TOWARDS A JUST TRANSITION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN FOOD SYSTEM – KEY ISSUES AND COMPETING PERSPECTIVES

The document analyzes the South African food system as a site of deep social inequality and climate vulnerability. It highlights a dualistic production structure where a small number of large-scale commercial farms dominate, while millions of smallholder farmers lack resources. The paper details the system's vulnerability to climate change—specifically heatwaves, droughts, and rainfall variability—and its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through livestock and synthetic fertilizers. It critiques 'market-centred' and 'technofix' approaches to sustainability, advocating instead for a 'deep just transition' based on agroecology, food sovereignty, and the redistribution of power and resources to ensure the right to food and decent work for all.

• South Africa's food system is characterized by a stark dualism in production and ownership: approximately 15,000 large-scale commercial farms produce the bulk of food for commercial markets, while about 2.3 million Black smallholder farmers produce primarily for subsistence and local sales.
• Despite national food security, household food insecurity is pervasive, affecting 23.6% of South Africans in 2019, with women and Black Africans disproportionately impacted.
• Agricultural labor in South Africa is marked by high levels of precarity and exploitation, with only about 10% of workers unionized and female farmworkers facing the lowest wages and highest risk of casualization.
• The Southern African region is a climate change 'hotspot' forecast to heat at double the global average, which is expected to cause significant declines in food production, particularly for staples like maize and wheat.
• Load shedding exacerbates food system vulnerabilities by causing crop losses due to irrigation failure and contributing to food price inflation, which disproportionately affects poor households.
• The South African agro-food system contributed approximately 18% of the country's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2021, with farm production accounting for 6.7% and pre- and post-production processes accounting for 10%.
• Livestock raising is the primary source of agricultural GHG emissions in South Africa, accounting for 70% of total agricultural production emissions, largely due to enteric fermentation.

APA

Bennie, A., Suliman, L., & Bowman, A. (2023). TOWARDS A JUST TRANSITION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN FOOD SYSTEM – KEY ISSUES AND COMPETING PERSPECTIVES. Institute for Economic Justice. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-Towards-a-Just-Transition-in-the-South-African-Food-System-Discussion-paper-May-2023.pdf

Chicago

Bennie, Andrew, Lutfiyah Suliman, and Andrew Bowman. TOWARDS A JUST TRANSITION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN FOOD SYSTEM – KEY ISSUES AND COMPETING PERSPECTIVES. Institute for Economic Justice, 2023. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-Towards-a-Just-Transition-in-the-South-African-Food-System-Discussion-paper-May-2023.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bennie |first1=Andrew |last2=Suliman |first2=Lutfiyah |last3=Bowman |first3=Andrew |title=TOWARDS A JUST TRANSITION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN FOOD SYSTEM – KEY ISSUES AND COMPETING PERSPECTIVES |publisher=Institute for Economic Justice |date=May 2023 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-Towards-a-Just-Transition-in-the-South-African-Food-System-Discussion-paper-May-2023.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bennie2023towards, author = {Bennie, Andrew and Suliman, Lutfiyah and Bowman, Andrew}, title = {{TOWARDS A JUST TRANSITION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN FOOD SYSTEM – KEY ISSUES AND COMPETING PERSPECTIVES}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-Towards-a-Just-Transition-in-the-South-African-Food-System-Discussion-paper-May-2023.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }