Cape Town - The multiplicity of crises and the devastating impact on the local food system was artfully and satirically served as food dishes to prompt thought and conversation as part of Food Dialogues 2023.
Food Dialogues, organised by the South African Urban Food and Farming Trust, opened its two-week-long programme with a “Polycrisis Pantry Event” at Makers Landing at the V&A Waterfront on Tuesday evening.
The dialogues will continue until July 18. Food growers, informal traders, academics, activists, writers, nutrition experts, policy makers, eateries, etc, and the broader public will exchange experiences and share insights and perspectives, particularly on sustainability within the food system.
Polycrisis, the overarching theme this year, looks at the many different crises simultaneously affecting local food systems.
Food justice worker Zayaan Khan, local chef Maria van Zyl, and farmer-artist Maya Marshak curated the satire-based menu which highlights, among others, issues of microplastics, the struggle of local fishers to obtain permits, oil spillages in the ocean, harmful herbicides killing off useful pollinators, capitalism, soaring food costs, and load shedding, all in a fine dining experience.
Khan said: “Our menu curation seeks to navigate the enormity of crises upon crises and highlight nuances that may be easy to miss when looking at it from this big polycrisis level. These conversations are hard to digest, difficult to talk about over a meal. It is unappetising, yet part of the food that we eat.”
Food Dialogues has been taking place since 2014.
Project manager Iain Harris said: “We work from three key areas, which are resilience in the food system, the health of the food system, and justice in the food system. So all the conversations are geared in some way to reflect back on those.”
A Pan African Online Conference, “Polycrisis and the Food System: Views from African Urban Centres”, will take place on July 10 and a full day in-person conference on July 12.
An art exhibition at Lerotholi Gallery in Langa will run until July 18 with an opening event on Sunday. Several Cape Town Food Systems Walking Tours will take place in the CBD.
“We’re dealing with a polycrisis at the moment. Its energy crisis, water crisis is looming, cost of food is getting way out of hand, and this is having an impact on health so our health systems are in trouble,” Harris said.
Tickets for some of the events can be bought on Quicket or www.fooddialogues.info.