Skip to main content

Emerging Enterprises and Sustainability in the Food System: Food Entrepreneurs in South Africa

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Urban Food Democracy and Governance in North and South

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series ((IPES))

  • 507 Accesses

Abstract

A sustainable food system implies the creation of new production processes for food, alternative producers and new enterprises that protect ecological integrity and create social benefits, as is economically productive. This chapter analyses sustainability in three South African ‘township’ enterprises that emerged out of a multi-stakeholder engagement project. Three emerging enterprises illustrate that the integration of society, ecology and economy is possible if we conceptualise businesses as a complex of systems, networks and actors. The chapter illustrates how entrepreneurs combine enterprises, systems and multi-stakeholder engagement processes in enterprise development.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Allen, P. (2010). Realising Justice in Local Food Systems. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 3, 295–308. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsq015.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altman, M., Hart, T. G. B., & Jacobs, P. T. (2009). Household Food Security Status in South Africa. Agrekon, 48(4), 345–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, C. R., & McLachlan, S. M. (2015). Transformative Research as Knowledge Mobilisation: Transmedia, Bridges, and Layers. Action Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750315616684.

  • Battersby, J. (2012). Beyond the Food Desert: Finding Ways to Speak About Urban Food Security in South Africa. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 94(2), 141–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Battersby, J., Haysom, G., Kroll, F., & Tawodzera, G. (2015). A Study on Current and Future Realities for Urban Food Security in South Africa. Johannesburg: SA Cities Network. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.4224.6487.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bbun, T., & Thornton, A. (2013). A Level Playing Field? Improving Market Availability and Access for Small Scale Producers in Johannesburg, South Africa. Applied Geography, 36, 40–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braungart, M., & McDonough, W. (2008). Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. London: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bula, H. O. (2012). Evolution and Theories of Entrepreneurship: A Critical Review on the Kenyan Perspective. International Journal of Business and Commerce, 1(11), 81–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burns, D. (2012). Participatory Systemic Inquiry. IDS Bulletin, 43(3), 88–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burns, D. (2014). Systemic Action Research: Changing System Dynamics to Support Sustainable Change. Action Research, 12(1), 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750313513910.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. (2010). The Information Age: Economy, Society, Culture: The Rise of the Network Society. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chronicle, The 2018 ‘South Africa’s Land Debate Is Clouded by Misrepresentation and Lack of Data’ (Ben Cousins). (2018, March 12). Retrieved March 12, 2018, from http://www.chronicle.co.zw/south-africas-land-debate-is-clouded-by-misrepresentation-and-lack-of-data/.

  • Clinton, N., Stuhlmacher, M., Miles, A., Aragon, N. U., Wagner, M., Georgescu, M., et al. (2018). A Global Geospatial Ecosystem Services Estimate of Urban Agriculture. Earth’s Future. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000536.

  • Crush, J. S., & Frayne, G. B. (2011). Urban Food Insecurity and the New International Food Security Agenda. Development Southern Africa, 28(4), 527–544. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2011.605571.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DoA (Department of Agriculture, South Africa). (2008). National Agricultural Research and Development Strategy. Pretoria: DOA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drimie, S., & McLachlan, M. (2013). Food Security in South Africa – First Steps Toward a Transdisciplinary Approach. Food Security, 5, 217–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DTI (Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa). (2007). Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (53/2003) Codes of Good Practice on Black Economic Empowerment. SA Government Gazette 29617, General Notice 112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dubbeling, M., de Zeeuw, H., & van Veenhuizen, R. (2010). Cities Poverty and Food: Multi-Stakeholder Policy and Planning in Urban Agriculture. Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Economist, The. (2015, February 28). I Had a Farm in Africa: South Africa Takes a Populist Turn on Land Reform. Retrieved July 1, 2016, from http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21645232-south-africa-takes-populist-turn-land-reform-i-had-farm-africa.

  • Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Figueroa, M. (2015). Food Sovereignty in Everyday Life: Toward a People-Centered Approach to Food Systems. Globalizations. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2015.1005966.

  • Frayne, B., McCordic, C., & Shilomboleni, H. (2014). Growing Out of Poverty: Does Urban Agriculture Contribute to Household Food Security in Southern African Cities? Urban Forum. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-014-9219-3.

