First of all going green is not a trend or a lifestyle…but a necessity. According to the World

Image Courtesy of Cartoon Stock

Water Council, 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water. Here in Kenya the situation is worse, personally I have to fetch water 100 meters from my apartment in Nairobi and I am not sure whether it is clean. In rural Kenya I may have to walk 30, 40 kilometers to search for water, the situation is grave!

Green Energy

This is no-brainer really, getting almost free energy from sun, solar and biomass is just plain simple. The world’s energy needs can be easily tapped from natural and renewable sources, scientific fact. Many companies and people who benefit from crude oil and other non-renewable sources often falsify research and claim that solar is ‘unscalable’ or wind is ‘immovable’ but the latest independent research even claims that the world could fully rely on green energy by 2030. Did you know the first car was powered by a biofuel? Yes it was powered by hemp seed oil, the only biofuel that can combust as is!

Alternative energy will most definitely reduce the cost of doing business subsequently bringing down the cost of living, improving your living standards while securing a future for our great grand children

Green Agriculture

Agriculture has been blamed for a stupendous amount of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the way we practise Ag today is as unsustainable as it can get. Most farmers in the world are considered conventional farmers in that they use synthetic chemicals (Most made from crude oil and natural gas) to try to boost soil fertility and a cocktail of toxic chemicals to get rid of pests, weeds and other unwanted organisms in the field. Not only does this system poison the underground water that we drink, we also eat the chemicals which have been absorbed by the plant so even if you wash with acid you are still ingesting chemical and you want food.

In the green economy, the modus operandi is organic farming, the oldest form of recorded agriculture that dates back 10 000 years ago. Hydroponics, aeroponics and permaculture are the few of the several innovations that boost food productivity while reducing the negative impact it has on the environment and making sure you are nourished with the safest food available.

Green Infrastructure

Modern day construction uses up a plethora of resources and the cost of running the building itself is magnanimous; not the high energy costs, water, fresh air, lighting may becomes a huge problem. In the green economy, emphasis is put on natural ecosystems and use of sustainable building materials like recycled prefab, metal e.t.c.

Commercial buildings are also responsible for a good chunk of the carbon emissions but we are now seeing green buildings like the The GreenHouse

Image by Anthony Kahonge

The bottom line is that going green offers a triple-bottom-line solution to most if not all of human problems, remember; Change begins with you please share your thoughts in the comments section below…

We need to think outside the box and practice more sustainable agriculture like AgroEcology. With below 2% forest cover in Kenya, rains are becoming sparse, water, scarce. More people are dying due to the negative trickle-down effects of this.

World-Renown treehugger, the late Wangari Maathai put alot of emphasis on the conservations of forest land and it seems she was preaching to the choir as we continue to clear forests in the name of real estate development. Of course with a growing population and rapid urbanization, we will end up with nothing but a concrete jungle and scarce natural resources.

Currently there is a magnanimous shortage of bees due to climate change and people are still ignorant about the matter, saying that global warming is due to some astrological effect that does not make sense unless you are an oil marketer.

I recently revised our business plan to go full organic because of the benefits of organic farming which I wrote about a while a go and also the simple fact that organics fetch a 30% premium vis-a-vis conventional crops. 

I made this decision after visiting a neighbouring organic farm and eating the raw veggies and seeing their practices that require absolutely no synthetic chemicals like pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and bla.

Being an agropreneur, I have to do extensive research on how to maximize profit while not interfering with the integrity of the food and after months of research I have landed to one conclusion; organic farming, innovation and technology are the only tools which can help solve our food crisis.

Food Crisis

Most of the food in this planet is conventionally grown i.e. they cannot grow without synthetic chemicals like fertilizer and herbicides which are manufactured from crude oil and natural gas. Crude oil is one of the most volatile commodities traded by people all over the world and whenever oil prices go up, food prices follow as well as everything else.

When food production is tied to a speculator’s feelings in wall street, you are going to have problems.

