An investigation of the role of food democracy in food security policy and research outcomes in South Africa

Abstract

Food insecurity in South Africa is framed by historically and spatially entrenched socioeconomic inequality, and driven by shocks and stresses from a globally integrated food system. Although the government has introduced an array of social protection measures on a scale unique among developing countries, and unparalleled in Sub-Saharan Africa, food insecurity and malnutrition are widespread and persistent, manifesting as concurrent underweight and obesity. Over the years, efforts to better characterise and understand South Africa’s food security situation have generated data and information that quantify problems and reveal broad patterns of deprivation. However, these studies offer few insights into local food environments or the interactions of people with the food system. Policy processes have been neither inclusive nor consultative, stalling progress towards the fulfilment of the constitutional right to food. The purpose of this research is to explore current policies and policymaking processes with reference to South Africa’s poorest rural communities using a food democracy-informed approach. The study is informed by a review of multidisciplinary literature on food security and nutrition policy, social history and current global food politics. Field research and community consultations investigated three specific objectives. The first specific objective set out to explore the potential for structural transformation in policy and the role of food insecure citizens in food security policy processes, using a narrative analysis of the 2014 Household Food and Nutrition Security Strategy for South Africa. The second specific objective explored the food consumption patterns of rural households in four of the poorest communities in South Africa. The study drew on a formal survey as part of a larger commissioned team project and extended the insight from this quantitative data through fieldwork to gather qualitative data. The second objective involved further analysis of the data using a framework of food citizenship to understand the agency of rural poor people in shaping local food systems. For the third objective, the project data were then subject to participatory validation and interpretation with the communities to explore the potential of knowledge co-creation with food security policy stakeholders. Together, the findings of these three components of the study demonstrated why research and policymaking should be more inclusive and representative of the most food insecure. The policy review revealed that, although the state recognises the need for structural changes, the parameters are constrained and processes are unclear, while citizens are viewed not as stakeholders but instead as welfare beneficiaries, charity recipients, and passive consumers. Analysis in the second objective showed that, in spite of many obstacles and challenges, poor rural people are active agents in shaping local food systems. For the third objective, the fieldwork and participatory data validation and interpretation showed the potential of co-creation of knowledge with communities to enrich understandings of food insecurity, while potentially also contributing to solutions to rural food security and nutrition problems. The study concluded that prevailing policy approaches miss opportunities to create transformation through more inclusive processes, which would help the country progress towards the fulfilment of the right to food. Relying solely on quantitative data limits the transformative potential of engagement. Even multidisciplinary food security and nutrition data can be further enriched through knowledge co-creation with communities. As multifaceted stakeholders with multiple roles as food producers, consumers, workers and entrepreneurs and social protection beneficiaries, community members have the capacity to actively negotiate local food environments and shifting social and economic situations. Rural people are both entitled to, and necessary to inclusive policy making, research and problem-solving. Food democracy has an important role in food security policy and research and should be informing approaches to both.