Traditional Food Systems as a Tool for Achieving Food Sovereignty in South Africa

Abstract

With a national food system characterized as being variety deficient, and a heavy reliance on commercially available food options, South Africa (SA) faces issues of food insecurity at a household level, despite being considered food secure at a national level. This chapter investigates the challenges attributed in national food systems, in spite of their promising status in literature, these food systems are marked with lack of dietary diversity, inadequate access to food, and nutrition insecurities, specifically, at a household level. The study aims to explore the potential of traditional food systems in ensuring food and nutrition security, and to examine their role in achieving food sovereignty for rural and indigenous communities in South Africa. A scoping literature review was applied to investigate how the traditional food systems in indigenous communities have so far managed to offer household food security, and how said food systems, with adequate policy and social efforts, could be applied on a broader scale, with the intention of achieving national food sovereignty in South Africa.