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Coexistence of different agri models is key for pandemic recovery, says MEP

In light of the difficult political context Europe is facing, with COVID-19, Brexit, US tariffs, and trade tensions, more thought should be put into different models of agriculture to address future challenges, the right-wing MEP Mazaly Aguilar (ECR) told EURACTIV in an interview.

“The pandemic has confirmed that agriculture is a strategic sector for European citizens,” Aguilar said, adding that it was not possible to anticipate what would happen in the coming weeks or months.

Given the problems with the pandemic, Brexit, US tariffs, and the Mercosur agreement, there would be many issues touching farmers across the bloc and, according to the Spanish lawmaker, the solution to limit the damages cannot only come from EU’s main farming programme, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

“In a post-pandemic world, we should understand that new green obligations to protect the environment cannot undermine our capacity to produce healthy and safe food at an affordable price for EU citizens,” she said, referring to the strong push on sustainability embedded in European Commission’s flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy (F2F).

For here, the keyword for the future is coexistence. “Different models of agriculture must coexist to meet the challenges ahead. Focusing on organic production and local markets is a very partial response to our needs.”

To this end, Aguilar stressed that “precision farming and new plant breeding techniques should be further developed in a post-pandemic scenario to help organic production achieve sustainability.”

At the same time, she pointed towards the need for a plan to support farmers to overcome the effects of the pandemic.

“We need a plan with additional funding from the EU budget and in coordination with other EU policies, CAP cannot do it alone,” she said.

Scrap the CAP?

The possible option of scrapping the proposed CAP reform if it is not in line with the EU’s flagship environmental policy, the European Green Deal, has struck a sour note in the first weeks of negotiations between the European Parliament and the outgoing German EU presidency chairing the EU27 farming ministers.

Withdrawing the proposal would halt the talks and force the EU executive to re-start the legislative process by tabling a new document.

After Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans hinted at this possibility, the Commission has tried to tone down the dispute and defuse a potential institutional crisis.

Asked what she thought of this threat, Aguilar said it would not be the first time that the EU executive proposes to revoke its own proposal during negotiations between the Parliament, Commission, and Council representing EU countries, as it is often used as a negotiating strategy.

“I do not take seriously the threats from Timmermans, but I must admit I am very concerned about the prominent role he is taking in the negotiations over a file for which his knowledge and responsibility is very limited,” the MEP added.

For Aguilar, Timmermans is overreacting since, apart from a few issues in the green architecture, she does not see big differences between the positions of the Parliament and the Council.

Asked if she had expected such strong reactions from environmental organisations on the current negotiations, Aguilar said it seems to be “never enough to meet the green expectations”.

“I have experienced myself in some internal negotiations that if green and far-left groups do not get 100% of what they want, the final outcome will be useless despite the integration of many of their concerns and expectations,” she said.

Nutritional labelling

Earlier in December, EU agricultural ministers shelved plans for food labelling in terms of nutrition and origin, a thorny issue which has long been a bone of contention among governments.

One of the major obstacles is the trade-off between nutritional labelling and protection of regional products.

Commenting on member states being stuck on nutritional labelling, Aguilar said consumers simply need the best available information on the nutritional value of the products they buy.

“Unfortunately, the Nutriscore has shown that is not the best tool to help consumers to make the right choice as these sort of labelling schemes can be very harmful in the medium run as they will create the wrong perceptions in consumers about the food they eat,” the MEP said.

Nutriscore is a food-labelling system developed in France, and also used in Spain and Belgium. It is, however, opposed by Italy, which is trying to promote its own scheme called NutrInform.

“What we urgently need is more education and communication campaigns about what a healthy diet means, mandatory origin labelling and a better monitoring on labelling of imported products,” Aguilar added.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

Ethylene Market Share, Size from 2021 to 2026: Analysis By Product Types & Applications; Industry Top Players, Regions & Market Overview

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

   Dec 22, 2020 (AmericaNewsHour) --

Global Ethylene Market is estimated to reach USD 136.67 Billion by 2026 according to a new report published by Polaris Market Research. Ethylene is an organic hydrocarbon and is a basic and most significant raw material for manufacturing large number of polymeric end-use products such as plastics, fibers, and organic chemicals. It is a petrochemical derivative and includes ethane and naphtha as its major feedstocks. Ethylene is among the major building blocks for petrochemical industry.Ethylene as a raw material is applied to a broad range of applications.

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Austrians press EU to talk turkey, raise farm standards

WEIBERN, Austria: As Katharina and Reinhard Bauer show off cosseted turkey chicks they highlight standards that they – and the Austrian government – would like the rest of the EU to adopt as well.

“On our farm the birds have lots of space,” Katharina explains on the organic farm the pair run together in Weibern, northern Austria.

They stress how delicate the business of raising turkey chicks is given their fragile state immediately after hatching.

According to Reinhard they’re “very sensitive, curious and affectionate”.

The couple says the birds, brought to Europe from the Americas by Spanish colonists in the 16th century, must be raised in an environment as close to nature as possible to be fit for Christmas tables.

It’s a view shared by the Austrian government, which is aiming to get EU partners on board in raising standards for turkey farming across the bloc.

Agriculture Minister Elisabeth Koestinger recently boasted that “the ‘World Animal Protection’ organisation has put Austria in first place in its animal welfare rankings, in comparison with 50 countries worldwide”.

In November Green Austrian MEP Sarah Wiener launched a petition, backed by the government, calling for sector regulations at the European level in line with Austrian practices.

            <p><strong>HUMAN SCALE</strong>
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After chickens and pigs, turkeys are the third most commonly reared animal in the EU, with around 190 million slaughtered annually.

But while the 27-member bloc has set rules and minimum standards for raising chickens and pigs, there is no such set of requirements for turkeys.

Austria’s roughly 120 turkey farms are by and large organised on a more human scale than larger operations found in Germany, Poland or Hungary.

Mostly family-run, Austria’s farms are subject to regular inspections and usually contain no more than 6,000 birds.

With an average of two adult males per square metre, the density they are raised in is the lowest in Europe.

Even on farms with comparatively lower standards, chicks can move freely in daylight and enjoy beds of straw or wood shavings.

Those on farms on the next higher rung have winter gardens, and on organic farms they are raised in the open air.

Better conditions come at a price, however.

An average package of Austrian turkey costs €14 (US$17), as opposed to €8 for imported equivalents.

As a result, domestic turkey only represents 40 per cent of total sales in Austria.

“I would be in favour of all of Europe seeing to it that animals have good conditions,” Katharina says as she gazes at her chirruping chicks.

And the push for higher standards has been taken on by some distributors too.

A few months ago, a major supermarket chain said it would only sell meat raised and slaughtered within Austria.

It set a flat price of €10 per turkey breast, without cutting what it paid farmers.

            <p><strong>A FAIR PRICE</strong>

Whether or not the petition pushing for stricter EU regulations succeeds, the conservative-green Austrian coalition government has plans to increase the number of organic turkey producers by subsidising up to 35 per cent of the required investments.

Increasing standards “is the absolute priority for our farmers,” says Georg Strasser from Austria’s Chamber of Agriculture, stressing that animal welfare is a public health concern.

The use of antibiotics on Austrian turkey farms has fallen by 55 per cent between 2011 and 2017, and animal welfare association Vier Pfoten is encouraged by the efforts being made.

“Guaranteeing a fair price for farmers who respect the animals is the key to achieving change,” director Eva Rosenberg says.

The Bauers would not doubt heartily agree – having just upgraded their facilities to provide their flock with supplemental creature comforts.

Alumnotes: Fall 2020

    <div class="entry-content entry clearfix" readability="40.957608133724">

1970s

CHRISTOPHER CARLSON ’73, ’75 M.S., former roommate DALE PIERCE ’76  and scion PATRICK CARLSON ’08  indulged in all things snowy and black diamond the last two weeks of February at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. They said thanks to the Alumni House for providing stick- ers to show that Panthers can make it into the snow.

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

This piece was featured in the fall 2020 edition of Florida Tech Magazine. Read the full issue here.

