Visioning a Food System for an Equitable Transition towards Sustainable Diets—A South African Perspective

Nafiisa Sobratee, Rashieda Davids, Chuma B. Chinzila, Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, Pauline Scheelbeek, Albert T. Modi, Alan D. Dangour and Rob Slotow
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Nafiisa Sobratee: School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa
Rashieda Davids: Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa
Chuma B. Chinzila: School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa
Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi: Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa
Pauline Scheelbeek: Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK
Albert T. Modi: Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems, School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa
Alan D. Dangour: Wellcome Trust, London NW1 2BE, UK
Rob Slotow: School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-23

Abstract: The global goal to end hunger requires the interpretation of problems and change across multiple domains to create the scope for collaboration, learning, and impactful research. We facilitated a workshop aimed at understanding how stakeholders problematize sustainable diet transition (SDT) among a previously marginalized social group. Using the systems thinking approach, three sub-systems, namely access to dietary diversity, sustainable beneficiation of natural capital, and ‘food choice for well-being’, highlighted the main forces governing the current context, and future interventions of the project. Moreover, when viewed as co-evolving processes within the multi-level perspective, our identified microlevel leverage points—multi-faceted literacy, youth empowerment, deliberative policymaking, and promotion of sustainable diet aspirations—can be linked and developed through existing national macro-level strategies. Thus, co-designing to problematize transformational SDT, centered on an interdisciplinary outlook and informational governance, could streamline research implementation outcomes to re-structure socio-technical sectors and reconnect people to nature-based solutions. Such legitimate aspirations could be relevant in countries bearing complex socio-political legacies and bridge the local–global goals coherently. This work provides a collaborative framework required to develop impact-driven activities needed to inform evidence-based policies on sustainable diets.

Keywords: agri-food system; systemic analysis; marginalized communities; sustainable diet; stakeholder engagement; interactive facilitation; multi-level perspective; deliberative policymaking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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