Fragmented policy in SA food security
THE food system in South Africa is heavily influenced by the poorest social classes and the choices they make, despite much of the power being held by large corporations.
This is one of the findings from the Centre of Excellence in Food Security’s agro-food value chain, regulation and formal and informal livelihoods project, co-ordinated by Shane Godfrey and Gareth Haysom of the University of Cape Town.
Their research shows a fragmented and incoherent policy in agriculture and food security.
This is particularly true of the informal economy, which has been ignored or maligned by policymakers despite playing an important part in ensuring poor South Africans can eat.
These findings are the outcome of an 18-month review. The project by 20 researchers considered social, legal, corporate and governance aspects to better understand the systems that govern access to and the distribution of food.
Godfrey says that despite the diverse research topics, the process generated interesting connections, and highlighted important questions to ask, such as who holds the power in food value chains and how this affects price changes?
The value chain approach refers to the chain of production from raw materials to consumer products (and beyond, to include waste management and recycling).
An analysis tries to understand all the different players, or nodes in the chain and looks at relationships between them.
Godfrey says: “In every value chain, certain players have more power and others less; this affects how value is distributed.
“This disparity leads to complex systems that are hard to study.”
The working papers produced raise issues of food access, employment and labour practices, nutrition and food safety, consumer vs corporate power, and the overlap of formal and informal markets.
An example of how these issues intersect is that of Margereet Visser’s research into the conditions of workers on fruit and wine farms in the Western Cape.
After apartheid, the singlechannel marketing system was deregulated, which significantly reduced the bargaining power farmers had with major international retailers.
The power disparity that arose has enabled the retailers to keep prices down – which meant that progressive labour laws made little headway in improving the working and living conditions of farm workers.
There is evidence that the government’s focus on promoting rural production as a path to national food security has not acknowledged the informal sector’s key role in promoting access to food or the fact that 60% of our people live in cities.
In general, the lack of appropriate policy on food security has undermined food security.
The next step is to seek solutions.
MOLOGADI MAKWELA DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security