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In Search of 100-Mile Beer (in Culture)

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A Sustainable Christmas

Fruit Pomace Market Outlook 2020 Sales Revenue, Strategy to 2027

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

   Dec 17, 2020 (MARKITWIRED via COMTEX) --

FMI has compiled a study on fruit pomace, which offers an analysis and forecast of the fruit pomace market, in its publication titled, ‘Fruit Pomace Market: Global Industry Analysis 2013-2017 and Opportunity Assessment 2018-2027. This report on the fruit pomace market covers some of the vital facets that are key influencing factors on the demand and supply of fruit pomace over the next several years. An in-depth review of the growth drivers, potential challenges, unique trends, and opportunities for market participants equips readers to fully comprehend the overall landscape of the fruit pomace market. The report on the fruit pomace market also covers the analysis of key regions and countries of particular interest that are anticipated to become frontrunners or remain laggards in the fruit pomace market over the forecast period. The report covers a historical analysis of the fruit pomace market from 2013 to 2017, and provides forecasts from 2018 to 2027 in terms of volume in metric tons and revenue in US$.

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Bank backs eco-friendly farming

Ibis Rice Conservation Co Ltd (IBIS Rice) has signed a financing agreement with South Korean-owned Phnom Penh Commercial Bank Plc (PPCBank) to support 1,500 smallholder farmers to grow organic wildlife-friendly jasmine rice, which will help protect endangered species while also earning a premium price for the farmers.

IBIS Rice CEO Nick Spencer said on December 16 that his firm currently works with the 1,500 farmers and pays them a premium of 50 per cent above market price for organic jasmine rice to encourage their use of wildlife-friendly practices. He did not specify how much of that money would go to support the 1,500 smallholder famers living in seven wildlife conservation areas of Stung Treng and Mondulkiri provinces.

In order to participate in the project, farmers have to commit to not allowing any logging or hunting on their land and to prohibit the use of chemicals, thereby protecting the environment and wildlife.

IBIS Rice was founded by the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and is named after the Giant Ibis, Cambodia’s national bird.

“We have recruited and trained more farmers, so we need additional capital financing to buy more rice from those farmers. We make very strong commitments to our farmers by buying all of the [rice] they can produce that meets our compliance standards,” Spencer said.

According to Spencer, the rice is certified wildlife-friendly and organic, meeting the standards set by the EU and US Department of Agriculture (USDA). This allows it to be sold globally in high-end markets, including Europe and Canada. The project has significantly improved the farmer’s livelihoods while reducing deforestation by 75 per cent in the areas where these farmers live and cultivate rice.

In a joint press release on December 16, PPCBank senior vice-president Nhak Kimsroy said the bank appreciated the benefits that the IBIS Rice project provided to both smallholder farmers and wildlife conservation efforts in Cambodia in addition to it being worthy of financing as a sound business opportunity.

“We could see from the certifications that IBIS Rice holds, and the strong commitments its international buyers make, that this was a strong proposal. This agreement marks the beginning of long partnership, and we look forward to the company’s growth,” he said.

Robb Menzi, chief operating officer of WCS Cambodia and chairman of IBIS Rice, said in the joint press release that WCS Cambodia originally developed the IBIS Rice project as a conservation tool with the support of Cambodian government in 2009.

The objective was to incentivise local communities to engage in conservation through the purchase of organic jasmine rice at a premium from farmers who commit to protect the forest and stop hunting.

The project has improved local livelihoods while addressing the threat to some of Cambodia’s critically endangered species, including Giant Ibis.

“WCS has supported IBIS Rice through its development and start-up phase – it is a shining example of how an enterprise model can create great products for consumers and deliver real conservation and human wellbeing outcomes,” he said.

In a press release, Christy Owen, head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Green Invest Asia, said the IBIS Rice partnership with PPCBank was a great example of the work that USAID Green Invest Asia accomplished, linking up commercial financing with projects that produce proven carbon savings and positive social impact.

“We congratulate the two sides for this meaningful partnership that will benefit an entire supply chain while helping to preserve the habitat of some of the rarest species in Cambodia,” she said.

Quality and Sustainability: Why Colombia could become the next exporting giant

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Colombia is set to become one of the world’s largest food exporters. If it succeeds, Europe will be seeing more Colombian produce on its supermarket shelves than ever before.

Colombia, with its Caribbean coastline, soaring Andean peaks and lush Amazonian jungle, is best known around the world for its specialty coffee. The sweet and floral Arabica bean, which has been cultivated in Colombia’s mist-shrouded Zona Cafetera since the 16th century, is today the country’s largest export. Arabica coffee is Colombia’s most decorated product, too, boasting several international certifications such as UTZ, organic, RainForest, 4C, and FairTrade.

But a great cup of joe isn’t the only thing South America’s fourth-largest country has to offer. Located close to the equatorial border, Colombia is home to some of the world’s most diverse ecosystems, including rainforest, moorland, dessert, and savannah. From the tropical grasslands to the east of the Andes to the high-altitude plains and glaciers near Bogota, Colombia’s varied landscape, as well as its non-seasonal climate and ample water resources, make it an agricultural paradise. Experts from the FAO say that, with further funding and the right measures in place, Colombia has the potential to produce a variety of high-quality products year-round, and in large quantities.

But for a country that for so long has focused largely on coffee exports, there are challenges ahead. The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, a non-profit organization at the forefront of promoting sustainable agricultural practices in Colombia, has been a key player in diversifying Colombia’s export offering. In recent years, the Federation has launched a programme to encourage Colombian coffee growers to cultivate alternative food products, such as avocados, sugar cane, and passionfruit, alongside the Arabica coffee bean. This will not only help Colombia grow as a mass exporter of organic foods, but could also give thousands of coffee-growing families, who are often at the mercy of fluctuating coffee prices, additional sources of income.

While coffee remains Colombia’s most in-demand product, the country is experiencing a boom in fresh fruit exports. In 2019, 2.1 million tonnes of fresh fruit was sold internationally, with bananas, avocado and plantain being the most popular, particularly in Europe. According to the European Commission report EU Imports of Organic Agri-Food Products, Colombia’s organic product exports to the EU rose from 63,114 tons in 2018 to 87,341 tons in 2019. After coffee and fresh flowers, bananas, which generated 862.1 million in revenue for the country in 2019, are now Colombia’s largest export. Avocados, too, are Colombia’s fastest-growing product, their value now 42% higher than it was in 2018.

According to ProColombia, a government agency in charge of the development of Colombia’s non-traditional exports, part of Colombia’s success in exporting fresh fruit is due to two things: quality and commitment to sustainability. As of 2019, 700 avocado farms had been certified by GlobalG.A.P, a figure that ProColombia said is only set to grow. “International markets are increasingly interested in sustainable fruit practices, so more farms will continue to work towards these social and environmental certifications,” says ProColombia. For the banana industry, on the other hand, ProColombia says there is a strong commitment to workers’ rights. “Unions in the sector, especially in Urubá, ensure that working conditions are good and that workers have access to healthcare and education,” says ProColombia. “Pay is also 45% higher than the minimum wage.”

While bananas and avocados are Colombia’s star sellers, the country hopes to export a larger variety of fruits to Europe in the coming years. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, ProColombia reported that more people in Europe were buying vitamin C-rich fruits, such as oranges and lemons, to strengthen their immune system. This, ProColombia says, could open doors for Colombia’s lesser-known products, such as pitaya, tamarillo, and soursop. “This is a very good opportunity for exotic Colombian fruits to increase their presence in the European market,” said ProColombia.

Whether Colombia’s more exotic fruits like the pink pitaya and orange tamarillo are a hit with European consumers remains to be seen. But one thing’s for sure: products of Colombian origin could soon become staples of Europe’s fresh fruit pantry.

It is also worth mentioning that Colombia is one of the most important suppliers of palm oil in America, and the fourth largest producer worldwide. In this context, the country is making steady progress in its intention to consolidate itself as an international leader in sustainable production. It aims to reach zero deforestation in the coming years and to be a world leader in the best production practices to take advantage of the more than 5.2 million hectares that it has with high potential for planting and exporting.

DHS & Its Private Equity Arm Acquires Biscuit & Carso Construction: Fernando Aguirre, Vice Chairman, Announced $125M

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Africa needs a Farm to Fork vision too, IFAD official says

Africa needs a ‘Farm to Fork’ vision to change its food systems in a more sustainable way and the EU can be at the centre of this transformation, according to a senior official of the United Nations fund for rural agriculture.

Dr Donal Brown is associate vice-president of the Programme Management department at the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). He spoke to EURACTIV’s journalist Gerardo Fortuna.

With its Farm to Fork strategy (F2F), the Commission aims to make the European food system a global standard for sustainability. Could this F2F model be exported in Africa too?

In Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown just how dependent the world is on small-scale farmers, while also highlighting the vulnerability of the food systems and of the lives and livelihoods of small-scale producers. A majority of them live in poverty and do not have food to put on the table.

Clearly, we need food systems in Africa that follow the Farm to Fork vision, that are sustainable, climate-adapted, that provide sufficient nutritious food for all, including those who produce it, and food systems that are efficient and resilient. Achieving this requires political will, knowledge and financial resources.

The Commission and the EU member states can be at the centre of the transformation of food systems in Africa providing leadership, transferring knowledge and nurturing local solutions, and providing ample financial resources to agricultural development, which would also contribute to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

What challenges for African rural people come from the pandemic?

While the health impact of the pandemic has been limited in African rural areas to date, the economic impacts have unquestionably led to an increase in poverty and hunger.

Rural communities in Africa are particularly vulnerable, as people live hand-to-mouth without economic safety nets. Restrictions in movement and other measures to contain the pandemic meant that many small-scale farmers couldn’t sell their crops and had no income, while many day labourers and other informal workers lost their jobs. Women and young people were typically worst affected, as they are most often employed informally.

In this regard, what needs to be done to ‘target’ aid for the recovery?

While emergency relief agencies provide assistance so that hungry people can access food now, it is equally important to ensure that there are no more hungry people tomorrow. To respond to the challenge, IFAD provided assistance to small-scale farmers in Africa to access the inputs, markets, information and finances they need to keep growing and selling food.

But more needs to be done. It is essential to invest in building the resilience to shocks of rural people in the poorest countries in Africa so that they can get through this crisis, rebuild their lives quickly when it is over and weather future shocks. Without assistance, African countries risk a lost decade, hunger and poverty could trigger further conflict and instability and push millions of young people to migrate.

What are the main difficulties for financial institutions like yours in coordinating the international response for the COVID recovery?

There have been perhaps two particular challenges. The first has been to react fast, flexibly and effectively. To do so, we’ve simplified many of our internal procedures to rapidly repurpose our existing investment projects.  And we have also mobilised additional funding under a Rural Poor Stimulus Facility – €74 million thanks to the support of Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland – to finance activities that enable small-scale producers to maintain their capacity to produce and market their produce.

A second challenge has been to understand precisely what the conditions are in remote rural areas and ensure that our efforts respond to the real problems faced by poor small-scale producers. Here, we’ve drawn less on data – because that simply hasn’t existed – and more on the local knowledge of our in-country staff and the managers of IFAD-supported projects.

What has been your experience of cooperating with the EU in Africa?

Over the last seven years, IFAD and the EU have joined forces in emerging areas of mutual and strategic interest, such as pro-poor agricultural research, remittances for development, support to farmer organization networks, public-private sector partnerships and agricultural risk management. As a result of the joint cooperation, there are 17 ongoing agreements for a value of €246 million.

Working together, the EU and IFAD are driving innovation in these areas, and have developed new approaches, particularly in Africa but also beyond. which are now recognised as critical to achieving the SDGs.

Can you mention one initiative of this kind?

One of the initiatives is the Yield Uganda Investment Fund, a partnership between public and private investors set up with EU funds through IFAD.  It offers innovative and tailored financial solutions, using equity, semi-equity and debt, to small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises and farmer cooperatives, which are generating impact by facilitating the establishment of new companies or product lines in Uganda, creating markets and providing services to small-scale producers, while also generating employment for women and youth.

The EU and IFAD also cooperate in the Agri-Business Capital (ABC) fund in Africa. How is it going?

The ABC Fund is an independent impact fund investing in smallholder farmers and rural small and medium-sized enterprises which consistently encounter difficulties to access funding to develop their operations.

Since it started investing in late 2019, it has provided funding to three farmers cooperatives in Ivory Coast, three small-and-medium agribusinesses in Burkina Faso and Ghana and two financial institutions operating in Ecuador, Kenya and Uganda which on-lend to smallholders, for a total value of around €10 million across the various investments.

In Burkina Faso, for instance, the loan to a cashew nuts processor exporting to Europe and the US has ensured market access and premium prices due to organic and fair-trade certifications to over 1,200 producers, most of them women.

Which kind of agri-innovation African rural people require?

Small-scale producers need a whole range of innovations – from on-farm agricultural technologies to finance to market organization – to become viable market-oriented producers and rural entrepreneurs. They also need to be able to access information about these and develop the knowledge and skills to use the opportunities these provide. ICTs can play a critical role in providing this bridge.

Mobile phones – even those without access to the Internet – can enable farmers to access advisory services that offer tips on increasing productivity, keeping livestock healthy, and up-to-date weather information. Mobile money has opened up new ways for rural people to access financial services. The M-Pesa initiative has nearly 146 million active users in sub-Saharan Africa and accounts for a full 10 per cent of the region’s GDP flows.

Tea Industry Overview | Size, COVID-19 Pandemic Impact, Value Share, Key Players Strategy, Product Category, Sales and Production by Forecast to 2025

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

   Dec 15, 2020 (AB Digital via COMTEX) --

Market Overview

The popularity of green tea is estimated to ramp up Tea Industry development in the upcoming period. The food, beverages & nutrition industry reports are designed by Market Research Future, focusing on market prospects for evolution. A 4.47% CAGR is estimated to direct revenues to reach USD 22,669.8 Million by 2025.

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The need to dissipate cell damage caused due to environmental pollution and stress is projected to augment the tea market in the course of the forecast period. The surging obesity levels are likely to encourage the use of green tea to induce healthy weight loss, thus bolstering the global tea market in the upcoming period.

Get Free Sample Copy of “Tea Industry” @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2155

Competitive Analysis

The players operating in Tea Industry are likely to seek revision of supply chains to promote further the development of the market in new segments and demographics. The digital elements of business functioning are estimated to emerge more prominently in the period ahead. The global market’s response to new efficiency levels in the forthcoming period is expected to unleash new and transformative changes. The augmentation of commercial interests in the upcoming period is estimated to create a more advantageous position for the market contenders in the forecast period. In the forecast period, the market is appraised to derive a great deal from the market signals while scrutinizing their consumer base to meet their needs better. The diverse regional markets will see steadfast development due to government backup’s influence in re-energizing the global market. The new growth ventures are foreseen to improve the company’s future goal achievement trajectory and are thus estimated to be essential to growth. The inclusion of social impact goals by the companies in the market is estimated to usher in a new development phase in the market in the upcoming period.

The renowned companies functioning in the Tea Industry are Unilever PLC (UK), McLeod Russel India Ltd. (India), DAVIDS Tea Inc. (Canada), Associated British Foods PLC (UK), Barry’s Tea (Ireland), Tata Global Beverages Limited (India), APEEJAY SURRENDRA Group (India), Bettys & Taylors Group Ltd. (UK), Ito En, Ltd. (Japan), and Tea FORTÉ Inc. (US).

Segment Analysis

The segments created in the Tea Industry to enable better scrutiny are formed on the basis of type, form, category, distribution channel, and region. The distribution channel segment of the tea market consists of store-based, which is subdivided into convenience stores, supermarkets & hypermarkets, and non-store-based. The type segment of the tea market consists of oolong tea, herbal tea, green tea, black tea, and others. The form segment of Tea Industry consists of tea bags, loose leaf, and others. The region segment of the tea market consists of Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and other notable regional markets. The category segment of the tea market consists of conventional and organic.