  • Friedman, H., & McMichael, P. (1989). Agriculture and the State System: The Rise and Decline of National Agricultures, 1870 to the Present. Sociologia Ruralis, 29(2), 93–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society. London: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, S. (2010). Contesting the Food System in South Africa: Issues and Opportunities. Research Report No. 42. Bellville: Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herbel, D., & Haddad, N. O. (2012). Successful Farmer Collective Action to Integrate Food Production into Value Chains. Food Chain, 2(2), 164–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laws, S., Harper, C., Jones, N., & Marcus, R. (2013). Research for Development: A Practical Guide. New Delhi: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, N., & Long, A. (1992). Battlefields of Knowledge: The Interlocking of Theory and Practice in Social Research and Development. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, N., & van der Ploeg. (1989). Demythologising Planed Intervention: An Actor Perspective. Sociologia Ruralis, 29(3/4), 226–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malan, N. (2015a). Urban Farmers and Urban Agriculture in Johannesburg: Responding to the Food Resilience Strategy. Agrekon, 54(2), 51–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/03031853.2015.1072997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malan, N. (2015b). Design and Social Innovation for Systemic Change: Creating Social Capital for a Farmers’ Market. In L. Collina, L. Galluzzo, & A. Meroni (Eds.), The Virtuous Circle: Design Culture and Experimentation. Milano, Italy: McGraw-Hill Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manzini, E. (2015). Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McLachlan, M., & Thorne, J. (2009). Seeding Change: A Proposal for Renewal in the South African Food System. Development Planning Division Working Paper Series No. 16. Midrand: DBSA.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMichael, P. (2009). A Food Regime Genealogy. Journal of Peasant Studies, 36(1), 139–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150902820354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mikkelsen, B. (2005). Methods for Development Work and Research: A Guide for Practitioners (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Moulaert, F., MacCallum, D., Mehmood, A., & Hamdouch, A. (2013). The International Handbook on Social Innovation. Cheltenham: Edward Arnold.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • MRC and HSRC (Medical Research Council and Human Sciences Research Council). (2013). The South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey SANHANES-1. Cape Town: HSRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nkosi, S., Gumbo, T., Kroll, F., & Rudolph, M. (2014). Community Gardens as a Form of Urban Household Food and Income Supplements in African Cities: Experiences in Hammanskraal, Pretoria. AISA Policy Brief No. 112. Tswane: AISA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi, K. (2001 [1944]). The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popkin, B. M. (2011). Agricultural Policies, Food and Public Health. EMBO Reports, 11(1), 11–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pretty, J. (2012). Agriculture and Food Systems: Our Current Challenge. In C. Rosin, P. Stock, & H. Campbell (Eds.), Food Systems Failure: The Global Food Crisis and the Future of Agriculture (pp. 17–29). Earthscan: Oxon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Regeer, B., Mager, S., & van Oorsouw, Y. (2011). License to Grow: Innovating Sustainable Development by Connecting Values. Amsterdam: VU University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rittel, H. W. J., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning. Policy Sciences, 4, 155–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rudolph, M., Kroll, F., Ruysenaar, S., & Dlamini, T. (2012). The State of Food Insecurity in Johannesburg. Urban Food Security Series No. 12. Kingston and Cape Town: Queen’s University and AFSUN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruysenaar, S. (2013). Reconsidering the ‘Letsema Principle’ and the Role of Community Gardens in Food Security: Evidence from Gauteng, South Africa. Urban Forum, 24(2), 219–249. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-012-9158-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sumner, J., McMurtry, J. J., & Renglich, H. (2014). Leveraging the Local: Cooperative Food Systems and the Local Organic Food Co-ops Network in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 4(3), 47–60. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2014.043.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thom, A., & Conradie, B. (2012). Urban Agriculture, Social Enterprise and Box Schemes in Cape Town. CSSR Working Paper No. 310. Cape Town: Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, A. (2008). Beyond the Metropolis: Small Town Case Studies of Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture in South Africa. Urban Forum, 19, 243–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-008-9036-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNEP. (2016). Food Systems and Natural Resources. A Report of the Working Group on Food Systems of the International Resource Panel. Nairobi: UNEP.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2016). GINI Index (World Bank Estimate). Retrieved October 20, 2016, from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI?locations=ZA.

  • World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). Our Common Future. Oxford: OUP.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Economic Forum. (2014). Towards the Circular Economy: Accelerating the Scale-Up Across Global Supply Chains. Davos: WEF.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, I. (2011). Responsibility for Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Naudé Malan .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Malan, N. (2020). Emerging Enterprises and Sustainability in the Food System: Food Entrepreneurs in South Africa. In: Urban Food Democracy and Governance in North and South. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17187-2_12

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics