Earlier this year, Spier Wine Farm launched its new flagship organic wine range, Farmer Angus, reflecting the relationship between the farm’s winemaking team and Angus McIntosh, the pioneer of regenerative agriculture who calls Spier home. “Wine is just one of the things we do regeneratively on this farm,” Angus says. “It’s a manifestation of a specific type of thinking, which produces many other products and produce.”
In the spirit of collaboration, a group of like-minded guests and speakers gathered at Spier to discuss the meaning and intentions behind the regenerative movement. Angus avoids the term ‘sustainable’. “There’s nothing now to ‘sustain’, human or planetary,” he says. “We have to regenerate to make things better,” he says.
Angus McIntosh addresses the audience during the launch of the new organic wine label at Spier Wine Estate.
Learning from nature
Landbouweekblad editor Chris Burgess is a regular speaker on regenerative practices, and the publication has hosted regular conferences on conservation agriculture and rural regeneration. “There’s always some pattern or underlying structure that links all regeneration efforts, whether of our soils, farms, communities or health,” he says. “One common denominator in all these systems is diversity, from the biodiversity in the soil or gut to the diversity of successful communities.”
Diversity introduces resilience to any system by promoting checks and balances that improves its equilibrium. This is just as true for human societies as it is for microscopic biomes. “It’s only when the whole community bands together to tackle a problem that things get sorted out in a sustainable way,” Chris says.
Such diversity introduces rich complexity that should prompt a level of humility, Chris says, since it means farmers can’t rely on ready-made, off-the-shelf solutions. “Instead of forceful change, producers should learn to observe and trust that nature knows best. An understanding that everything is not within their control keeps farmers humble and ready to learn; it introduces a mindfulness and an acute sense of observation.”
“Our own fynbos here in the Western Cape is the most diverse plant kingdom in the world; more diverse even than the rain forest.”
Producers such as Angus applied this understanding by moving away from monocultures, and having as many different plant roots in the soil as possible all year round. “You never find uncovered soils in nature unless it’s been disturbed. Farmers try to disturb their soil as little as possible, using small furrows and planting with minimal impact, while introducing many types of livestock on the farm.”
The final goal is to create a “virtuous cycle of abundance”, as Chris calls it, where natural and human systems begin to move from merely surviving to actually thriving systems.
The power of community
Augusta de Brandt says the Bonnievale 418 offers a powerful model for regenerative communities. The story began with a problem that needed solving. Children in her community were spending their time in harmful ways – drugs, alcohol, and other destructive behaviours. Instead of waiting for the government to act, they decided to take matters into their own hands, and six years later, this ongoing project had fundamentally changed the town’s rural community for the better.
“At Jakes Gerwel Technical High School, we don’t focus on statistics – we focus on names and faces,” Augusta says. “Take Darren King, for example, who graduated from our school with a focus on electrical studies and is now completing his training at Sol-Tech to become an electrician. Three other students from our school started apprenticeships this year at Lactalis, where they are also training to become electricians.
Their top three matriculants from last year are now studying at various universities across South Africa.
Expanding horizons
The work didn’t stop with Jakes Gerwel Technical Highschool. In 2020, when COVID-19 hit, the Jakes Gerwel Entrepreneurial (JGE) Funding Trust, of which Augusta is a trustee, established Bonnievale 418 with the ambitious goal of zero youth unemployment in their local community by 2030.
The Bonnievale 418 comprises a diverse group of community members who believe every young person should have the opportunity to participate fully in learning and in life regardless of means or ability. The programme supports learners needs at 11 schools, from primary to high school, seeking to replicate the successes – and avoid the pitfalls – of the Jakes Gerwel project.
“We have already piloted a skills-based public high school model in Struisbaai and at least one other location. The school in Struisbaai opened in March 2022, focusing on skill development, and is beautifully designed by Philip Jonker’s own company, AFRI.CAN.”
The trust recently purchased a property in Ashton, a former guest farm called The Haven, which will be transformed into another school due to open in January 2025. They are also waiting for approval for a new school in Phesantekraal, which will cater to 1000 learners, and there are plans for schools in ten more towns.
“When I first agreed to be part of this project, I never imagined it would become so significant,” Augusta says. “I initially didn’t have a clue what ‘regenerative’ means, but when Angus explained it to me and told me his story, I realised it’s exactly what we’ve been doing in Bonneville.”
“We believe that the same spirit that lives in us, lives in everybody else, and it’s possible to change your community. It doesn’t matter if it’s wine or a school or something else; you are changing the lives of people. We decided to start with education.”
