Best of 2025: "No farmers, No food": A KZN dairy farmer’s explosive letter to Steenhuisen

In one of BizNews’ most-read pieces of 2025, dairy farmer Richard Adamson delivers a searing open letter to John Steenhuisen, exposing the immense pressures on South Africa’s farmers—from soaring input costs and supermarket power to collapsing rural infrastructure—and warning of the grave risks these pose to food security.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Richard Adamson.To the Honourable John Steenhuisen.Dear John,I hope you and your family are well and had a great Christmas. Sorry for the slow response. I have been buzzy with planting maize and battling through the dry, hot spell.I hope the letter is not written too badly, as I am a dyslexic farmer, but I am a good farmer with something to say. Farmers (Dairy) are in a so-called free market??? The farmers are controlled by the US dollar (world market price) on the input side and controlled by the supermarket cartel (Monopoly Capital) on the other side. For food security, this just does not work. Dairy farmers can't control any side of the market. This is not free trade!!! The world sneezes (Trump, Putin, Israel, Zuma, China, Terrorists) we pay, not the public or the supermarkets. With the Ukraine/ Russia war it cost my small business R2 000 000 extra on the fertilizer (400% increase) and fuel price. The supermarkets did not pay us extra; therefore, the farmers subsidised the Public on their Milk. We still have not got the loss back as the milk price dropped again from R8 65 to R6 50 per little this spring. To sustain our business, you must increase the size of your business. This is not possible due to land shortages. Larger dairy herds are not good for sustainable farming and the well-being of the animals. Factory farming or corporate farming is not the answer. Corporates just go after profit. They have no interest in the land, wildlife, sustainability or communities. For example, Mondi and Sappi. All they want is profit. Mondi and Sappi have no wildlife left in their forests, as they let the Ngonyama Trust hunt with dogs. Killed everything.Mondi and Sappi do not fence their trees and roadsides and let Ngonyama Trust cattle graze on the road verges and in the trees and pose a threat to our community on the road. Accident after accident, hitting cows and Horses. Solutions and thoughts in no particular order.The government need to control profits from fertilizers. During the 400% hick the Fertiliser company's recorded profits. The government needs to investigate the supermarkets (Monopoly Capital) for price fixing and bullying the milk processors. A major problem. The government (IDC) owns Foscor the phosphate mine in Phalaborwa. This mine is not functioning properly and sells phosphate at world market prices. Get the mine running properly and produce quantity. Zandheuvel Phosphate Mine at Elandsfontein needs to be brought to full capacity.Control the exchange rate to control input prices.???????The government must issue drilling licences for oil and gas. Namibia has left us behind—how embarrassing. We need to produce our own nitrogen and urea. Please visit the Underberg Farmers Association. Talk to us. Government support for farmers. Money was allocated for the KZN floods and the Drought seven or eight years ago, but farmers have never seen any of that money. Government should reduce the cost of water licences. To get a water licence to irrigate 56Ha is costing me About R1 000 000. We can't afford it. Reduce the price of electricity. We are paying for ANC corruption. Government support. This last winter we had an extremely heavy snowfall event and a major runaway fire in the Underberg and Bushman's Nek area. Not one government department responded or even asked if we were OK. My snow loss was R1 200 000 in a shed that collapsed and damage to equipment, apart from the clean up costs that have taken weeks to do and money we have not got. Runaway fire started by the BMA staff Braai at Bushman's Nek Border post.Cost Me thousands.Cost Bushman's Nek Hotel their hotel R400 000 000.Cost the community thousands of Rand. Not one word from the government!Government needs to stop the corruption in the BMA in our area. Government must stop the Sani Pass Border Post from taking bribes to let undocumented Basothos through the border post. Station commander.The government must get the Himeville Police to work with the Sani Pass Border Post police.Himeville will not work with them as the Sani Pass Police are corrupt.The government needs to make sure police commanders are qualified for their position and rank. I am on the Himeville police forum, and the station commander is not up to the task. Does not know the law. I brought up roadblocks and controlling livestock movements last week and she did not know what Foot and Mouth was. We have several black-owned farmers' trusts, and black-owned farms in our community.We have tried to help them get on and farm, but they all have had land invasions on them supported by the local municipality. The municipality has spent public money on all of these properties. This land is all zoned as agricultural land and has restrictions on what you can do on it. The community needs government help to control this. Durban is going to keep flooding if no control over the Ngonyama Trust takes place.There is no control over the land or house building.Houses being built on very steep ground.Roads being cut into the hillside.The biggest problem is overgrazing. The veld has been destroyed, and there is no ground cover. All the remaining veld gets burnt every winter.Due to point c. and d, there is no water holding capacity nor water absorption. This is why Durban gets flooded. The topsoil just washes away and the rain does not go into the soil but runs off.They plough lands anywhere and do not plant, then the soil runs away and Durban floods. The natural sponge is vanishing, and the dams will not fill in the future. They will just fill with sand, mud and litter. Government needs to take note. I go up to Lesotho frequently. This is what has happened in Lesotho. There is no sponge left. The soil has gone there because the sponge has gone. The dams in Lesotho will not last and JHB will not have water. There is very little access to government. No one answers their phone or replies to emails.Government websites are not updated, emails are incorrect, and phone numbers are incorrect. Our community needs StarLink. The rural community needs StarLink for communications. The corporations are not interested in the rural communities. Vodacom, MTN all have very little to no signal in our area. Post Office just closed its doors and left with our post never to be seen again. Our so-called internet works 50% of the time with extremely slow speeds. All communication stops when there is no Eskom, no sun, snow and when the fibre optics are cut between Durban and Underberg. This happens on a weekly basis. Underberg and Himeville is a relatively safe place due to our private security companies, road surveillance cameras, community watch, Police Forum and a very active community of all colours. It all costs a fortune. STEALTH TAX!!!This all hampers food security. One of my biggest worries is we do not pay our staff well enough. (Minimum wage and above) I pay as much as I can but there is not enough income due to the extremely low milk price. I think I have a very good relationship with my staff and have a great bunch of women and men. I just can't do enough for them. As you can gather, I am not a fan of Corporates. They are allowed to make a profit, as they can play the market and control prices. Prices always going up. Eskom seem to think they are entitled to make a profit. Can Farmers have the same entitlement please?You can't make farmers; you just must be born one. If you are born a farmer and you are not born with a farm it takes you your whole life to get to farm for yourself. I know. Non- or wannabe farmers can't work the long hours and 365 days a year. A major problem for farming communities is when wealth/ wealthy businessmen are allowed to buy farms. They do not understand farming. They throw money at it then when they are tired, they leave. No consequence to the community. In Mooi River, at the moment, there is a big trucking company buying farms up. This means there are eight fewer farmers in the Mooi River community. This is very bad for the community. Big business seems to think they can do what they want. Build dams, remove trees, and re-landscape the countryside. The supermarkets are also a great threat to the milk processors as well, as they can't set milk prices from the supermarkets. They are price takers as well. The supermarkets are putting the whole milk chain/ industry at risk of collapse. There have been many articles in the media this past week about the food inflation rate dropping. The farmers are blamed for the food price, but the farmers do not have anything to do with the food price. We are Price Takers. The media loves blaming the farmer. The farmers are under huge pressure and stress. Political pressure.Financial Pressure, we all took loans out to keep going when the Ukraine/ Russia war started. Social Pressure. Public pressureMedia PressureSecurity PressureInfrastructure pressureEmpower the Ngonyama Trust people and give them title deeds. If commercial farmers can't make money, how do you expect emerging farmers ever to get into farming? Farm business debt is very high. Input costs Up again this year.Eskom Up 18.65%Fertiliser upWater upFuel upLabour up, minimum wage upAnimal feed up (Concentrates)Tractors and machinery upSundry goods all upChemicals upFarm Gate Milk Down !!!!!!No Farmers No FoodNo Farmers No Water Sponge.No Farmers No Topsoil.No Farmers No WildlifeNo Roads No FoodNo Farmers No JobsThank you for listening. We need support and help.Please come and visit The Dairy industry in Underberg.Kind regards,Richard Adamson

Best of 2025: "No farmers, No food": A KZN dairy farmer’s explosive letter to Steenhuisen

Related Stories