Food is one of the essentials of life and yet relatively little attention is paid to how it reaches us in our cities. Although there has always been enough food to feed everyone in Cape Town, up to eighty percent of residents in low income areas struggle to access adequately nutritious and affordable food. In urban centres worldwide, areas of food scarcity and oversupply exist in close proximity. The complexity of food production, distribution, access, control and consumption are critical development challenges for all cities – no less for Cape Town. This three-lecture course will investigate the workings of the Cape Town food system and will argue that food is an essential lens through which to view urban sustainability and issues of justice.
LECTURE TITLES
1. Philippi horticultural area: food flows and politics (Dr Jane Battersby)
2. Food and urban sustainability (Dr Jane Battersby)
3. The urban food policy gap (Dr Jane Battersby)
Lecturers associated with Food Security and Ways of Knowing projects hosted by the Africa Centre for Cities
Recommended reading
Joubert, L. 2012. The Hungry Season. South Africa: Pan MacMillan.
Lemonick, M.D. Top 10 Myths about Sustainability in Scientific American. March 2009, 19, pps. 40–45.
Online recommended reading:
African Food Security Urban Network (You can download interesting AFSUN publications here)
The Lexicon of Sustainability
World Food Programme – Hunger Stats
A Political Economy of the Food Riot by Raj Patel & Philip McMichael
Date: Monday 28–Wednesday 30 January
Time: 5.30 pm
Course fees: Full: R210,00
Staff: R105,00
Reduced: R53,00
UCT Summer School details