In Kenya, we suffer heavily due to crude oil price volatility like in the last 4 months where we have seen fuel prices rise by over 40% to record highs. This trickled down fast to inflation which soared for another 12th straight month to stand at 19.72%.

Back to organics….another important aspect of organic farming that convinced me was the fact that there are no GMOs allowed in the art, just plain old food We need more farmers, entrepreneurs, government and consumers to think organic as we fight this war with Monsanto’s genetically engineered foods.

Before you go, may you please vote for this blog here http://ardyis.cta.int/individual-vote

Anthony Mwangi, The Young Agropreneur

I am participating in a youth and agriculture blogging competition where I could win 1500 Euros and most importantly the opportunity of partnering with the organisation in encouraging the youth to venture into agriculture

I believe I have what it takes to become an influential member to the youth and older people and steer them towards sustainable agribusiness and healthy living in general. Apart from the prize money (1500 Euros 1st prize), the CTA Ardyis guys will also involve winning bloggers with further projects that involve the youth and agriculture, in a bid to fight food insecurity in Africa and the World.

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME HERE

ANTHONY MWANGI; YOUNG AGROPRENEUR (the link is in the middle of the page if you are having trouble finding it thanks and God Bless

Unlike him, I use facts in my arguments, have no time for he-say she-say, opinions are best used in a gamble you can afford to lose, not the GMO question.

So, let’s get to facts;

First of all we have to know what is this Monsanto we hear about everyday; In a nutshell, it is an agribusiness company that wants to monopolize the seed market hence controlling food, humanity, life. Monsanto controls over 80% of the food market in the USA.

"Monsanto is the devil himself" Anthony Kahonge

Fact #1

Monsanto are liars and do not inform the public on material issues regarding their products, processed and waste.

This is evident in the case of ‘The People of Aniston Vs Monsanto where the latter paid the former USD 700 million dollars for continuous pollution of the area with PCBs that came from their manufacturing plant.

Before being banned, PCBs were widely used by Monsanto as  coolants and insulating fluids (transformer oil) for transformers and capacitors, such as those used in old fluorescent light ballasts, as plasticizers in paints and cements, stabilizing additives in flexible PVC coatings of electrical wiring and electronic components, pesticide extenders, cutting oils, reactive flame retardants, lubricating oils, hydraulic fluids, and sealants (for caulking in schools and commercial buildings), adhesives, wood floor finishes (such as Fabulon and other products of Halowax in the U.S.), paints, de-dusting agents, water-proofing compounds, casting agents, vacuum pump fluids, fixatives in microscopy, surgical implants, and in carbonless copy (“NCR”) paper, Wikipedia

From the above information, we now know that PCBs were widely used in industry before being banned due to toxicity proven by the several deaths and hospitalization of the Aniston Victims. Research has shown that the PCBs from back in the day are more than active today and almost everyone in this planet earth has some degree of PCBs in their system because it’s in the water, air, food basically the whole environment.

Fact #2 

Agent Orange – Dioxin alert – Monsanto poisoned a whole country!

America lives and breathes war, weapons and war-like supplies is HUGE business and that’s why America staged 9-11 so as to gain public support and occupy Iraq, Afghan, anywhere there is good oil, opium (For making Heroine, Afghan’s dope is the best) but that is a blog post for another day.

In the Vietnam war, apart from bombing innocent people, America also decide to defoliate arable land and forest cover so as to starve the innocent people to death along with the guerillas. They did this with a chemical called Agent Orange, a carcinogen (cancer-causing agent). Up to today, effect of this chemical, produced by Monsanto, are still being suffered from as the most active ingredient, dioxin, is toxic and still present in Vietnam and American troops who served that war. Today, dioxin is banned.

Fact #3

GMOs do not solve any hunger issues.

In Kenya, over 80% of our land lies idle and under-utilised, even if you travel to the most productive parts of the country, there is a lot of idle land because of poor land ownership policies, how the F$#% is GMO going to solve that?

Monsanto have been selling us the idea that higher yields are the ‘key’ to solving this hunger issue which someone with half a brain would tell you otherwise.

