Phansi, profiteers, Phansi! The Constitution guarantees the right to food and there is enough for all, but a system that prioritises profits over people undermines both society and justice. SCHALK MOUTON
I
f we are serious about solving the massive food insecurity problem in South Africa, then it is time to completely overhaul the food system in the country. This is the view of Dr Tracy Ledger from the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), who believes that food provision should be treated the same as other services guaranteed in Section 27 of our Constitution. “The last time I read Section 27, nowhere did it guarantee the right to make a profit, but it does guarantee the right to food,” says Ledger, who wrote the book, An empty plate: Why we are losing the battle for our food system, why it matters and how we can win it back. “We have been very successful in
commoditising food and leaving food distribution in the hands of commercialised retailers. If we treated water or education [other rights guaranteed in Section 27] the way we treat food, it would mean that we would have handed over the decision about who gets water and who doesn’t to the profit-making sector,” she says. “We all understand that this isn’t in our collective best interests when it comes to water, but when it comes to food, we do exactly that. We all carry the enormous social costs of that decision.”
ACCESS AND COST OVER QUANTITY Food security, says Ledger, is not just about producing more food. It is
about reducing the cost of food and making it more accessible to vulnerable communities. “While it may generate some employment opportunities for a few people, there is no way that establishing a couple of rooftop food gardens in Johannesburg is going to feed the literally millions of food insecure people in the city,” she says. According to the fifth Quality of Life survey released on 13 November 2018 by the Wits-based Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), a guaranteed, regular meal is increasingly out of reach for families living in the province’s cities. Overall, one in five households (21%) has gone hungry this year. Since 2014, the number of households
A THRIFTY BASKET OF FOOD CONTAINS:
SUGAR
THE AVERAGE MONTHLY COST OF A THRIFTY BASKET FOR A FOUR-MEMBER HOUSEHOLD IS ESTIMATED AT R2 786 Source: Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy 2018
Nadette Voogd
12
