iZindaba Zokudla Farmers' Lab 26 March 2021 1300-1430

Dear Friends of iZindaba Zokudla. Please join us on Friday 26 March at 1300 until 1430 for the Virtual iZindaba Zokudla Farmers' Lab. Please click the link below to join!

We will continue the conversation about local food systems and this time we will explore the use of stakeholder engagement methods to create local food systems.

We will be hosting Ethel Khoza the Chair of the Zodwa Khoza Foundation, and Ntsieni Mbulungeni from the Thulamela Business Forum in the Vhembe district. We will also host Michelle Sohn from Confluence who is particularly interested in this as it may offer a solution for Diepsloot. These three organisations offer us great experience and we will use this in deliberating on local food systems and how to create them.

We will also host Ms. Queline Dieumie, a Masters student in Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg as a critical discussant in the Farmers' Lab. We will benefit from her expertise and we will give her a chance to bring expert knowledge to the issue! Quelune is doing an MA using stakeholder engagement methods with the aim of reflecting on how we would create such systems.

To create a local food system is a daunting task. Very few would explicitly attempt it, and most would wait and hope for such a food system to emerge.

Local food systems have benefits for local communities. We will never grow all our food locally but even if we grow only a small percentage of our food on our own it will make a difference. If this local food is made available for the most in need, we do even better.

However, such a local food system has many additional benefits. First of all the close relationships that would result from building such a system would benefit many organisations and individuals and would benefit all kinds of community activities that need coordination. This means we could build upon food relief to create gardens and some kind of productive activity.

In collaborating on gardens we can discuss and influence many other plans in the pipeline. The IDP process would benefit from community cohesion and could then focus on real needs of the community as singular and important aims can be identified.

It is nevertheless unclear how such a local food system can be created. It is important to also note the different roles and responsibilites that we may ascribe to different actors in the system. Some would want to farm. Some would want to sell to the community. Some would want to take the food and process it either as a caterer or chef, and others would want to use the food to attract additional activities to the area like setting up a restaurant or shop. A cohesive community can also influence local businesses and this could include putting pressure on them to keep prices low, to use loalcally produced food in the shops, or to create new ecomomic streams to manage waste and energy in the local area.

From the experience gained in setting up iZindaba Zokudla, please allow me to make the following suggestions on how such a local food system can be created.

Everything happens somewhere. To create local food systems spaces and places need to be used as part of such a local food system. The hosting of an event at or in such a space or place will give people a cause to focus on in understanding and eventually living in such a local food system. An event can be created to explicitly create such a system or it can be added to the agenda of any other meeting in the local area. To create a local food system you need inspire the community and show them that it is possible. In this event, invite all the role players that may form a closed circle of actors and entrepreneurs that could create such a system.

Once you have all the players in the room, it would be necessary to facilitate the conversation amongst them. People will try to use such gatherings to advance their own particular agenda, and the trick is to let their agenda converge with that of the community, and to let them see the benefit of a new pattern of trade that keeps things local. We have to remark that the economic incentives for such a system would have to be competitive with the mainstream system. "Local" could also means those "involved" and interesting "engineering" needs to be practiced to create cheaper than conventional products to make such a system work. This can be done by creating a local community that links farmers, sellers and consumers and everyone else.

We also have to take heed of the technologies needed to make such a system work. The obvious ones are the social media technologies like Facebook and WhatsApp. These can create feedback loops and discussions that can bind the community. These will be essential.

Technology does not stop with the digital. To create a local food system local and involved urban farmers need to produce enough food and cheap enough to make the system work. Food waste harvesting, rainwater harvesting and the harvesting of biomass will be key here. We easily forget how important it is to feed the soil in this regard and a nutrient recycling system will be needed in the long run in such a system.

Additional technologies, like a WhatsApp group or Facebook page is needed as well as means to cool, transport and display food grown or marketed locally.

This brings us to the next idea we can use fo create local food systems. We need to think about the kind of organisation that would bind everyone around the local food system. Membership of this might not be such a good idea as all those in the "local" area should have access to this "organisation". You also want to make it easy for those interested to join - and also leave - the "group". I like to think of those involved as only forming an assembly or a "community" that is not so tightly bound that you affect the freedom of people. Entrepreneurs, to support such an initiative must only be very loosely bound to such a local food system. They need to explore all possible paths on their own and only after they have done so would you know their participation is authentic. Only if entrepreneurs join out of their own interests will you know they are relevant. When they do you can be sure they can make money and this is the trade that we need to make the local system work!

My recommendation is to use the following as means to create a local food system:

Uses spaces and places for events so the whole community can be made aware of this idea and so they can rearrange their own lives on their own to participate in this.

Facilitate the discussion amongst the people so they see the merits of what you propose so they can become involved.

Use technology throughout the process.

Allow people to assemble around this process as they see fit. In the end local food systems will only emerge if people voluntarily and through their own interests support this. We cannot engineer a local food system.

Above I have set out only the basics of what may be needed to build such a system. This system needs good food to keep it going, so it is important to see where and who needs to be empowered to help create it. Farmers will need biomass for fertiliser, whilst community members need spaces and places to discuss this together. Entrepreneurs need to sell good quality products at a fair price. Those who want to see this happen cannot use organisations to change people's behaviour to realise a local food system, but the right behaviour needs to emerge because it is in everyone's benefit. There is a real art involved in setting up such a local food system.

We need to attempt to set up such systems even if we are affraid of failure. Failure enhances future success. It is those who dare to experiment who will arrive at the promised local lands!

Please click on the link below!

https://www.facebook.com/events/782637369335408/