha of virgin veld, or 52% of the total property for conservation! The standard requirement for championship status is 10 ha of virgin veld.
Last year, the Midlands Meander Education Project received funding from Thatu UK to assist Carshalton School get their food garden growing well and able to provide fresh, organic veggies to supplement the school feeding scheme. Mr Nathi Majola, principal of the school, observed that the community surrounding the school also needed help to grow food and asked MMAEP facilitator, Jessica Dreamtime if she would mind inspiring them as well. Jessica and Mary Mlambo from Dovehouse Organic Farm, enthusiastically set about this task, reminding the community of the ways their grandparents had grown food sustainably - with inter planting, crop rotation and making use of manure and weeds as fertilizer.
All South Africans need to act urgently and immediately to the proposed regulations in the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) governing the labelling of Genetically Modified (GM) food. The regulations are weak and undermine the consumer's right to know and consumer choice, while addressing the needs of big business instead.
It was almost time for the Global Working Day for Earth, when the largest number of people across the planet ever in living memory would be doing something for the earth'
My lucky number 7 had arrived just before the auspicious 10-10-10 date and this day I was a year older. And a year more grateful to still be granted my share of this planet's precious resources.
In the last four months, South Africa has dumped almost 300,000 metric tons of genetically modified (GM) maize onto Kenya, Mozambique and Swaziland. According to a paper released by the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) titled "A Good neighbour? South Africa forcing GM maize onto African markets and policy makers", these are the first documented cases of commodity exports of GMOs from South Africa to the rest of the African continent, and set a worrying precedent. Even Kenya, which is of vital strategic importance to the biotech industry in Africa, and where the vast majority of the GM maize ended up, severely lacks the capacity to ensure the safe handling and monitoring of such a huge volume.
Leo Adeline grew up farming on the island of Praslin in Seychelles. He was formally educated in Education and taught for many years. He also managed the landscaping project for the beautification of the island ' see photographs alongside this story. This greenman's heart always belonged to the earth and eventually he focused solely on his organic farm. Leo built a wooden house for his South African wife Jolan, artist from Durban. She integrated passionately into the project, and was blessed with his son David.
Backsberg has won the Sustainability Award at the inaugural Drinks Business Green Awards. The winners of this international competition were announced at an awards ceremony in London. Louise Wishart, marketing manager of our UK importer, Ellis of Richmond, was there to receive the award on their behalf.
The South African Rooibos Council celebrated the second anniversary of its Rooibos biodiversity initiative at a recent Biodiversity Information Day, held near Clanwilliam in the Western Cape. Representatives from various nature conservation agencies and government departments joined Rooibos farmers and other industry players to celebrate this milestone. It was an opportunity to focus on the benefits of protecting biodiversity, as well as the progress made with biodiversity-friendly Rooibos farming. The event was hosted in partnership with GreenChoice, a business and conservation alliance promoting sustainable agriculture.
Poisonous spays from farms drifting onto people, `workers, children, family and neighbours` is finally coming to a head in the Boland.
We urge you to attend a public meeting to be held in Stellenbosch on Tuesday 24 November 2009 @ 15h00 to address the problem of pesticide drift poisoning the people of Stellenbosch and the surrounding areas.
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa guarantees the right of every person to live in an environment that is not harmful to their health and well being. However, exposure to pesticides, and in particular prolonged exposure to pesticides, poses very real health risks to both humans and the environment.
A beloved and absolutely key figure in biodynamic circles, Jeanne Malherbe, died recently. At her funeral at Bloublommetjieskloof farm outside Wellington, Rev. Richard Goodall made told the story of her life: Ten days before her 78th birthday Jeanne received the last anointing in full consciousness. She expressed how for her this was a great opening up to an unseen world from which she had felt closed off for a long time.
