Jane Battersby

Urban food insecurity in Cape Town, South Africa: An alternative approach to food access

This paper presents data from the African Food Security Urban Networks 2008 baseline survey of Cape Town. This survey found that 80% of the sampled households could be classified as moderately or severely food insecure. In urban areas the main driver of food insecurity is not availability but access. Access is typically viewed as being directly related to income. Households were found to use formal food markets, but more frequently depended on informal sector markets and informal social safety nets. The more food insecure and income poor a household was, the more likely it was to be dependent on less formal means of securing food. This suggests that there is some form of market failure in the formal food system. This paper therefore advocates for a food systems approach that validates and supports the role that the informal sector plays in urban food security.

BEYOND THE FOOD DESERT: FINDING WAYS TO SPEAK ABOUT URBAN FOOD SECURITY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract. Urban food security is a significant development challenge in sub‐Saharan Africa. However, the field is currently under ‐researched and under‐theorized. Urban food insecurity, where it is considered, has been viewed through a development studies lens that views food insecurity as a household‐scale problem. There has been significant focus on food deserts in developed countries as one way of engaging with such insecurity. The food deserts research views food insecurity through a social exclusion and food justice lens. This article introduces the food desert concept to provide a conceptual tool to begin to understand the spatial determinants of urban food insecurity, which are not well captured by the existing framings of food security in the region. Using data from a 2008 household food security survey conducted in Cape Town, the paper highlights gaps in the food deserts approach, most significantly its neglect of non‐market sources of food and of household decision‐making processes. The paper therefore concludes by suggesting a new approach which takes the households assets, abilities and decision‐making as the starting point and overlays this with the market and non‐market foodscapes accessed by these households.

Implications of supermarket expansion on urban food security in Cape Town, South Africa

The rapid rise in supermarkets in developing countries over the last several decades resulted in radical transformations of food retail systems. In Cape Town, supermarket expansion has coincided with rapid urbanization and food insecurity. In this context, retail modernization has become a powerful market-driven process impacting food access for the poor. The introduction of formal food retail formats is viewed simultaneously as a driver of food accessibility and as a detriment to informal food economies established in lower income neighborhoods. Through a mixed-methods approach, this article assesses the spatial distribution of supermarkets within Cape Town and whether this geography of food retail combats or perpetuates food insecurity, particularly in lower income neighborhoods. Spatial analysis using geographic information systems at a city-wide scale is combined with a qualitative case study utilizing semi-structured interviews and observational analysis in the Philippi township in order to illuminate the limitations of supermarket expansion as a market-oriented alleviation strategy for food insecurity. While supermarkets have been successful in penetrating some low-income communities, they are often incompatible with the consumption strategies of the poorest households, revealing the significance of the informal economy in Cape Town and the limitations of a food desert approach toward understanding urban food security.

MDGs to SDGs – new goals, same gaps: the continued absence of urban food security in the post-2015 global development agenda

Hunger and food insecurity have held prominent positions in the framing of both the Millennium Development Goals and the succeeding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper argues, however, that the food goal proposed within the SDGs is flawed in its approach towards achieving food security through its neglect of the urbanization of food insecurity in Africa and of the nutrition transition. The paper argues that these misalignments reflect a limited appreciation of the nature of food and nutrition insecurity in Africa and one that serves the interest of particular sets of development agendas.

The Making of Urban Food Deserts

The main objective of this book is to examine aspects of the relationship between food and cities in the Global South, and Africa in particular. While food security policy thinking at the global and national scale has largely neglected the urban dimension, those concerned with urban transformation have largely ignored food security and food systems. It is therefore important to understand the dimensions and character of the continent’s 21st century urban transition and to lay out what we do know about urban food systems and the drivers of food insecurity in the cities. The chapter first describes the urban transition currently under way in Africa and the main characteristics of Africa’s urban revolution. The next section examines the dimensions and challenges of urban food insecurity in African cities. Then the chapter turns to the actual connections between food and cities as seen through the lens of the concept of “food deserts.” It shows how each of the contributions to this volume illuminates different facets of the complex reality of the African urban food desert.

The Spatial Logic of Supermarket Expansion and Food Access

Although the rapid expansion in the number of supermarkets in Africa in recent years is well-documented, the potential impact of this process is not well understood. The existing literature does not engage adequately with the spatial distribution of supermarkets within cities and is therefore unable to address the impact of these stores on household food security. The paper presents a mapping of the location of supermarkets in Cape Town with reference to income characteristics of neighbourhoods and transport routes. The distribution of supermarkets is shown to be highly unequal and the distance of low-income areas from high-income areas hinders access to supermarkets for the urban poor. The chapter further argues that the supermarkets in lower-income areas typically stock less healthy foods than those in wealthier areas and, as a result, the supermarkets do not increase access to healthy foods and may in fact accelerate the nutrition transition.

How Food Secure Are South Africa’s Cities?

Food insecurity in South Africa remains a persistent challenge. Traditionally, food insecurity has been seen as affecting rural areas only, and this perspective had previously informed, and is still informing, policy and food security responses. South Africa is over 60% urbanised and yet policies and mandates regarding food security do not reflect this shift. This chapter seeks to answer the question ‘how food secure are South Africa’s cities?’, describing the state of food insecurity in South Africa’s cities, but also highlighting the specific nature of urban food insecurity. The chapter argues that food insecurity is the result of poorly framed and mandated policies, that food insecurity is driven by changes in the food system, and that spatial and structural issues also drive food insecurity. These challenges are reinforced in cities where the food insecure rely on the market as a means to ensure food availability. South Africa’s cities are food insecure and will remain so within the current market and governance regimes.

Addressing food security in African cities

In sub-Saharan Africa, the food system impacts on a number of urban development issues such as poverty, unemployment and poor health. Informal traders meet the food needs of many poor urban households. However, supermarket chains are changing this, demanding particular policy and planning responses.

Fault lines in food system governance exposed: reflections from the listeria outbreak in South Africa

ABSTRACT According to the World Health Organization (WHO), South Africa recently experienced the largest ever recorded outbreak of listeria (Listeria monocytogenes), with almost 1049 confirmed cases and 209 deaths between 1 January 2017 and 5 June 2018. South Africa’s listeria outbreak provides an opportunity to interrogate the relative power of the state and the private sector in shaping the food system and to re-evaluate the issues of traceability and broader governance. It also provides an opportunity to consider the determinants of diets and consequent health outcomes of the poor, and to develop policy and programmatic inventions better attuned to the lives of the poor and aligned for the creation of health.