The 2023 Food Dialogues will address the looming crisis in South Africa which is being labelled as a “polycrisis” – The talks will help create understanding in combatting the crisis.
Cape Town, South Africa (22 June 2023) – The 2023 Food Dialogues taking place across different venues in the City of Cape Town from 04 to 18 July 2023 will turn its focus on society’s challenges in the context of a polycrisis gripping the globe and its knock-on effect on food systems.
Polycrisis is a term used to describe multiple disparate crises, which together have an overwhelmingly greater impact than the sum of the individual events. This year’s theme is a call to action for integrated responses to these compounding issues that interlink despite their individual weight on society.
“We are barely out of a global pandemic, and are now dealing with load shedding, a pending water crisis, the impacts of climate change and potential natural system shocks. How we strengthen our food systems to face these challenges is what we will focus on during this year’s event” says Kurt Ackermann, CEO of the SA Urban Food & Farming Trust that organises the Food Dialogues event.
But that’s not all Food Dialogues will address. How can the lens of decolonisation and other conceptual re-framings help us imagine alternative approaches? How do food businesses navigate ongoing periods of volatility, uncertainty and risk, and what future is in store for our food economy? And how do these crises make a difference to South Africans confronting daily shocks and stresses in vulnerable communities in the world’s most unequal society? Building resilience against this clear system breakdown is part of the solutions that will come under the spotlight at various events during the 2023 Food Dialogues.
“Rather than going from one state of emergency to the next we need to think about the interrelationships between these crises and where they overlap,” adds Ackermann.
The unappetising threat of isolated responses
On 12 July 2023, a full-day in-person conference under the theme The Polycrises and our Food System will take place. Professor Mark Swilling at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University and a member of the National Planning Commission is among this year’s featured participants. He says a polycrisis response takes into account the danger of focusing only on one dimension.
“A polycrisis focused response means taking into account the multiple interventions that have to be interdependent in order to address the challenges which we face. A society that is resilient to multiple and compounding crises, is a society where there is capacity across all sectors to read, understand and act in a way that appropriately addresses the challenges by building partnerships and partnering capabilities because no sector on its own has the resources or the funding to address the challenges,” says Prof Swilling.
The 2023 programme also includes a free virtual event (registration required) taking place via Zoom on 10 July that is set to provide deep insights and diverse perspectives on the crises impacting urban food systems across Africa and how we can learn from one another in order to navigate the way forward. The diverse panel includes speakers from Uganda, Kenya, Tunisia and Burkina Faso who will dive into topics on Business and the Economy, Health and Disease as well as the Food-Water-Energy Nexus.
So, how can society respond to these challenges in ways that consider their interrelated dynamics? For example, a popular solution to climate change and the need for cleaner fuels are Biofuels. However, biofuels introduce new risks to water security and will further strain ecosystems that are already constrained by overuse and climate change. By taking into account more than just the need for cleaner energy when introducing solutions to mitigate climate change, societies can balance the risks and benefits of its responses to multiple interrelated challenges.
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“The problem is the food system is configured in such a way that there is large amounts of waste – 30% to 40% – and it is configured in a way that tends to work better for the privileged middle and upper classes who have the resources to buy decent food while there is a degradation of affordable food that is available to the poorer sections of society who are dependent on informal economic systems,” Swilling says.
Whatever your flavour and appetite for future-proofing society against these compounding shocks, the 2023 Food Dialogues also promises to tantalise the taste buds of art, dining and walking tour lovers, and provide special opportunities for kids and teenagers to participate as well.
You can find out more about the Food Dialogues via the website and Facebook.
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