ABSTRACT
The aim of this “scene-setting” chapter is to illuminate South Africa’s corporate agri-food system and its exclusionary dynamics. So far, food sovereignty as a wider social movement response to the unequal agrarian structure and food system remains relatively incipient. It is argued that a diverse landscape of urban agriculture presents entry points for food sovereignty in practice. Food production in cities could be considered a response from below by the neglected – those who are not fully integrated in the labour market and those who are struggling to meet their dietary needs. The initial exploration of food sovereignty efforts moves across different spatial scales – from the macro to the micro level. For this purpose, the chapter is divided into three parts: (1) the country’s agri-food system on a macro level, (2) the related food sovereignty discourse, its roots, and central actors, and (3) the introduction of the case study. In this way, this chapter establishes the empirical context and zooms-in on the socio-economic and historical background of the case study location.