Detailed Regional Analysis

The tea market’s regional review includes regions such as Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and other notable regional markets. The Asia Pacific region’s tea market is anticipated to report the global market’s principal portion throughout the forecast period. The region reported a 39.28% stake of the global market in the year 2020. China is a key supplier to the evolution of the Asia Pacific tea market, being the principal maker and user of tea. The nations such as Vietnam, India, Japan, and Indonesia also support the tea market’s growth substantially in Asia Pacific regional market. The European regional conveyed a substantial segment of the tea market in 2020 with the UK being a chief buyer of tea. Though, the North American region is anticipated to be the speediest mounting regional market for the period of the forecast. The elevated commonness of obesity in the region is likely to fuel green and herbal requirements as they support weight loss.

Get More Professional and Technical Industry Insights @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/tea-market-2155

NOTE: Our Team of Researchers are Studying Covid19 and its Impact on Various Industry Verticals and wherever required we will be considering Covid19 Footprints for Better Analysis of Market and Industries. Cordially get in Touch for More Details.

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OUR BURNING PLANET INVESTIGATION: Pyrocene Cape: Inside the furnace of Table Mountain’s fire starters

Ill-timed blazes may be damaging the Mother City’s most famous natural landmark. And they have a lot to do with homeless campers, the roaming people who seek refuge on the mountain while the city sleeps below.

Covered in sandy, nutrient-starved soils, scorched by fire, and pummelled by the prevailing gale-force southeaster in summer, the Cape Floral Kingdom has persisted as a land of extreme paradoxes for millenniums.

Given the harsh conditions that assail life here, this world seems to have every reason not to be a botanical number cruncher’s wet dream: the untrained eye may hardly conceive that it gives refuge to nearly 20% of Africa’s flora on less than 0.5% of the continent’s surface. It seems implausible that some 9 000 plant species should thrive in these coastal extremities, 70% of which live nowhere else on Earth. 

Yet, forged through the ages by a natural baptism of fire — as well as by mountains, soils, a Mediterranean climate and a somewhat stable geological history — the Cape Floral Kingdom is all these things. Its fine-leaved shrublands, or “fynbos” as the locals call it, represent the smallest but most diverse of the planet’s six recognised floral kingdoms. The 500-million-year-old Table Mountain chain and its newer national park, today surrounded by the metropolis of Cape Town, are the crowning glory of this floral cornucopia. 

There are indeed pockets of renosterveld and fire-sensitive Afromontane forests in the 265km2 park, but, for the large part, it is flame-loving fynbos that bursts into a preposterously pretty palette after the annual winter rains. 

Nearly 60% of fires are started by ‘vagrants’

Blazes of an entirely different nature, however, have dominated the local fire regime in recent years, park fire manager Philip Prins told Daily Maverick’s Our Burning Planet. 

Starting campfires, except in a minimal number of designated picnic spots, is illegal. Visitors may only stay overnight in recognised facilities. Yet Prins says that, in past weeks alone, crews have responded to and extinguished illegal “vagrant-caused” fires in various parts of the park, including Tokai and Red Hill towards the centre and south; and Oudekraal and Deer Park in the park’s northern sections.  

High numbers of park visitors, and potentially illegal fires, may yet prove particularly true of the 2020/21 summer period. 

“It’s just unbelievable,” says Prins. Head of the park’s fire operations since the reserve was proclaimed 23 years ago, he offers institutional knowledge spanning nearly 40 years of conservation service to the Cape Peninsula. Despite the hard lockdown this year, he says he has seen “a massive increase in visitor numbers”.  

Fanned by a raging southeaster, Deer Park’s “Halloween fire” on 31 October has so far proven the largest of the spring/summer blazes to be traced to illegal campfires. To contain the inferno, which singed 50 hectares 0n the mountain’s frontal slopes, it would take 16 fire trucks heaving with up to 6 000 litres of water per tank, plus crews from across the firefighting spectrum: city, park and volunteer corps.  

As for the previous summer season over 2019/20, there were 108 fires in the park, according to official fire-investigation data seen by Our Burning Planet. The majority of these blazes — 58% — were associated with fires kindled for cooking, heating and socialising. In a few cases, arson looked to be the cause. Additionally, the red wedge of the pie chart attributes 32% to “malicious” origins; while 9% were sparked by “negligence”. Much of it starting over summer weekends on the front of Table Mountain as well as adjacent Lion’s Head and Signal Hill, crews contained close on 90% of fires within 90 minutes. 

“A lot of vagrants come in during the night, or late in the afternoon,” explains Prins. “They move from the city into the park and, early the following morning, they move from the park back towards the city, and so it continues.” 

Thick bushes, watercourses and public drinking points on the mountain’s lower slopes tend to be a haven for illegal campers, driven into such spaces by poverty, homelessness and hunger. Shallow, overhanging caves, set a considerable distance from the urban edge, tend to attract church groups practising fire ceremonies. (Recently, the Noordhoek Ratepayers’ Association also reported that subsistence/muti poachers around the nearby wetlands use fire to flush out wildlife.)

Prins adds that “we now sit with a serious issue, not only with vagrants, but church groups, who tend to arrive on Friday or Saturday nights. One evening we put out a group of 50. Newlands Forest is especially popular. And, they divide into smaller groups, each of which has to make its own fire.”

To tease conspiracy theory from fact, and stitch together a bird’s-eye view of ignition trends, each incident is scrutinised by Enviro Wildfire Services’ Rob Erasmus, the park’s independent fire investigator. 

In 2018/19, “vagrant activities” caused 32% of fires, marginally down from 2017/18’s 36%.

“We accept that the time period of three fire seasons is too short to suggest any significant trends,” Erasmus cautions. However, “to start determining patterns and trends, from 2017 we started tracking and keeping a record of all fires that we investigated within the park.”

“I think it does require looking at the data,” says Nicky Schmidt of the non-profit organisation Parkscape, which campaigns for user safety within the buffer zones that abut the urban interface. “You could have few people doing this, but repeatedly. For example, in 2018 in Tokai, we had something like 27 starts over a two or three-month period. We soon realised the starts were on weekends, in the early hours of the morning. The pattern, and evidence found, tells you what you’re dealing with.”

Dr Jasper Slingsby is not as much concerned about “vagrants” as he is about people at large: “About 99% of the fires are started by people — vagrants or not. To my memory, the 2015 Cape Point fire, ignited by lightning, was the only natural fire to have taken place in the park for some time.”

Of course, Slingsby, a fynbos/biodiversity scientist with the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), is not referring to the great fire of March 2015. Igniting above Boyes Drive in Muizenberg and sweeping across the peninsula to Chapman’s Peak, it left a swath of significant damage, including destroying several properties. Here, again, the evidence tracks to an illegal campfire.

“A small fire was made to keep warm once entering into the low, thick cloud on the mountain that night,” Erasmus told Our Burning Planet. The accidental fire starter had “walked over the mountain from Muizenberg to Sun Valley … the fire either got too big or was left unattended once the person proceeded on their way.”

Home is where the hearth is

The human element aside, natural fynbos blazes should ideally ignite, on average, every 12 to 15 years as a result of dry, hot, windy conditions interacting with mature, indigenous vegetation. As Dr Alanna Rebelo of Stellenbosch University’s Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology explains, well-timed flames are to fynbos what raindrops are to desert. “Most fynbos needs fire not only to flourish but to survive. This is because many fynbos guilds [types of plants] are dependent on fire to complete their life cycles.”  

Enter the private lives of protea “babies”, stockpiled as seeds in closed cones, lying in wait for the rousing kiss of veldfire. 

The fire, says Rebelo, “stimulates the cones. After the fire, the cones spring open, popping the protea seeds into the air and all over the ground. These seeds germinate, and more protea babies survive to the next generation, ready to make babies in time for the next fire.”

Some fynbos species have evolved ways to stuff their seeds in the ground, rather than in cones. “If they want to get babies from seed to adult plant, these seeds under the ground need to germinate. What germinates these seeds?” she asks. “The heat and smoke from fires.”

It is likely no one knew fire better than the Cape’s first people themselves. 

Over time, these early agriculturalists had ample opportunity to gather mental data of the land’s bursting into abundance after good fire had rippled through it. They may have had such an implicit understanding of fire and its uses, the original theory suggests, that they would have used the practice of “fire-stick farming” to broker access to pantries of underground bulbs. This year, a South African/US study claimed to have unearthed vital clues supporting that hypothesis — the first quantified evidence of significantly amplified returns in post-fire fynbos. 

Given this deep human-fire-fynbos symbiosis, it is tempting to dismiss contemporary human-caused fires from the park’s laundry list of conservation challenges — critical resources may arguably be better directed at tackling the cascading effects of climate change, poaching, litter and violent crime in a park that generated a pivotal R300-million for tourism coffers in 2018/19. 

The area affected by the Halloween fire, for instance, had not received a proper burn in some 15 years, so this was one piece of land crying out for fire, Prins stresses. 

Still, the science of fire ecology tells us that a “Goldilocks” confluence of conditions is necessary to maintain these natural cycles, which are delicate and may be easy to disrupt.  

“It takes proteas a few years to make their cones. Fires that ignite too soon could end up killing the proteas before they have had time to set seed, leading to local extinctions,” Rebelo warns. “A fire that is too hot, due to invasive alien plants, could scorch underground seeds and kill them, as well as the organic matter in the soil, making soils hydrophobic. A fire that is too cool — in the wrong season — may not stimulate seeds at all, and only weeds may grow.” 

Similarly, unseasonal fire “could also kill babies of animals that have timed their own life cycles with periods when there would be very low risk of fire”. 

Slingsby, the SAEON biodiversity scientist, also notes that “increased fire frequency is the common story across fynbos because of added human ignitions. Parts of the mountain, such as the Cape Town City Bowl section, have burnt too frequently … if you consistently have hotter or more frequent fires, you’re going to see changes in the ecosystem.”

Although “very few fires are started by vagrants with malicious intent”, park fire investigator Erasmus adds that “any fire started by vagrants in young veld — five years or younger — is detrimental to the environment … In many cases this young veld consists of fine fuels — shrubs and young woody plants — that ignite and spread fire quickly.”

Last year, “a number of fires occurred in youngish veld”.

Thus, layer the ill-timed effects of bad fire on top of the rejuvenating effects of good fire and you feed too much fire into the system. And the Halloween fire’s timing, experts interviewed for this article agreed, was … well … somewhat off. 

It was “very early for such a big fire” — the “official start of the Western Cape fire season is only 1 December”, says Prins.

Slingsby agrees the fire was “certainly early. Almost all fires happen in December and January. October/November fires are rare on the peninsula.”

Malicious or accidental fires, especially those that ignite out of season, may also conflict with issues such as firefighting readiness and fire management.   

Cutting firebreaks, wide strips of land designed to stop fire from spreading, is an expensive, big operation: in the region of R2-million annually. This takes place once a year, and then largely within a certain time frame in November and December to avoid vegetation regrowth. 

There is also the cost of the firefighter’s arsenal: the park helicopter is only on standby from 10 November each year; City helicopters are on standby from 1 December. Keeping a helicopter in the air now costs R36,000 an hour. 

“We can spend up to R12-million on integrated fire management, depending on the season,” says Prins. “During a busy season, we spend more than that.”

Grace under fire: Job on the job

During Our Burning Planet’s conversation with Prins in his office at the Newlands Forest firebase, the white-haired, bearded fire veteran wields an unwavering gaze as he sets out the occupational hazards of running a portfolio that unsurprisingly generates a lot of public emotion. His daily to-do list ranges from pacifying the fire Karens on the park’s fabulously wealthy urban edge to juggling the politics of prescribed burns.  

“If we do a prescribed burn, the people complain,” he says. “They complain about the smoke. They complain about the ash. After the fire, they complain about the wind blowing ash into their houses and they complain about the wind blowing ash into their swimming pools.” 

The point behind these burns is to reduce fire hazards, such as alien vegetation.

“And it’s a process we have to go through in terms of applying for permits, especially on the wildland-urban interface,” he says. “I think people definitely need some more education when it comes to that. And they also must take some responsibility — they can’t expect the park and the City to do everything.”

For her part, Rebelo suggests the debate on fire ought to direct its attention at what she considers to be the “root issue” — vegetation fuel loads, rather than only the ignition source and its associated “conspiracy theories”, whether the latter may involve supposed natural causes such as lightning; or human causes such as cigarette “stompie” offenders. 

“Everyone makes a huge fuss about arson, and there are all kinds of conspiracy theories every time there is a fire,” she says, referring to the 2017 Knysna megawildfires as an example. “And while that is understandable, what about the officials/landowners responsible for the vegetation itself? It’s not only about ignition, but about fuel management. This always seems to be ignored. It is so much less exciting for people.”

She recommends allowing naturally ignited fires to “burn out” at regular intervals in keeping with the natural fire regime, “or you need to actively manage vegetation using ecological burns to make sure the fuel loads don’t increase too much”. 

However, “authorities often do neither”, she argues. For this, she fingers an “unfavourable policy environment” as a “dangerous, counterproductive and passive approach to fire management”. In terms of prescribed burns, “if they start a fire, they are liable. In terms of non-prescribed burns, if adequate attempts are not made to stop a fire, the landowner on whose land the fire crossed is liable.”

She says putting out every fire and doing no ecological burns “results in ageing vegetation. When it does burn, it burns very hot, and can result in megawildfires.”

“There are some 50,000 or so landowners bordering the park, and everyone has their own opinion on fire management, but not everyone is well-versed in fire ecology and fire safety. Managing fire is really more of a people problem than an ecological problem,” says Slingsby. 

Given what he calls “the practical and financial constraints”, he says the park’s fire department is “doing a world-class job, for the most part. We also need to consider that the human factor has distorted fire on the peninsula to such a degree that mimicking the natural regime through fire management is a huge undertaking and can be at odds with managing fire risk. For an ecological burn, you need the hottest, driest conditions.” 

But that is not what you want for fire risk, he says, because it is hot, dry conditions that set off wildfires in summer.

He acknowledges alien vegetation as both a fire and an ecological risk but deems the issue “reasonably well managed — just look at the Cape Point section as an example … bearing in mind that alien vegetation is always going to be a problem. People forget that Table Mountain was once under the cover of 75% pine trees. The problem is budgetary constraints and, when funds do become available, there are other priorities to compete with, like security.”

‘More eyes and ears’

More lateral interventions may have to address a problem that Prins, due to retire next year, says has existed in the park for decades: “We manage a park in a city. We had a problem with vagrants in 1983 and we still have a problem with vagrants.”

In interviews with park staff, City officials and non-profit campaigners, two conflicting themes dominated: the obvious, staggering complexity of the deeply systemic social dilemma driving the phenomenon of illegal campfires in particular. And the need to police hotspots with increased patrols. 

Parkscape’s Schmidt stresses that resolving issues “like this” is, well, Sisyphean in scale. The cycle of visitors ebbing and flowing through the park’s porous, flammable borders from a city of about 4.6 million people, and thus policing potential fire starters, may be akin to plugging the Atlantic with a sieve. 

She observes that “indigent people have lived on the mountain for many years and continue to do so. It’s a difficult and sensitive issue, as is any issue of homelessness across the city, and reflects any number of unresolved social issues and failures.” 

Within the park itself, the issue “begs questions of human rights versus environmental legislation”. 

The park is home to sacred sites for church groups, she argues, so there ought to be ways of accommodating such practices, such as building firebreaks around designated zones that meet ceremonial needs. 

“Flora and fauna may take priority in a rural park, but it doesn’t work like that in an urban national park with a diverse population with multiple needs,” she says. “Our Constitution is anthropocentric. It’s a people-centred democracy. We need protocols for an African country.”

Focusing on hotspots, however, she suggests, “the only way to begin to manage the situation is more eyes and ears, possibly drone usage — currently forbidden, and not without issue, in national park spaces”.

Her concerns speak to the regularity of policing as much as they do to the visibility of it: “Park users regularly complain about the visible lack of rangers, but that is what is needed here to prevent crime and fires, especially in the busier buffer zones, where fires, in particular, risk causing millions of rands in damage to property, and may even take lives.”

Andy Davies of the park-users forum Friends of Table Mountain (FoTM) is keen to point out that the group is “mindful of the housing crisis in Cape Town and South Africa at large. But the bottom line is Table Mountain is a national park. It is illegal to live on the mountain and unfortunately, vagrants are associated with litter, security and fire. This is where law-enforcement is critical.” 

And, yet as both interest groups emphasise, being homeless in Cape Town is hardly a crime. 

Few people understand this better than Hassan Khan, CEO of Haven Night Shelter welfare organisation, established in 1978. Khan is a well-known champion for the city’s homeless and is not convinced these roaming residents need lessons on making fire.

‘It is not illegal to be homeless’

Khan describes himself as a nature lover and passionate hiker who grew up in the suburb of Salt River, and made campfires in the mountain caves of his youth. He even watched homeless people in Van Riebeeck Park on the slopes of upper Oranjezicht stoking their own cooking fires during the winter lockdown period of June, July and August. 

“Those fires were made of twigs between rocks next to a river. Three or four cooking groups used small pots — five litres max per pot. It’s totally impractical to have a big fire while you’re sitting with a small pot. You’re going to burn your hands and your eyebrows, nè?” he laughs. 

“It’s just plain common sense, man,” says Khan, whose organisation runs 15 shelters in the Western Cape, nine of which are in Cape Town. It is the province’s largest shelter organisation. “Stack a pot like that onto some rocks, and you’ll quickly see it burns very efficiently and it burns out completely.” 

Most veldfires ignite “as campfires left to smoulder when people go into their tents, and then the wind whips it up, but the cooking I saw didn’t cause fires and it was extremely unlikely to cause fires”. 

Everyone wants pristine parks but few seem willing to support the most vulnerable people who have little choice but to survive on, or beyond, those park borders, he suggests. “Environmental fundamentalism”, as he calls it, is yet to integrate into South Africa’s democratic era. 

“People love the park more than they love people, and much of that comes from an apartheid idea of South African society,” he says. “Environmentalists and academics always know where you can’t build houses for black people, but they’ve never been able to identify which areas are suitable for that purpose. 

“The idea that poor people by their nature will go in and destroy the park is a fallacy. We don’t support them materially. We just make political statements from time to time. But if people were to find utility in the natural environment, they would protect it. We need to create good spaces for everyone instead of building fences, and just hoping for the best that future generations will still be able to enjoy these parks.”

Khan is also not convinced that the Covid-19 pandemic has created “an absolute increase” in the city’s homeless population: “It’s the movement of the same people” who have been displaced from their normal routines, and “they’ve certainly become more visible”. 

When approached for comment on how the City of Cape Town may support park patrols, City officials suggested that they were doing enough; and that, short of reintegration, there was not much more they could do.  

“The only solution to the challenges presented by street people … is through reintegration of people living on the streets, and mitigating the risk factors that result in them ending up on the streets,” says councillor Zahid Badroodien, mayoral committee member for community services and health. “Despite the best intentions of the City of Cape Town’s Street People Unit, it is a reality that many people simply refuse any form of assistance. They cannot be forced to accept help either, since it is not illegal to be homeless.” 

Wayne Dyason, spokesperson for City law enforcement, insists that the Law Enforcement Tourism Unit “patrols the trails on the front face of the mountain. They have acquired ebikes to assist them with their patrols. The unit has been very active in the area.”

In its emailed response to Our Burning Planet, SANParks’ head office praises the City for being “very cooperative”, while also, somewhat ambiguously, hinting at past tensions: “[We] know how the problem is pushed to-and-fro if we do not act in concert.”

The agency adds that the “clearance of vagrants is complicated and sensitive; our forthcoming interventions will be within the law … We endeavour to roll the problem back, despite serious limitations that cannot be mitigated by SANParks alone … ”

A senior agency source speaking on condition of anonymity says “tens of millions” has been slated to be poured into a new mega security centre, one overseeing a range of issues, from poaching to crime. 

The agency’s response confirms a “command, control and communications centre” has been launched without fanfare. This will cooperate with “TMNP SEAPLESS: Sustainable Environmental Asset Protection, Law Enforcement, Safety and Security”. The idea is to “rapidly grow from immediate intervention demands to a predictive analysis, not a quick fix; a sustainable and reliable partner in Cape Peninsula growth, safety and security”. The new operation is “loaded with the best professionals in our area of responsibility”.

Unlike the park’s current emergency helpline, currently first routed through the City’s “107” emergency-communication centre before finally reaching SANParks officials, the new centre will supposedly handle the helpline directly, hopefully eliminating further stressful delays. 

Such a streamlined service would not be without merit if the experience of the person who reported the Halloween fire tells us anything. That person was Professor Wolfgang Preiser, head of Stellenbosch University’s medical virology division.

“We saw the smoke and thought how irresponsible it is to make fire in a howling wind,” Preiser wrote in a social media post shortly after the inferno. “Fire was quickly getting bigger so we called TMNP [Table Mountain National Park] offices, were cut off about 10 times, and finally told to call Newlands fire station. Then everything was very fast — when back down, fire engines all over.”

Preiser confirmed to Our Burning Planet that he had written the post “following our short hike with family and a friend from Deer Park up to Tafelberg Road and back down”. Noting the smoke in the region of Platteklip Stream flowing down from the gorge, his description echoes the findings of the park’s official investigation, which traced the ignition to Platteklip stream near Deer Park below Tafelberg Road. 

“The Platteklip stream site is a favoured location for vagrants,” says Erasmus. “While it cannot be regarded as an illegal settlement — there are no informal structures and it is not used on a permanent basis — it is, however, frequently used.” 

At the time of writing, the fire starter or starters were still at large, although Erasmus says “it’s not impossible to catch such a person”.

“In cases where accidental or malicious fires are set, considerable effort is required to identify such people as they are both devious and cautious,” he notes. “We have been successful on a number of occasions that have resulted in plea bargains, hence the outcomes not being publicised.”

Once upon a renosterveld

On the hot, blinding morning after Halloween, 16 fire trucks stationed at Deer Park had become one. Like the ghosts of dead plants and animals, smoke columns ascended the charred slopes. The mountain’s sandstone and granite face reared up behind the curtain of twirling wraiths.

An owner of an urban-edge mansion who preferred not to be named was philosophical about life on the fringe of this flammable mountain.

“If you want to live in a spot like this, you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth. You can’t complain because you’ve built a damn great big house where it’s not supposed to be,” he said. A thin shield of firefighters was all that had stood between his home and the fire the night before.

Still dusted with soot, he angled his shoulders to move back inside, but not before gazing out across his seared view. 

“Sure, we’ve had too many fires, too often,” he said, but hesitated. “Look, I hate to blame somebody. When it’s someone throwing out a cigarette butt, that to me is inexcusable… but somebody trying to live? Everybody wants to talk and you can bet your bottom dollar there was someone trying to have a meal.”

The vegetation here would “burst back into life after the next rains”, Volunteer Wildfire Services wrote in a 2 November social media post and, on the other side of Kloof Nek Road separating Lion’s Head from the rest of the mountain, nature was already telling stories of renewal. 

The March 2020 fire, still under investigation, had turned 60 hectares into a wild necropolis, the gargoyles of burnt-out cars presiding over it. But this year’s winter had proven a good, wet one for these inclines: in spring and early summer, Lion’s Head popped out carpets of Watsonias, Chincherinchees, vygies and the rest of the blooming party. 

