Cape Town – Farmers, food activists, academics and policymakers are preparing to gather in Cape Town to promote agroecology for the 21st century.
Politics of food and its production will be the focus of a multisectoral conference at the Centre for the Book, Iziko Museum and Spin Street Gallery from January 28-30.
The Agroecology for the 21st Century Conference will bring together 200 regional activists, academics, small-scale farmers and policymakers to explore ways of rapidly moving southern Africa towards an agroecological future.
The current global food system is responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions, uses the lion’s share of dwindling freshwater resources and is a leading cause of soil degradation and chemical pollution.
It is also associated with a rising prevalence of obesity and related lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, along with food and nutrition insecurity.
Conference keynote speaker Dr Caterina Batello, formerly of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, said: “Agroecology already exists widely across the globe in science and in practice. With political support, and connecting what already exists, we can provoke the transformation needed.”
Lead organiser for the conference, Professor Rachel Wynberg of UCT, said agroecology could provide a potential blueprint for “addressing the damages of our colonial and industrial agricultural past, and for restoring and reclaiming arable land as a productive, rather than as an extractive activity”.