A recent Daily Maverick article draws attention to a new South African study that reveals that ultra-processed foods make up nearly 40% of daily energy intake among low-income adults. The research, published in January 2024, examined over 2,500 participants from low-income areas in the Western...
Gareth Haysom argues that the future of any young child conceived today in one of the under-serviced areas of a South African city demands that we act on food insecurity now, and act with urgency and initiative seldom seen in our governance structures. Despite claims...
Treasury has made a policy decision that pushes the poorest and the youngest, who are already teetering on the brink, over the edge....
On the day Luleka Gqumeta’s baby died, she says she was in the streets begging for food for her and her children. It was October 2020, amid COVID-19-related social restrictions and Gqumeta – unemployed with three other school-going children – was struggling to feed her...
In South Africa just over a quarter of the population are still food insecure despite sufficient food being produced at national level, according to the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey....
It has been particularly depressing in the past weeks to read about the implications of the Ukraine war on malnutrition (among other things). It raises the question: why have we not learned from past experience to create greater nutrition resilience? A naïve question of course,...
The average household food basket in South Africa increases by R354.22 or 8.9% (February 2022 statistic) and food prices continue to rise. The food poverty line is now R624.00 per month and the child support grant is R460.00 per month. Every year the poverty indices...
Food justice is a term that encompasses many areas — food security, food systems, food sovereignty, food literacy. But it also describes a movement and commitment towards securing everyone’s right to safe, healthy, nutritious and culturally appropriate food....
The Woza Nami (‘come with me’) project focuses on strengthening healthy food production and nutrition awareness through the scaling of vegetable farming in informal settlements based on agroecological practice....
In a Jacana ‘Don’t Shut Up’ conversation with Maverick Citizen editor Mark Heywood, author Tracy Ledger explains the direct link between malnutrition and a propensity for violence. From abused farmworkers to a lack of coordination at all levels of government, the food system not only...