Industrialization of Agricultural Land From the Marcellus to South Africa June 27, Ithaca 7:30PM

Industrialization of Agricultural Land

From the Marcellus to South Africa

 

Monday, June 27, 7:30 – 9:30 pm

At the Women’s Community Building

100 W. Seneca Street

Ithaca, NY

 

SPEAKERS from South Africa, fighting a proposal by Shell Oil to extract gas in their agricultural homeland:

–         Doug Stern has been farming and ranching for the past 35 years on a 4^th generation family farm

–         Lukie Strydom has been farming and rancing for 10 years

 

SPEAKERS from the Finger Lakes, NY:

–         Art Hunt, co-owner of Hunt Country Vineyards, producer of an excellent variety of Finger Lakes wines

–         Christine Applegate, organic grower and member of Gas Drilling Awareness for Cortland County

 

Everyone is welcome – free and open to all.  Refreshments will be served.

 

Sponsored by: Shaleshock, Sustainable Tompkins, and Social Ventures, Inc.

 

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Background Information

A group of folks from South Africa (SA), on a 2-week fact finding tour, are interested to hear NY citizen views on the gas drilling technique known as “fracking”. The South African group is made up of two farmers and a news media person.

 

The panelists are Doug Stern, a self described 62 year farmer/rancher who has been actively raising cattle for the last 35 years in a region known as the Karoo.  Four generations of Sterns have farmed his land.   The second farmer is Lukie Strydom, a younger farmer; he has been farming/ranching with livestock for the past 10 years. He has also worked in the corporate world as a group general manager for a Global Retail Company. Freelance journalist, Jolynn Minnaar is the expected third member of the visiting SA delegation.

 

The SA moratorium is in response to planned shale deposit drilling by multinational oil giant, Shell.  Shell has submitted a request to drill in an area of South Africa that is home to hundreds of farmers who are concerned about the safety of hydofracking, a drilling process that requires huge amounts of water mixed with thousands of gallons of chemicals. The chemically treated water is a threat to livestock, food production and human health.

 

The Shell proposal could possibly affect a 95,000 square kilometer area known as the Karoo, a semi arid part of SA.  With small amounts of water available within the region, gas drilling water usage would compete with agricultural use.

 

The question of whether fracking and farming are compatible is seen by growing numbers of researchers to have tremendous importance for the future of NY agriculture.  This importance lies in ensuring that the food growing areas of NY remain adequately protected.

 

NY ers are not alone in trying to understand the connections between fracking and safe food production.  South Africa has recently enacted a nationwide Moratorium on fracking.  The government cited potentials for water pollution and other factors that could threaten food production as reasons for the moratorium.

 

 

Press Contact:  Hilary Acton, 257-4133