Fact #4

GMOs cause cancer. Dr Árpád Pusztai (My Fav Scientist) is a Hungarian-born biochemist and nutritionist who spent 36 years at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. He is a world expert on plant lectins, authoring 270 papers and three books on the subject. In 1998 Pusztai publicly announced that the results of his research showed feeding genetically modified potatoes to rats had negative effects on their stomach lining, immune system and were causing some cancers. I linked our mediocre professor to Arpad’s research but he said that he is not a rat….very stupid, ignorant and idiotic coming from a professor, I replied by suggesting he adds some rat poison in his dinner and see if ‘he is not a rat’ pun intended.

Of course coming up with research like that, Dr Pusztai was fired because such publications would stall the inception of GMOs into Europe hence interfering with the Monsanto’s For-Profit agenda.

Fact #5

Monsanto wants to control the seed market using round up. Round up is a toxic chemical herbicide that kills ALL vegetation when and where applied. Monsanto then goes and engineers seed that is resistant to the round up and sells it to you. There is also an agreement that you are not supposed to save your own seed as it is patented and you can be sued by Monsanto for using your own property like the several Indian farmers who have been sued for producing GMO cotton that was wind-pollinated from other GMO farms yet they planted non GMO cotton. (Read; Ten Facts You Should Know About Monsanto)

It is all about profit, population control and profit with Monsanto and they are spreading fast, even Kenya legalised the importing of GMOs the other day so we are deep inside the battle zone. There is alot you can do, first by sharing this blog post with your friends and family, do a little more research on GMOs and who Monsanto is and finally organic farming does not use anything GMO, I know organic produce is expensive but if more people were on board, prices would gradually slow down due to the economies of scale. DON’T PANIC, EAT ORGANIC.

What are your thoughts on this? please feel free to share in the comments section.

Importers

Importers are feeling the heat by buying the USD at a very high rate than 2, 3 years ago and most of them are adjusting their prices accordingly. Kenya is a net-importer of goods, we import almost 10 times what we export and it is very unsustainable. Our petroleum import bill is larger than our whole export receipts and that is why the Kenya shilling is losing value fast. Our current account/GDP is the same as Greece so need a change of game plan. Oil importers have revised their prices upwards as well as food importers and infrastructure material dealers.

Exporters

Some economists say that exporters are benefitting from the weak KES but I beg to differ. What do we export? Tea, coffee, tourism right, but all these require inputs that are not locally available and have to be imported like fertilizers, equipment e.t.c. There is also the issue of inflation, people who are paid with USD may have some advantage but the way prices are going high, the difference is negligible.

Consumers

Mwanainchi wa kawaida is one who is suffering most by this depreciation that is fueling higher inflation and exporting jobs to China. Furthermore, public debt is also increasing meaning that the government may have to increase taxes which will cause further rise in general prices of goods and services, making it hard to survive for the average/low-income household.

Tourists

They are the biggest winners since their cash can buy more goods and services than they 3 years ago and a cheap holiday is what everyone is looking for in these tough times.

Inflation has risen steadily over the last 11 months from below 3% to 18.9% in October mainly driven by fuel shortages, artificially orchestrated by the big fish to eat the small fish and raise funds for next campaigning for year’s election, a widely known conspiracy but that’s the world we live in today, nothing new.

Interest Rate Hike and Agriculture

The rate hike will most definitely affect the economy and agriculture being the largest employer of Kenyans (80% of the population direct and indirect), jobs are going to be lost by the bucket load. First of all, getting credit from banks will become a pipe dream; liquidity will tighten and banks will direct their funds to more lucrative investments like long-term bonds and other several government securities that offer a handsome return on investment.

The cost of loans will not only increase by the same margin but also the risk premium is going to increase simply because it is easier to default a 30% loan than a 20% one, net effect, business will cut down costs i.e. fire workers.

