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I loved seeing Bettina farm. It’s a family and she is now running the dairy operation while her husband is on paternity leave. Again, girl power 🫶🏽

What looked like a pile covered with plastic and old tyres was actually silage that’ll ferment the feed that helps preserve nutrients for the cows throughout the year. Good feed management matters because it directly influences animal health, milk production and milk quality. On a separate occasion at , I bought milk that showed 3.5% fat label in front. One thing I noticed in Germany is how easy food labels are to read. This carton tells me it’s whole milk, contains 3.5% milk fat, has been UHT treated and carries a Nutri-Score rating. In South Africa we also have detailed nutritional labels, but consumers are often expected to interpret the information themselves rather than relying on a simple colour coded system. What a label doesn’t tell you is the story behind the milk. Visiting Bettina’s dairy farm reminded me that a lot goes behind farming like feed quality, animal welfare and farm management long before a carton reaches a supermarket shelf.

Germany’s average dairy cow produces over 8,000 litres of milk per year, supported by strong infrastructure and well-managed feeding systems. South African dairy farmers operate under very different conditions, often dealing with load shedding, water challenges and higher production risks. Yet we have some of the world’s most innovative farmers and excellent dairy products! 🇿🇦

The biggest lesson I took home is value addition and that the the real opportunity is often in processing, branding and building a relationship with consumers rather than selling a raw product. Thanks for the wonderful tour and delicious ice cream Bettina. 🇩🇪

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No photo can truly prepare you for the scale and detail and sheer presence of this masterpiece. You get why it took 632 years from the first stone to complete. Standing here, I couldn’t help but think about the generations of people who dreamed, designed and built something far bigger than themselves.

Travel has a way of reminding us that the world is both vast and beautifully connected. Today, I got to experience a piece of that wonder. The cathedral survived extensive bombing during WW 2 while much of Cologne around it was destroyed so essentially, this magnificent gothic structure is a symbol of resilience.

Still in awe. 🇩🇪❤️

We had the honour of visiting Lehnertz family farm, a generational egg production farm and agro processor which is now female run (girl power !), one of the observations were the massive wind turbines and the lessons about the energy transition which is actually about ownership.

Germany’s Energiewende created opportunities for citizens, farmers and energy cooperatives to participate directly in the renewable energy economy. At its peak, around 42% of the country’s renewable energy capacity was owned by citizens and farmers, helping turn the energy transition into a community project rather than simply an infrastructure project that people will debate on incessantly (We don’t want our views obscured by these gigantic gadgets, what about the birds etc)

This made me reflect on home

South Africa’s ion is often discussed in terms of coal, emissions, investment and new generation capacity. Yet one of the most important questions remains: who benefits?

Across South Africa’s operational renewable energy projects, community ownership averages about 8.4%. In however…the Makana Winds of Change Community Trust holds a 26% stake in the Waainek Wind Farm on behalf of local communities.

That is significant!!!

As new renewable energy projects emerge across and other coal regions, the conversation should not only be about how much energy we generate but also who owns this renewable value created.

The energy transition is not only about replacing coal with wind and solar. It is about ensuring communities participate in the opportunities, wealth and development that follow.

Credit to those who helped make this possible, including Kevin Monkoff, Dr Garth Cambray, EDF Power Solutions, , local landowners, community representatives and the Makana Winds of Change Community Trust.

Always inspired 🌟

Where leadership meets real connection with
…good people, good energy.

Great conversations, shared laughs and a little dancing too. An unforgettable evening with

Learning as I walk through the historically rich city.

Visited the roof water farm in Berlin which has a system built on foresight and luckily, research funding. This media is fertilised by us (from our urine :))
Since the 1980s, some buildings separated black and grey water, allowing urine to be safely recycled, filtered and fed into aquaponics. Nothing wasted, everything intentional.

It’s a reminder that aquaponics can’t stay a concept. It has to work for our realities, infrastructure, policy, water scarcity, energy limits. At we’re piloting, collecting data, testing what actually works on the ground, not just what looks good on paper. Water is life, but systems make it usable.

climatesmartagriculture

On our date, I enjoyed a lovely Etna Rosso w**e made from Nerello Mascalese grapes grown in the literal lava ash of Mt. Etna. It’s light, smoky and officially my new favourite discovery, mainly because the waiter said I would smell aromatic herbs and I actually did (I struggle to pick up the notes).