Beatrice Conradie’s main interest is how agriculture copes with a changing natural and socio-political environment. She has an undergraduate degree in Agriculture and an honours degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University. Her masters, also from Stellenbosch, was on the potential for land reform in the apple industry. Her PhD from Colorado State University was on efficient water allocation in the Fish-Sundays irrigation scheme of the Eastern Cape. She also is director of the Sustainable Societies Unit in the CSSR at UCT.