The complex insecurity of
Food insecurity remains a pressing issue in South Africa – one that every individual, organisation and government body should commit to ending
The Statistics South Africa report on Early Childhood Development in South Africa found that a third of children in Gauteng and Free State were stunted as a result of chronic malnutrition. South Africa also has one of the highest incidences of low birthweight rates in the world. This is hardly surprising when nearly 35% of pregnant women said they were unable to buy food for five or more days before the survey.
These statistics barely scrape the proverbial surface of the food security challenge that takes place against a backdrop of gross food wastage — around 10 million tonnes, according to the Food Loss and Waste: Facts and Futures report — there’s plenty of land but limited access to it, resulting in poor nutrition.
“Food security is a complex challenge as it sits amid a myriad of social problems that need to be addressed in our country,” says Andy du Plessis, managing director of FoodForward South Africa, an organisation that aims to reduce hunger by securing quality food and making it available to those who need it. “Poverty and unem- ployment are two leading factors and they are both complex to unpack and understand, much less address. This is further affected by housing issues, quality of education and social problems that are not being addressed. We are not seeing any big wins anywhere.”
Food security is a national crisis. The South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that, in urban areas, 28% of households were at risk of hunger while 26% were already experiencing hunger. In rural communities these statistics hit 32% and 36% respectively. Food security is more than just the arrival of a meal on the table; it spans a variety of factors that include malnutrition, obesity, hunger seasons and low dietary diversity.
“We should be paying attention. Roughly 50% of our population is food insecure or at risk of food insecurity,” says Du Plessis. “People are hungry or at risk, skipping meals or going for days without food so they can survive.”
The World Food Programme (WFP) defines people as being food secure when “they have availability and adequate access at all times to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. To achieve this, food must be available, people need access and food needs to be prepared in a way that delivers on nutritional requirements. In South Africa, these three boxes are difficult to tick.
“The biggest problem facing food security today is the increasing number of people who are food insecure with no intervention,” says Nolwazi Serero, chief executive of Selemo Sa Balemi, the name ‘The Farmer’s Harvest’ defining the role the company plays in creating value throughout the supply chain. “There are no subsidies to make food more affordable, no considerations around giving farmers incentives so that the value is passed down the chain. Then there is the issue of South Africa having become a net importer and not exporter, which means that food prices will continue to rise.”
For Serero, urbanisation and globalisation are putting the greatest pressure on food security. People are increasingly moving from rural into urban areas and their move is not only putting pressure on the urban supply chain, but it means fewer people are left in rural areas to drive subsistence farming and agriculture.
“The only way you can gain access to food in urban areas is to pay for it,” she says. “With an increasing number of people battling to find employment, particularly young people, this drives food insecurity. They no longer benefit from the harvest that comes from subsistence farming and both family and community managing supply and demand. This is further impacted by globalisation, as South African agriculture faces unfair competition from overseas.”
Access to land is a contentious issue, but it is one that has the potential to transform some of the challenges faced by South Africans who don’t have easy access to food or funds. However, in itself it is a complex equation that includes the limitations of land in the urban space and the access to viable land in the rural one.
“Access to space for people in vulnerable communities so they can grow enough food to sustain their dietary needs is critical,” says Orrin Barr, Food Security Programme head at Ekukhanyeni, a nongovernmental organisation that works with marginalised communities to build resilience to challenges such as food and nutrition insecurity.
“People living in 30-metre-square shacks with three or four families have no access to land to grow anything. We need to provide people with access to areas where they can grow their own food. In urban areas they don’t have access to food and often only get items that are going off already; in rural areas they are dealing with the legacy of abusive farming that has destroyed agriculture.”
For many, the trap that was sprung by poverty keeps them in a bleak grip of hunger and lack of opportunity. Children who suffer from malnutrition and hunger struggle to learn the skills that would allow them to break free and