Agroecology and the metropolitan biopolitics of food in Cape Town and Johannesburg

Abstract

As urban food systems erode the ecological foundations of society, researchers advocate multi-level and adaptive governance to promote transitions toward sustainability.Agroecological discourse proposes transition to resilient, localized, and democratic city-region food systems, but neoliberal interpretations subvert radical aspirations.In the South African metropoles of Johannesburg and Cape Town, the governance terrain entails a concentrated industrial food system providing large, impoverished populations with unhealthy food derived from monocultures and transported along global value chains. Governing these urban food systems toward agroecological transition requires engagement with state governance mechanisms and rationalities. Considering state capabilities to promote agroecological transitions, the paper shows that fragmented institutional structures, policy patchworks, intersecting logics of control, and divergent ideologies constitute an ambiguous governance terrain posing major hurdles to transition. For metropolitan states to muster the will and assemble means for deep transformation of food systems and dominant state rationalities, a compelling alternative narrative must emerge. This requires persistent strategic engagement between officials and agroecological movements. To cultivate fertile political ground for seeds of deep, just transitions to take root, agroecology movements must grasp the nettle of metropolitan state capabilities.

Lockdown, resilience and emergency statecraft in the Cape Town food system

“…This supported knowledge sharing and provided a platform for academic policy advocates to present research. Officials developed a shared food systems governance narrative that elevated food systems governance on the policy agenda and developed support for this proposal ( Kroll, 2021 ).…”

“…Plans to pilot place-based food systems surveillance and governance presage emergent territorial approaches to govern food systems. These adaptations could facilitate transition to more democratic, sustainable and nourishing urban food systems aligned with agroecological principles ( Kroll, 2021 ).…”

“…The South African state consists of four administrative tiers fragmented by multiple sectoral mandates. The metropolitan food governance terrain is shaped by various strategies, policies, planning instruments and by-laws located across almost all local and several provincial institutions ( De Visser, 2019 ; Kroll, 2021 ; Smit, 2016 ). South African National government declared a state of disaster 15 March 2020 ( Republic of South Africa, 2020a ).…”

Planning food system transitions: Exploring spatial, citizen‐driven, and agroecological approaches

“…It addresses the question of how economic, political, and cultural forces that shape the agrifood system can be reconfigured from inside the city. The case of Cape Town, explained by Florian Kroll, in the paper Agroecology and the metropolitan biopolitics of food in Cape Town and Johannesburg, exemplifies how the agroecological transition of urban food systems needs strong social movements to articulate compelling social-ecological narratives and prompt politicians to challenge neoliberal rationalities and their inherent spatial segregation and systematic peasant dispossession (Kroll, 2021). Then, spatial planning instruments have the potential to transform the food environment based on transversal programming collaboration that moves beyond departmental silos and overcomes the bias toward easily quantified activities and outcomes.…”

Food Systems Profile - South Africa

“…Except for metropolitan municipalities, they are, however, often crippled by weak human and financial capacity, which drastically prevents the implementation of effective interventions. Even well-resourced metros are confronted with the difficulties of internal fragmentation (Kroll, 2021). (Hendriks, 2020).…”