Burning Questions
Fellowship Award Winners

Andrew Bennie, Andrew Bowman

Location: South Africa (Bennie), U.K. (Bowman)
Academic field: Sociology (Bennie), International development (Bowman)
Award category: PhD Student (with PhD-Holder as team member)

Guidance Memo

• Title:  The beef with climate change: Growth, equity, and a just transition in the beef sector in South Africa
• How to cite:  Bennie, Andrew, and Andrew Bowman. The beef with climate change: Growth, equity, and a just transition in the beef sector in South Africa. Tiny Beam Fund, 13 September 2024, https://doi.org/10.15868/socialsector.44306
• What We Learned From It:
  • This Guidance Memo critically examines the planned growth of beef production and export in South Africa. It explores whether the industry's growth strategy can achieve a just transition through broadscale Black smallholder farmer inclusion, creation of decent work and equitable livelihoods, and ensuring ecological regeneration and resilience. It also briefly considers interventions that could be more effective in moving towards a just transition, and makes initial actionable recommendations to begin the process of dialogue to get there.
  • Chapter 2: Cattle in the economy and livelihoods: 1. The importance of beef in South Africa's agri-food system. 2. "Dualism" in the beef industry. 3. Export led inclusive growth aspirations. 4. The characteristics of commerical beef production in South Africa.
  • Chapter 3: Commercialisation of smallholder cattle farming: Tensions and challenges. 1. Characteristics of smallholder cattle farming. 2. Production. 3. Marketing. 4. Obstacles to commercialisation. 5. Criticisms of smallholder commercialisation.
  • Chapter 4: Climate and ecological dimensions of beef production in South Africa: 1. Beef production and emissions in South Africa (What to do about emissions, and other environmental problems? Emissions and equity.) 2. Climate change impacts on beef cattle ? adaptation and a just transition (Impacts on beef cattle. Economic and livelihood impacts).
  • Chapter 5: Alternatives for beef and cattle: 1. Proposed solutions (Market-centered. Greening production. Agroecological). 2. Healthy grasslands - a carbon silver bullet? 3. Merging environmental resilience and livelihood. 4. Re-thinking beef production, ecology, and diets in South Africa?

Links

• Read the Guidance Memo 
• Read the Annotated Bibliography 

Some of the Things We Really Liked when We Read the Application

• The topic chosen by the applicant and how it is approached shows a deep understanding of the complexities of the adoption and expansion of industrial livestock production in South Africa.
  • The applicant's examination of the beef sector is done against the backdrop and context of a new government agriculture plan Agricultural and Agro-processing Master Plan (AAMP), finalized in May 2023, that favors beef production in South Africa.
  • The beef industry turns AAMP's prioritization of beef into a strategy for expanding the industry. This strategy aims to grow the beef industry by 20% by the year 2030. The growth of beef production and export in particular is a principal focus of the strategy.
  • The applicant is concerned about two implications of this strategy and expansion: 1) Beef production's ecological problems. 2) The strategy's key mechanism of integrating smallholder farmers into commercial beef value chains.