From:

*****

Sent:

Monday, November 21, 2011 7:08 AM

To:

Sandra Jeffery

Subject:

RE: Timberlea Farm

Dear SandraI appreciate your time in replying to my email. You have presented an array ofimpressive documents, all of which seem to imply conformity to fresh producegrowing standards. Whilst these are critical and important, I need to first understandthem with pertinent relevance to the impact of pesticides on residential areas as youcorrectly point out we are living in an agricultural area. One cannot deny that spraydrift has been originating from the farm as the wind did in fact blow very hard the twonights concerned and we definitely found traces on our vehicles. I am no expert, I canonly go with what logically seems to be what happened. And finding a lot of deadinsects around our garden (I do not use pesticides – I believe in natural predation –namely birds) it was a startling discovery and one that made me question what washappening in our immediate environment. That and the fact that we were suffering fromsinusitis symptoms.I am forwarding your correspondence to Jurgen Schirmacher Chairman of the TATIBFoundation. There is concern among residents and as farms surround us we need toreach a compromise. There is no denying that you do need to spray, it isunderstandable and unavoidable – BUT the concern is how it is done. The methods ofspraying seem archaic given the huge technological developments in our society –surely there are better, safer and less wasteful methods of applying pesticides?Kind regards ******** Welgevonden Resident

-----Original Message-----

From:

Sandra Jeffery [mailto:sandra@tftrust.co.za]

Sent:

18 November 2011 10:07

To:

********

Subject:

Timberlea Farm

I hear your concerns and can only respond with the following:

Firstly, all agricultural practices taking place on our farm are withininternational and local due diligence guidelines and specifications. Allspraying that is done is done in the best agricultural practice, according to ourcustomers’ requirements. These customers include Woolworths, Marks &Spencer and Waitrose in the UK. We are thoroughly audited by all thesebodies and these audit results I have attached so you can see that we are notdoing anything unlawful. Unfortunately Welgevonden was built in agriculturalland, and the residents thereof have chosen to come and live in thewinelands. Spraying and other farm related activities will continue to happenregardless of who chooses to live around the farms. It is because of this thatthe regulating bodies have set up these stringent guidelines, which I canassure you we adhere to.