Moenieba Isaacs, Professor at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of Western Cape (UWC), gives her thoughts on how a sustainable food system in South Africa and other African countries would look like.
1. How does your ideal sustainable food system look like in the context of your country/region of expertise?
A food systems need to be looked at from a political economic lens, this is in terms of asking ‘who really benefits from the food system’. There are different types of food systems - particularly the big food producers that are pushing unhealthy food options (like high in sugar, saturated fats, salts etc.) that causes a lot of non-communicable diseases like hypertension, obesity, diabetes etc. In South Africa the big food is an important lens to look through to see who benefits.
The food system that I think is more conducive or favorable is one that supports local food security in its consumption and use local plants and resources to consume. Challenge however is that many local products are exported. So the exporting of locally produced and consumed foods is highly problematic and also leads to food insecurity. What we found in South Africa in particular is that you can be obese, food insecure and malnourished at the same time. So, nutrition should be linked to food security. You can't just be food secure but must also be nutritional secure.
We have a food system that is industrialized and mechanized that produce more than the food that we need, but we still have over 9 million people that are food insecure, hungry and malnourished, and a large percentage of that is children. So if you do not have policies that encourage local production and consumption of foods, you will certainly be in the same situation as South Africa sits in where you have the big foods that benefits and those who have money can buy food to consume. A rethink of how we produce food and the consumption patterns of that food is important.
2. Can you share with us your experience of supporting changes/ transitions towards sustainable food systems in a country/region?
I have always been an advocate on including fish, particularly small fish like the sardines, as part of the diet for poor people. The fish consumption pattern in South Africa is very low with an average of 6 kg/year, as opposed to those in Ghana who consume 26 kg/year. Sardine fish in South Africa is actually canned in tins and can easily be transported and stored for long duration without refrigeration. People do buy fish, but they do not consume as much as they would need in terms of nutrition. The consumption of fish is often a last choice and not made on a regular basis. Therefore, fish as a part of food system is important to me.
There is often a lot of focus on fortification of grains and cereals but my argument is why not just eat fish and get the protein directly from the source rather than fortifying of grains and nutrients. The industrialized fisheries also focus on fishmeal as feed to chicken, aquaculture and to the pet industry as it is more profitable. Therefore, the divergence between fish suitable for human consumption and other varieties has increased from a profitability perspective.
I have also been part of a rapid research project during covid on the African food system with a comparison of South Africa, Ghana and Tanzania. What we found out was that the modern industrialized and mechanized food system that South Africa has was not conducive for local people as they did not produce their own food and had to resort to a lot of government interventions to buy food to feed themselves.
There is a high unemployment rate in South Africa and a lot of people has to move to look for a job on a daily basis to feed themselves. However, with covid, there was lockdown which affected their movement, which resulted in a high food insecurity during this period. This was however not the case in Tanzania, where they never had any lockdown and small-scale producers were able to provide food which kept the people more food secure. Also, they were not allowed to export so the large export quality fish were more readily available in the market. This showed how important small-scale producers, market system and diversity (including crops) in Tanzania contributed to food security. In Ghana, there was intermittent lockdowns and those who could utilize the digital platforms were able to secure food while others, for example the women, were quite vulnerable. Elites benefitted from the digital platforms.
3. In your view, what are the key triggers and success factors for change to happen?
I think we need to slow down the intensive production of how we farm and how we fish. Some of the triggers, which are also related to climate change, are that we have to change the fishing methods in order not to subsidize the trawlers and the fishing outside our own territories.
More support should be given to sustainable harvesting methods for smallholders and hand net fishing instead of promoting mechanized and motorized vehicles.
A key success factor in the food system is to change consumption patterns. We overconsume when it comes to meat, and chicken and practices of fish (caught by trawlers). We need to eat local food and in season. In the sense not to expect the grapes in winter and oranges in summer.
Policies should align to sustainable harvesting practises and restoration of soil and giving sufficient time for fish to restore. This means slowing down the patterns of economic system, consumption and not being so efficient.
This interview was made by Tashi Yangzom, ICRA Bhutan, at the Science Policy Lab in Malmö on June 18-19, 2024.
Moenieba Isaacs is Professor at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of Western Cape (UWC). She is the academic manager for postgraduate teaching, co-coordinator of accredited short-course training on the Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa and on Living Landscapes in Action: new thinking on integrating biodiversity and social justice in southern Africa.