One in three don’t get enough food

While the hunger rate in the country continues to rise, the food industry has been monopolised and commercial farmers actually produce a surplus of food.

This is according to environmental nongovernmental organisation Biowatch South Africa.

Biowatch referred to the recent UN report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition, which stated that one in three people globally did not have adequate access to food, despite food production being adequate to feed the world’s population.

While today marks World Food Day, the UN report found that 161 million more people around the world faced hunger last year, which was worsened by the Covid pandemic.

The UN found it unacceptable that the world produced enough food to feed the entire population but that 1.5 billion people could not afford a nutritious diet and three billion could not afford the cheapest healthy diet.

South Africa was no different, as its approximately 40 000 commercial farmers produced a surplus of food while hunger in the country continued to increase, said Biowatch advocacy, research and policy coordinator Vanessa Black.

“It’s equally bad in South Africa. What we are seeing is that last year, although the statistics are a bit behind, 16% of the country face acute food security, meaning they are not just missing some meals, but there is acute hunger. It is predicted to rise to 20% in 2021.

“We actually produce more than enough food than we need. We produce 120% of our dietary energy requirements per capita. We produced extra.

“The real issue is this industrialised food system – the majority of commercial farmers are actually not feeding us, even though they overproduce,” she said.

While domestic workers and general workers earned an average of between R3 200 and R3 600 per month in September, the monthly Household Affordability Index found the average food basket cost a household an average of R4 219. Compared to the same month last year, the average household food basket increased by R363, according to the index.

But instead of supporting local farmers for a more sustainable solution which would also benefit their communities, the focus was on the industrialised, commercial farms which supply giant retailers to subsequently benefit investors instead, said Black.