The crown jewel of this effort is an architecturally striking new private school nestled in the Magaliesberg mountains, overlooking Phokeng and the sage-and-olive lands of the Bafokeng.
Olive farming on sloping land in southern Europe is facing multiple challenges and it is reasonable to believe that farmers will opt for the abandonment of some systems and intensification or change to organic production of other systems.
They live in a land called the Olive Country (where they grow, surprisingly enough, olives), where there is no fresh water and all books have been destroyed, and which is ruled by a tyranny reminiscent of Big Brother (the George Orwell version, not the Channel 4 one).
I see youth from the cities returning to orange or olive farming on their parents' patch of land.
Since about half of the cultivated land in the occupied territories is used for olive farming, olive trees [pdf] became a major casualty of this expansion.
While olives are traditionally grown in conjunction with other crops or livestock, nearly half the olive-producing land now excludes other types of cultivation, reflecting the demise of traditional peasant farming methods.
Soil microbial activity appears to be enhanced during olive mill waste land application.
On December 10th Israeli soldiers broke up a Palestinian attempt to plant olive trees on land they claim as theirs.
Poorly protected or medium-low value added classes (vineyards, arable land, olive groves and pastures) experienced fragmentation processes compared with protected or high-value added classes (e.g. forests, olive groves) showing larger 'core' areas and lower fragmentation.
Abu Ahmed is prosperous by the region's standards, growing tomatoes, cantaloupes and olives on his land.
Together, father, daughter, Israeli activists and villagers succeeded in saving thousands of olive trees, their lands and the fabric of their community.