Secondly is the inflation. I do not have a phD in Economics but I know one thing for sure; interest rate hike never help inflation but aggregate it. Inflation is defined as too much money chasing too few goods and/or services right… The governor, who has a phD in economics, decided that by decreasing the, ‘too much money’ he would solve the problem of too much money chasing too few goods. My thinking is this; just increase the good and services produce and let basic economics take effect, when supply is high while all else is constant, prices/inflation will go down inevitably.

We simply need to increase productivity in the economy. Our farmers need subsidies to produce food, not GMO ishh. We also need to look into our energy efficiency, there are stupendous opportunities in solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and innovations that reduce our carbon footprint hence energy requirements. Did you know that all our exports combined cannot equal our oil import bill alone?

We need a strong manufacturing industry that adds value to goods rather than this exporting of raw bamboo, we should make branded furniture and artifacts that sell Kenya to di world, don’t you think? Please share your thoughts below…

The primary cause of this of course is logging and real estate development into the forests and it is very evident in Kenya where hectares of indigenous forest lands have been converted into real estate and other commercial activities. 

Kenya receives substantial amounts of rain well-distributed across the country but we barely harvest this precious commodity. The government’s agriculture policy does not consider this important and allocate less than 2% of the budget to irrigation. Implementation of the government projects always remains an issue as witnessed in the heavy corruption in the whole government.

Energy is a main driver of the global economy and we are consuming it fast. The sad thing is that we are still dependant on non renewable energy yet we are fully aware of the impact on the environment. We also have several sources of renewable energy that could power up the planet but the big corporations would rather invest their money in something finite so as to push the prices up. It is basic economics; the lower the supply ceteris paribus, the higher the prices and this is very evident in crude oil prices which are consistently rising as global oil reserves decrease.

The worlds largest polluters USA and China are not really into emissions reduction claiming that it would hurt their competitiveness and claim jobs. This is very short-term thinking because in the long-term if we continue with this non renewable energy, there would be little or no resources for earth’s inhabitants everywhere on the continent and the main issue will be sustain life leave alone jobs…please share your comments below

After the initial success, the group is now raising funds to build a 30 million processing plant in the area and the just raised 10% and microfinanciers and banks will lend to them at low interest rates. They have even branded it shujaa power meaning hero/brevity power which has been welcomed by the market very dearly.

The Process

Farmers take the raw bananas to the winery that has a ripening gallery. Here the bananas are put in a 6 foot hole where fire is lit on top to provide extra warmth for the ripening process to take place more faster.

After 3-5 days the bananas have ripened and are juiced. The juice is the mixed with the fermentation catalyst, grounded sorghum which hastens the process naturally without using any chemicals like in the fermentation of beer and other brews.

The mixture is then returned into the hot hole and left for fermenting for almost 2 days when it is cooled and bottled in 330ml and 500ml recyclable bottles.

A 330ml bottle retails at KES 200 in Nairobi and most of the farmers are realizing up to 40% increase in revenues due to the wine project.

Personally I don’t drink but I would strongly recommend the Shujaa Power wine for everyone since it is a Kenyan brand and most importantly, a healthier alternative to ‘Yokozuna’ and Kane extra, what do you think? Feel free to comment below

In the current financial year, our hague-plagued finance minister allocated less than 5% of the budget to agriculture, and you wonder why Kenya lacks enough food. My theory is that the people in government designed this food shortage so that they can generate easy cash for campaigning for next year’s election. Given that the big fish in government control imports, they are making a huge killing in importing cheap GMO maize from wherever and selling to the people at high prices.

Kenya lacks leaders, all we have are dealers who are in it for themselves. Our land issues have never been solved since independence plus many people have grabbed land which they do not use sufficiently. There is plenty of fertile arable idle land in the country but since less than 10% own 100% of the land, there has to be issues in it’s management.

The 2007/08 post election violence was due to land. After the independence, many of the white settlers sold their land to the government and some individuals, some corrupt individuals grabbed hectares of land. The land was never returned to the original settlers, hence the problems we have today of IDPs (Internally Displaced People) and tribal wars. We need a government that looks after it’s people, not what we have today, what do you think? Please share your comments below