Thursday, August 24, 2017

South African Beef Potential

A new school year is upon us and with that comes our weekly blog posts with discussion points! We kick this school year off with a closer look at beef production and agriculture in South Africa. This article has many great resources besides the text including an interactive "Global Food Security Index" map and several videos. We encourage you to check out all and utilize the discussion points below to guide conversations in your classrooms, coffee shops, and communities.

Beefing Up Africa's Food Security

Discussion Points

  • How does South Africa rate in regards to food security when compared to other African countries and countries around the world?
  • Explore the "Global Food Security Index" map. What did you notice or what surprised you and explain?
  • What is the story of Beef in South Africa? Where are they? What is the potential?
  • Watch the video "A Visit with Brylyne Chitsunge." What are Brylyne's thoughts on keys to food security success in South Africa?
  • After watching the video on South African feedlots what did you find most interesting and why?
  • Of the three takeaways at the end of the article which did you find most interesting and why?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

When you look at South Africa and other African countries on the Global Food Security Index, most of them are in the needs improvement while others are in the moderate performance area. Then you can look at countries like the United States, Canada and Mexico and they all have good and best performance. To solve South Africa's problem with food security, it looks like they can solve their issue with beef cattle. If they continue raising beef cattle in South Africa, it may help them with their food security and the growing population.

Unknown said...

based on the article they mentioned different breeds of cattle being crossbred to create a more profitable industry what characteristics do they look for in a breed for it to be successfully bred?

Anonymous said...

With populations rising, South Africa must find the most effective way to feed the people. They currently have a very successful beef and cattle industry. They have a well equipped economy for a business of this sort. Over time South Africa could have a very bright beef industry.

Anonymous said...

Arturo Barrios- The world's population is rising very fast and South Africa will add a lot to it, so all these people need to be fed so Africa needs to find a fast and efficient way to feed its people, so if they continue raising cattle now then by then the population could be fed fast and effectively.

blemmer said...

Beef production in South Africa has the potential to grown in the future. With 70% of the land suitable for grazing, small land holder farmers should be able to take advantage of this situation. The article did not address who these farmers could finance small herds and/or where they could market their beef. Nor did it discuss the processing and marketing of beef for these small holder farmers. The large beef production farms were impressive. I was surprised that they were diversified; raining goats, fruit and vegetables. Most were near a large metro area which was smart.

Anonymous said...

That is cool that they have more people farming, then in the United states. Also women wasn't able to then the women was like we have a right to own farm land to not just the men.

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