Democratising South Africa’s food system in and beyond the crisis
Thursday, 21 May 2020 at 13:00
Join PLAAS for the next webinar in this series. This webinar, “Democratising South Africa’s food system in and beyond the crisis”, explores corporate domination in the South African food system.
Our food system regularly fails to provide affordable nutritious food to the majority of the population—now more than ever. During the Covid-19 lockdown, the fault lines of corporate domination in the food system have been exposed. Supply chains linking commercial farms to big food manufacture to supermarkets are largely intact and shelves are stocked, but food prices are escalating. Yet locked out of this system are vast numbers of small-scale farmers, who have now lost their access to informal markets. Food relief efforts have reinforced this divide by pouring money from government, social solidarity and the private sector into the corporate food system. What is to be done?
Join this solution-oriented webinar to hear and debate:
- What is happening to food prices in the corporate food system and why?
- How are small-scale farmers affected by lockdown and how are they responding?
- What alternative food supply chains can be built through social solidarity and endure beyond the crisis?
The speakers for this webinar are:
- Mervyn Abrahams of the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group in KwaZulu-Natal, which monitors food baskets and food prices in supermarkets and among informal traders
- Reinette Heunis of Mawubuye Land Rights Forum, Suurbraak, which organises small-scale farmers and is currently buying fresh produce from its members to provide nutritious food parcels in parts of the Western Cape
- Stephen Greenberg of the African Centre for Biodiversity which is working with other civil society organisations and social movements in Gauteng to build alternative short and local supply chains between small-scale farmers and urban communities to buy and distribute food.
Watch the webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DjDw5PsBso Or click below to view.
