Connecting through food
egetable
box
schemes
and other alternative food
initiatives can play a valuable
role in building bridges across
the social, cultural and economic
divides that persist in many parts of
South Africa. This was a finding of my
recent Masters study on Straight from
the Ground (STFG), a vegetable box
scheme, urban farm and community
supported
agriculture
project
in
Johannesburg.
SFTG
purchases
vegetables
predominantly
from
peri-urban
small-scale agroecological farmers
in the north of Johannesburg and sells
them in the form of vegetable boxes
in affluent suburbs. They have used
the vegetable box scheme and their
newsletter as a platform for raising
awareness about the injustices within
the food system.
Alternative
food
networks
that
acknowledge social and economic
divides,
rooted
in
colonial
and
apartheid systems of oppression, and
focus on shortening supply chains
and making the actors within supply
chains more visible to each other,
can contribute to social cohesion.
At the same time, they are able to
facilitate market access and other
material benefits for small scale
agroecological farmers. Instead of
focusing on procuring fresh produce
as close to the site of consumption
as possible, SFTG made it a priority
to focus on peri-urban farmers who
are further afield in marginalised
areas, and not otherwise able to
access markets in wealthier suburbs
of Johannesburg.
SFTG’s
on-farm
support
and
assistance
with
farmers’
PGS
accreditation
helped
farmers
to
access not only the box scheme’s
customers but also the broader
PGS network across Johannesburg.
PGS farm visits and the assurance
– A contribution by clAire rouSell
STFG Illustration