Towards a Just Transition in the South African Food System: Perspectives on Key Issues

The South African food system is a key part of the country’s emissions that contribute to climate change, but it is also very vulnerable to climate change impacts. As these impacts continue, practices in farming, food processing and manufacturing, retail and distribution, and consumption will have to change and adapt. This will be necessary to reduce the ecological impacts of the food system and to increase the capacity for resilience to a changing climate. However, the South African food system as it stands is socially unjust- this is seen in the hunger and malnutrition that exists alongside corporate profitability, as well as its impacts on working class women, and the precarious and exploitative conditions of workers in the food system. In this context, IEJ’s background paper on the just transition in the South African food system suggests that without targeted interventions, adaptation measures by dominant actors in the food system could worsen existing inequalities and undermine the chances of building the resilience of working people, smallholder farmers, informal traders and consumers. This calls for a just transition approach to food system resilience, which centres the rights and needs of workers and the poor, gender justice, and the voice and agency of these actors to shape a transition. In this context, this webinar seeks to further explore what is at stake for workers and the poor in terms of climate change and the food system, the challenges for a just food system transition, the key needs and opportunities to push for a just transition, and the kinds of alliances that could make this happen.

Contributors will include representatives from:
● The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ),
● The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco, and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF),
● The Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA), and
● The Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO).

You can watch the webinar below.