However, two kilometres down the drag, where the Signal Hill parking area dips towards the Atlantic Seaboard’s wildland-urban interface, the slopes have burnt too often, suggests Prins. The dominant vegetation is fertile renosterveld — grasses, bulbs and daisies on nutrient-infused shale soils, rather than the typical proteas, restios and ericas of fynbos.  

At least, renosterveld is what it is supposed to be. In images he is shown of the veld around the parking area, the University of Cape Town flora expert Tony Verboom also spots “weedy Eurasian annual grasses, such as Avena and Lolium; Paterson’s Curse (Echium), also from southern Europe; and Eurasian Plantago species”.

Verboom, an associate professor, says human-caused fires exaggerate this weedy effect “by upsetting the natural competitive hierarchies and generating gaps that provide invasive weeds with an entry point”.

Impacts such as these that play out over time, Slingsby co-writes in an article on disrupted fire regimes. Initially, those shifts are barely discernible, but they tend to create slow, deep change to the very “structure, composition and function of ecosystems”. 

“Kyk daar in die see — ’n belangrike man met die naam Nelson Mandela het eens op ’n tyd in daai eiland se tronk gebly,” a father pointed out to his young son in Afrikaans while Our Burning Planet was photographing the scene. [Look at the sea — once upon a time an important man by the name of Nelson Mandela lived in that island’s prison.]

Out in the bay below, Robben Island shimmered like an auburn mirage. At the father’s and son’s feet, a changing mosaic of renosterveld rippling in the wind. 

“Bly mense nogsteeds in daai tronk, Pappa?” [Do people still live in that prison, Daddy?]

“Nee my kind, nou’s hy dood.” [No my child, he is dead now.]

And so it is in the 2020s that our ancestors and natural heritage are proxies for each other: without being told either existed, it becomes harder for the youngest among us to know that these people and things were once real, let alone how much they mattered to many.

It is here, across a liminal border of urban creep, that a hotter, drier climate age risks slipping into the smouldering heart of the Pyrocene Cape. DM/OBP

In the event of a veld or wildfire, click here for SANParks’ emergency guidelines. 

9 Wine Shops in the Hudson Valley Highlighting Natural Wine

It’s true: Online alcohol sales skyrocketed during national stay-at-home orders, emphasizing an upward trend we’ve seen over the past few years, with wine capturing almost 70 percent of total online retail sales. And yet, there’s nothing quite like wandering into your local wine shop and talking to a knowledgeable salesperson about your tastes, what you’re cooking or looking for—something the online experience doesn’t come close to offering. And that’s all the more true for the ever-growing natural wine sector, with many customers eager to explore but without a whole lot of knowledge. While you might know what California cabs you like or what regions of French whites you dig, when it comes to orange wines from Croatia or pet nats from Austria, a lot of us are out to sea. Very willing to explore, mind you, but in need of a guiding hand.

We’ve rounded up a list of wine shops in the Hudson Valley and Catskills that are specializing in natural wines, so that you can keep getting that wino one-on-one. Most of these shops offer online or phone ordering and curbside pick-up, so the relationship doesn’t have to end—even if we go back into lockdown.

Kingston Wine Co. | Kingston

65 Broadway, Kingston, NY 12401 | (845) 340-9463

We’ll start with Kingston Wine Co., which at least from a retail perspective, gave natural wine its Hudson Valley foothold. Opened in 2013, the shop in Kingston’s Rondout District focused exclusively on natural, organic, and biodynamic wines from the beginning and catered to a curious local population and a growing pool of urban weekenders and second home owners. About the selection, co-owner Michael Drapkin says, “It is vast and diverse—from Georgia (the country) all the way to the Finger Lakes. We place a heavy emphasis on German, Austrian, and French natural wines. Beyond the range of flavors, which he loves, Drapkin has a soft spot for the makers of natural wine, whom he calls “often contrarian and idiosyncratic,” with an admirable dedication to thoughtful, OG low intervention farming. “Our customers both locally and out of state (we have an online store) are incredibly curious, open, and interested in learning about new wine regions, obscure grape varieties, and all there is to know about natural wine. The landscape compared to when I started in this business 15 years ago is dramatically different and better thanks to everyone’s eagerness to expand outside of the confines of convention.” His current favorite? A 2019 Fongoli Rossofongoli from Umbria, Italy, a blend of Sangiovese and Montepulciano, made with hand-harvested and wild fermented in open vats sans temperature control. He calls it “lo-fi wine,” and says it’s “farmy and spicy—perfect for winter braised dishes.”

Elevated Wine & Spirits | Tannersville

7261 Route 23A, Hunter, NY 12442 | (518) 263-4184

One of the newest wine shops in the region is Elevated Wine & Spirits in Tannersville, opened by Mark Landsman, who runs the cocktail program at Silvia in Woodstock. While he jokes that his selection runs the gamut from Barefoot Chardonnay to Cru Beaujolais (plus liquor), he’s particularly excited about the natty options, which are all over the place. “It is important to us that we highlight how accessible natural wine can and should be,” Landsman says. “We strive to offer the funkiest of funky for the dedicated and adventurous natural wine drinker who comes in saying ‘GIVE. ME. CRAZY.,’ as well as wines that are naturally made yet recognizable on the palette for our customers who are looking for a good place to start.” He points out that “natural” is a process, meaning low or no intervention, not a wine style or flavor profile. When looking for wines to add to the portfolio, Landsman is on the wines that “spark some unexplainable, disproportionate sense of happiness. We think good wine can transport the drinker. A single sip of wine can situate us in the exciting path of uncharted waters, but it can also be so incredibly nostalgic, too.” Geographically, he is currently crushing on island wines from luxurious faraway places like Sardinia, Sicily, and the Canary Islands. While he’s always trying something new, an evergreen favorite of Landsman’s is No es Pituko 2020 Cabernet Franc from Chile. “The wine is just wild—black cherries, bell peppers…chocolate? An incredibly balanced and complex young wine,” he says. “If we had one chance to convince a sceptic that a natural wine wine is going to blow them away, this is the wine we’d give them.” Sold.

Bluebird Wine Shop | Accord

5059 Route 209, Accord, NY 12404 | (845) 626-0140

Bluebird Wine Shop recently breathed fresh life into the old location of Accord Wine Shop right on 209. Focused exclusively on natural wines and spirits, owner Aaron Lefkove is looking for wine producers with organic practices, if not the certification, and on the spirits side for smaller craft distilleries, including nearby Arrowood Farms. As for the natty wine selection, Lefkove is highlighting, “the more stable side of the spectrum—wines of high quality that have a classic structure to them and adhere to a certain mindset and ethos we are in tune with,” he says. “I’m staying away from the super wild and unstable side of things—beverages that are closer to kombucha for instance than wine in its classical definition—which doesn’t suit my palate personally. For those on the fence, Lefkove says, “I feel you need to look at it the same way you look at a tomato or a piece of beef or a chicken: wine is an agricultural product just like everything else and when you buy eggs or vegetables or meat, you don’t want something pumped full of hormones or pesticides or other unnecessary chemicals so why should that ethos not extend to the wines and liquors we drink? All time favorites (currently in stock!) include the wines of Fond Cypres, a couple in the Languedoc, who produce wines that are articulate expressions of terroir. “They just taste the way the area feels,” Lefkove says. He also likes the Quarterones Sancerre from Sebastian Riffault, an outlier in an area that is predominantly super industrial. “He uses grapes that have been affected by botrytis which is a fungus that actually gives the resulting wine way more depth and character,” he says. Ahh, fermentation.

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Ester Wine & Spirits

57 N Front Street, Kingston, NY 12401 | (845) 331-1921

While they prioritize organic vineyards, Ester’s wine selection varies from conventional to low or no intervention. Due to a lack of international standards or certifications, natural is not an official wine term, Ester’s owner Robert Provenz, defines it this way: wine that is from tiny parcels of manually managed grapevines on organic and/or biodynamic soils, made with zero subtractions (such as filtering) and very minimal additions (only sulphur).” When Provenz and his team are choosing their new natural wines, they taste test for determine if the wine is “balanced, structured, and sans faults; such as reductiveness, volatile acidity (too close to vinegar), or the taste of ‘mousiness’, which can sometimes be issues with wines made in this manner,” he adds. They balance quality with price point to create an accessible selection across styles and flavor profiles. “The reds can be full-bodied dark with deep, brooding fruit to be had on a winter night by a fire, or super light-bodied with bright red fruits that shine with a variety of dishes. The white wines can see extended skin contact time, becoming orange wines, or simply crisp, dry with loads of mineral tones and race car acidity,” Provenz says. “What we love about all the natural wines is their honesty, and there is, at times, an exciting energy in the glass. The best way to find a good bottle for your mood is to ask. You can tell us the flavors you like and/or food you are having it with, and we can describe some options of wine for your needs and food pairing before investing in the bottle. When pressed for a current favorite, Provenz taps the wines from Ruth Lewandowski, saying, “His wines are always a fun adventure, and I believe it’s truly unique as a natural wine being produced in Utah!”

Upstream Wine & Spirits | Livingston Manor

34 Main Street, Livingston Manor, NY 12758 | (845) 439-1328

Livingston Manor’s upscale wine shop Upstream places sustainable practices and ethics at the center of their wine buying. In a recent post, they wrote, “Much of the labor in vineyards worldwide is done by undocumented workers who are more susceptible to unethical practices without the full protection of laws and local officials. We don’t often mention this labor force when we wax poetic about terroir, multi-generational winemaking families, and fermentation. We should. When we discuss farming, we leave out farm workers. Why? I pledge to ask better questions and demand more transparency and accountability from the companies I work with to source our wines moving forward…It’s simply not enough to buy/sell/drink natural and organic wine, whatever the hell that even means anymore—that won’t make any of us activists.” They have a large selection of natural wines, which they are refining and vetting all the time. Like Esther, Upstream is running their operation from a table outfront, where a masked employee will happily give you suggestions before ringing you up. But if you’re the longform browsing type, they recommend is by heading to their online shop, where you can scope all their labels at your leisure and order for curbside pickup, nationwide shipping, or Saturday pickup at La Salumina in Hurleyville. 

Dirty Bacchus | Beacon

380 Main Street, Suite 100, Beacon | (508) 269-2994
Opened in June of this year, Beacon newcomer Dirty Bacchus focuses on low-intervention, organic or biodynamic, sustainably farmed, vegan wines, a well as a selection of organic ciders, meads and sake. The natural wine store conceives of itself as a farm stand for products sourced directly from small, independent farmers whenever possible. “Wine is an agricultural product first and foremost,” says owner Steven Ventura. “Wine made from organic or biodynamic grapes, and made simply, with few or zero additives, is more healthful, more healing and beneficial, than conventional industrial wines, and better for the planet and for humanity’s future overall.” The shop carries a wide range of wines from around the world, including Western Europe, the US, Australia, and a slew of under-explored winemaking countries like Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, and Mexico. The shop is designed to be accessible to both new and seasonal natty wine drinks, and includes a section of skin-contact wines under $20 and another entitled “You’d Never Know,” of low and no-intervention wines that taste like their conventional counterparts. “I love the extraordinarily broad spectrum of aromas and flavors and styles that natural wine as a category encompasses,” Ventura says. “One can get so specific when pairing these wines to foods!” He had trouble picking a single favorite, but a top contender was Verre de Gris, a natural wine from Quebec produced by Pinard et Filles. “It smells and tastes of wild strawberries,” he says, “but there is also something about it that is reminiscent of waking up on a cool morning camping in the open deep in a north woods pine forest. Hard to put into words.” Sounds delightful.

Dixie’s | Delhi

Delhi, NY | (607) 746-3775

Opened at the tail end of 2017, Dixie’s is a highly curated outpost in the farthest reaches of the Western Catskills. They’ve got your Grey Gooses and Bacardis, but they also have an ever-rotating selection of natural wines, including pet nat proseccos from northern Italy, local Cabernets from Eminence Road Farm Winery, Alsatian pinot noirs, skin contact Teroldegos, and much more. Call ahead and place your order for curbside pickup.

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               <span>Solo Vino | Catskill</span><br /></p>

354 Main Street, Catskill, NY 12414

OK, so Solo Vino does not offer solo vino. In addition to their natural, biodynamic, and organic wines, they also carry ciders and craft spirits, which is great ‘cause sometimes it’s cocktail hour. But back to the vin naturel, they bring new natural wines to the store every week. Recent picks include the Italian blend Muz Ver-Muz Natural, the biodynamic Austrian red Perspektive Rot, and a hazy Greek pet nat from Kamara Pure.

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Grapefruit Wine Shop | Hudson (coming soon)

127 Warren Street, Hudson, NY 12534

Grapefruit, an all natural wine shop by the team behind Kitty’s Market and Cafe, will make its debut on Warren Street in January 2021, where it will no doubt attract a cult following, before it moves down the hill to the barn next to Kitty’s after renovations wrap up in 2021. “In the meantime, we have a natural wine selection at Kitty’s Market. During December, we plan to expand this selection of natural wines to include more holiday-geared wines, giftable bottles, aperitif and amaro,” says co-owner Anna Morris. “This sort of pop-up wine shop will expand from the market into the next room (that will one day house our restaurant!) and go through the new year.” They will also stock some beautiful vinegars made by natural winemakers, as well as salts, oils and other special culinary gifts. Follow Grapefruit and Kitty’s on Instagram for very cute branding and the latest updates.

Farming Simulator ups realism and eco-friendliness with free EU-backed DLC

Farming Simulator developer Giants Software has today released free DLC with support from the European Union.

Funded by EIT Food, Europe‘s leading food innovation initiative, the DLC includes new gameplay elements for more eco-friendly farming. It is also part of the Precision Farming Project designed to spread awareness of modern agriculture.

Initiated by agricultural machine manufacturer John Deere, the Precision Farming Project is set to take place over two years with collaboration from the European Union, the University of Hohenheim in Germany, and the University of Reading in England.

Modern precision farming technologies are introduced in Farming Simulator as one of EITs multiple efforts to raise awareness for sustainable farming, and address the assumption that it’s only possible for small farms to produce quality organic crops.

“I’m impressed by the great and very effective co-operation with Giants Software and our partners,” said Dr. Thomas Engel, technology innovation strategy manager at John Deere.

“The first version of the DLC already offers more than I expected. Features like soil sampling and variable fertilizing offer a great introduction into the world of Precision Farming. I’m convinced that we’re able to massively strengthen the knowledge about modern agriculture within the gaming community.”

Continuing Giants’ penchant for realism and accuracy, the new DLC will allow players to identify four different soil types, working with the individual requirements to optimise yield.

This will involve the player responding to pH and nitrogen levels in the soil in order to save resources like seeds, fertilizer, fuel, maintenance costs and more. In turn saving money while running a more environmentally friendly operation.

The DLC also includes real soil sampling machinery such as the John Deere Gator and fully automated Isaria Scout.

However, there is much more to precision farming than just soil, and this new DLC will be the first step in developing more free content for Farming Simulator.

While the exact course is yet to be determined, the project will continue to develop more gameplay features which build a connection between modern society and agriculture. This will be carried out in collaboration with the University of Hohenheim, University of Reading, and player feedback.

“We’re excited to elevate the aspect of realism in Farming Simulator with the expertise of our partner John Deere while contributing to the solution of an agricultural challenge,” said Giants CEO Christian Ammann. “We hope the new gameplay features will please our fans while spreading awareness of modern agricultural technology.”

The Precision Farming DLC is available today for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. For more information, visit farming-simulator.com.

Nomad Foods Raises 2020 Guidance and Announces Significant Share Repurchase Activity

… ’s expectations regarding organic and inorganic growth … Europe; (vii) changes in consumer preferences, such as meat … Kingdom and the European Union associated with … EUROPE
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: RETAIL RESTAURANT/;BAR FOOD/BEVERAGE
SOURCE: Nomad Foods …

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The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

   Dec 06, 2020 (Market Insight Reports) --

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