A new report on the state of the food system in the City of Cape Town highlights the impact of deep-rooted inequalities – infrastructural, structural and historical – on urban food access and nutrition. The report is co-authored by urban food systems researchers, Gareth Haysom and Alison Pulker, as part of the AfriFOODLinks project.
The State of City Food System review is a first attempt to capture the state of the food system but as this relates to the wider City of Cape Town Food System. Despite the fact that Carolyn Steel argued that the best way to understand a city is through its food1, the food system of most African cities has always been viewed as separate to the wider and often more evident urban food processes from planning to the economy, from by-laws to governance structures.
This report is novel in that it seeks to challenge these “food as separate” views by actively engaging the food system of a city, but through an account of multiple other city functions and factors. It seeks to recentre the city food system as a central and core consideration of the city, after all, as one of the trail blazers seeking to urbanise food, Wayne Roberts argued, “a city is what it eats”. This report focuses on a number of non-food system related aspects. This focus is informed by the question asked in a recent Food and Agricultural Organisation report questioning “what happens when the food and urban systems intersect at the city scale?” In an attempt to engage this, and aligned to the objectives of the AfriFOODlinks project, to take stock of existing data, knowledge and perspectives of immediate need, while actively seeking overlooked and under-utilised urban food systems knowledge by undertaking urban food system landscaping and situational analyses that span key urban systems (food, health, socio- economics, urban/infrastructure services).
This report is also an initial attempt to understand the intersections between the urban systems and the food systems of Cape Town.
The reviews seek to gather and engage existing published knowledge, drawn from food and nutrition system assessments, stakeholder mapping, retailer mapping, engaging urban food policies, programmes and strategic plans across government scales, through literature, both nonfiction and fiction, on the cities. The objective is to begin building an understanding of both what is known about the urban system and the urban food system, but also, what is not known about both the urban and urban food systems of those cities. This report starts this process. It spans multiple and at times contradictory sources of evidence, spanning dates and scales.
The report does not purport to be complete or comprehensive. It is, however, a stake in the ground from which existing knowledge can be tested, verified and deepened. It is a foundation for the wider process of engaging in, activating and questioning the food system of Cape Town. It is also an initial attempt to understand the intersections between the urban systems and the food systems of Cape Town. It is hoped that this report will offer the necessary tools to ensure that at the conclusion of the AfriFOODLinks project, an account of the urban system is embellished, and rich in accounts that speak directly to the state of the city food system.