How advances in fruit-sorting technology can curb waste

Calls were increasing for true cost accounting to be applied to establish the cost of different types of agriculture to the environment and ecosystems, according to Prof Raymond Auerbach of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s School of Natural Resource Management in George.

As water became an increasingly scarce resource, water use efficiency would become more important, he said.

‘ farmers using toxins should be certified’

“With climate change, we will eventually see what is already happening in Bavaria [happening here], namely that farmers who clean up the water that flows through their farms [receive payment], while farmers who pollute [receive] a fat account from the local authority.”

Farmers should also note that food quality and nutrient density would become more important as chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesity became the norm and traceability became a precondition for all supermarket contracts. “This means that certification costs will no longer be unique to organic farming,” Auerbach said.

“At the local level, the organic sector is developing participatory guarantee systems to cut the cost of organic assurance, [but] third-party certification is expensive.” Auerbach said organic farming should become the norm and those farmers who used toxic chemicals to grow their crops should be certified accordingly. – Roelof Bezuidenhout