Exploring food system transformation in the greater Cape Town area

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY : Globally, the food system is plagued by unsustainable food production practices and social injustices that render many of the world's population vulnerable to food insecurity. Fundamental re-organisation of the food system is key to provide the food insecure access to safe and nutritious food, and reduce the ecological impacts of food production. This entails deep systemic changes towards a more sustainable system, i.e. transformation. Transformation labs (T-labs) help prepare the system for change as specifically designed and facilitated processes that intervene and support multi-stakeholder groups in addressing complex social ecological system (SES) problems.In November 2016, researchers from the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST) in collaboration with the Southern African Food Lab (SAFL) conducted a T-lab process as an intervention in the local food system in the Western Cape. The process, built on principles of transformation and systems thinking, brought together a diverse group of actors that are actively engaged in creating alternatives in the food industry, such as restaurateurs and chefs, producers, informal food traders and academics, in an enabling environment for transformation processes through dialogue, activities and networking. This was an attempt to strengthen the alternative food system and enable it to become more mainstream or exert more influence in the dominant food system. The actors were provoked with realities of the dominant food system and faced with the challenge of envisioning a more sustainable and ideal food future, and what role they can play in bringing that future about. At the end of the T-lab process, actors agreed on several action points as improvements to their work or collaborations with each other.The overall aim of this study is to determine the viability of the T-lab as a 'safe enough space for building relations and strengthening networks within the alternative food system, as a platform for transformative processes through dialogue and addressing the challenges that participants face. The study also tracked the impacts of this process on alternative food networks in the greater Cape Town area. These findings help to understand the effect of T-labs over the short-term and provide insights into a novel way of engaging with the complexity of the food system that results in action. The findings show that T-labs are evolving processes that require skilled facilitation, and can be suitable spaces for building trust and comradery, strengthening existing structures within a system, and as a platform for collaboration. T-labs also have the potential to set things in motion, i.e. prepare for change in a transformation process. However, T-labs alone cannot transform a system as complex as the food system, i.e. one that is characterised by uncertainty, surprise, multiple possible outcomes, and limited predictability. Recommendations for future studies include determining what other processes and activities can be carried out in conjunction with T-labs to serve collectively as an intervention in the food system of the Western Cape, and conducting T-lab processes with actors from large business, civil society, and actors from both the dominant and alternative food systems.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University