Advances in Food Security and Sustainability - Chapter 1: Advances in Food Security and Sustainability in South Africa

There is overwhelming evidence that the national food system in South Africa is in crisis, without any clear or shared understanding of a pathway toward a more sustainable configuration. Indeed, given several powerful trends that seem set to continue, there is a high level of urgency required for change: alternative pathways are required more than ever. In this chapter, we outline some key interventions that are being made across the food system in an attempt to shift the system onto a more desirable pathway. In particular, these initiatives have been identified and analyzed in terms of how they grapple with some of the negative trends driving the food system. It is argued that these innovations, if appropriately scaled, could nudge South Africa's food system into being more sustainable as well as more equitable.