Farming vs Golf Estates

The minister of agriculture recently expressed his/her concern about the number of golfing estates affecting the amount of agricultural land. He has every reason to be concerned. Traveling around the country you might discover places like Pringle Bay, a pristine piece of coastal land which has been scarred by a rash of indivualisticly and tastelessly styled houses. A sort of Rustenburg by die See. And how many people actually there when you visit? If there’s one in the hundreds of houses there, it’s a lot. Maybe there’ll be more in december. So effectively we have a ghost town, owned by very rich city dwellers. Why on earth can’t these city dwellers stay in a guest house? It much nicer, everyone does everything for you, and much, much cheaper. I wouldn’t understand, being African and not a Rustenburger. You might also discover the Thabazimbi area, where all the cattle farmers have discovered they can make their fortunes by selling the land for eco-estates. So it seems rich people are buying up the land for their empty holiday homes, and poor farmers are selling up. The result just has to be, however you look at it, much more expensive food in the future, much more risky food supply dominated by a few large producers, and plenty of starving people who can now still afford food, but are less likely to in the future. So the rich will starve the poor to death. They’ll use all the drinking water to water their golf courses. This in my book spells national disaster, and the sooner the government moves to put a stop to it the better.