Alternative food networks and food insecurity in South Africa

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dc.contributor.authorHaysom, Gareth
dc.date.accessioned2019-03-14T11:00:46Z
dc.date.available2019-03-14T11:00:46Z
dc.date.issued2016-06
dc.description.abstractFood security remains a persistent global challenge. Inequality means that food insecurity is disproportionately experienced. Despite positive shifts in the state of food security at a global scale, recent reports from the Food and Agricultural Organisation suggest that in Africa the total number of undernourished people continues to increase. The paper argues that there is a certain “stuckness” in food security responses. The mutually converging transitions of the urban transition, food regime shifts and the nutrition transition demand different ways of understanding the food system, food security and the components thereof, including value chains. The paper reviews efforts designed to respond to these mutually reinforcing challenges but argues that generalisations are problematic. Borrowing concepts from the North is equally problematic. Using the concept of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), the paper interrogates these networks and asks how such alternative networks manifest in the context of food insecurity in South African cities. AFNs evident in Northern cities and regions are generally privileged and present a perspective of the food system that prioritises sustainability and a deep green and often local ethic, embodying aspirations of food system change. In Southern cities, food system engagement is less about engagement for change, but rather, engagement to enable food access. Traditional value chain parlance sees a value chain extending from producer to consumer. The food access value chain present within poor urban communities in South Africa reflects more than just financial transactions. Transactions of reciprocity and social exchange are embedded within food security strategies, and are often informed by the enactment of agency. Using the term “the food access continuum” this paper calls for a far more expansive view of food access strategies and networks. Understanding these networks is essential to effective food and nutrition security policy and programming.en_US
dc.identifier.citationHaysom, G., 2016 Alternative food networks and food insecurity in South Africa, Working Paper 33. Cape Town: PLAAS, UWC and Centre of Excellence on Food Security.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10566/4521
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherInstitute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Capeen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseriesWorking Paper;33
dc.subjectFood insecurityen_US
dc.subjectAlternative food networksen_US
dc.subjectUrban food securityen_US
dc.subjectAgencyen_US
dc.subjectFood governanceen_US
dc.titleAlternative food networks and food insecurity in South Africaen_US
dc.typeWorking Paperen_US

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