Food Sovereignty and Urban Agriculture: Concepts, Politics, and Practice in South Africa

Description

This book analyses the interplay of urban agriculture and food sovereignty through the innovative lens of the "critical urban food perspective". It focuses on the mobilisation of urban food producers as a powerful response to highly exclusionary dynamics in the agri-food system including insufficient food access and disastrous land dispossessions. This volume particularly aims to fill the gap in the current literature by engaging with food sovereignty discourses and movements in urban areas. Related activism of urban food producers in the Global South remains underrepresented in practice and in literature. Therefore, this book engages with the lived realities of an urban agriculture initiative in George, South Africa. Building on theoretical notions of the "right to the city" and "everyday forms of resistance", the book illuminates how deprived food producers expose inequalities and propose alternatives. The findings of in-depth empirical research reveal that dwellers perceive farming as a mean to overcome historical segregation, high food prices, and unhealthy nutrition. Hence, they breathe life into food sovereignty in practice and suggest further alliances beyond the city. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of alternative food politics, agrarian transformation, and food movements as well as rural-urban intersections. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Why food sovereignty in the city matters now Confronting the dominant agri-food system Urban agriculture, exclusion, and calls for food sovereignty Analytical framework: critical urban food perspective Research approach Overview of the book Notes References Chapter 2: Rethinking South Africa’s agri-food system: Notions of food sovereignty and urban agriculture South Africa’s commercialised agri-food system Food sovereignty in discourse: roots, actors, and challenges Initial challenges Incipient attempts towards food sovereignty Further endeavours and urban issues Notions of urban agriculture and introduction of the case study Kos en Fynbos Concluding remarks Notes References Chapter 3: Exposing marginalisation: Food and farming in the city Initial mobilisation Socio-economic backgrounds Different types of urban agriculture and microhistories Blanco Pacaltsdorp Thembalethu Organisation and cooperation Garden Route Botanical Garden George Herald George Municipality – Local Economic Development Unit Landmark Foundation Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, George Campus, Saasveld Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) in the Eden region Further actors: “moral supporters” and other donors Critical reflection of the prevailing nutrition landscape Concluding remarks Notes References Chapter 4: Proposing food sovereignty Local access to nutritious food Valuing food providers Farmer Support and Development Unit Local Economic Development Unit Unemployment and market access: the role of the informal sector Access to land Community knowledge and skills Biodiversity and connection to nature Concluding remarks Notes References Chapter 5: Politicising alternatives from below Uncovering political dimensions and rights to the city Growing food sovereignty across the rural–urban divide Creating changes within and beyond the existing system Concluding remarks Notes References Chapter 6: Conclusions: Urban South Africa and beyond Critical urban food perspective Lived realities of food producers at the urban margins Political dimensions and food producers’ agency Trajectories of food sovereignty and alliances References Index