Climate alarmists would have you believe that climate change is already hurting farm productivity. But hasn’t farm productivity been relentlessly rising?

While under- and malnutrition remain concerns in Africa, its people are also growing increasingly corpulent and burdened by nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Much of that is driven by the discretionary consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), which contribute significantly to sugar intake without adding any nutritional value. 

Three years ago South Africa introduced Africa’s first major tax on sugar-sweetened beverages based on grams of sugar. The tax now stands at about 11% of the price per litre.

Rising sea levels, wildfire seasons that are the worst on record, parched cropland—in spite of all the evidence that human civilization is losing its game of chicken with the climate, no one is flinching.

“Waste not, want not.” This old saying rings so true today, as global leaders and local communities alike increasingly call for a fix for the so-called “throwaway culture.” But beyond individuals and households, waste also represents a broader challenge that affects human health and livelihoods, the environment, and prosperity.

Some of the main challenges facing farmers that are reported on in the issue of Farmer’s Weekly I read this morning is the poor-quality of roads, especially in the rural areas, the affordability of farm labour, and the scourge of stock theft.