Jarring Contrasts in the Cape Town Food System

(This post was written by Mallory Hedden, a rising senior Biology major at the University of St. Thomas. Mallory spent June 2019 in Cape Town on a course entitled “Urban Agriculture and Social Innovation”)

This June, four students and I have traveled to Cape Town with our professor to study urban agriculture and its links to environmental issues and social inequalities. Cape Town was chosen as our setting because it is still recovering from 50 years of apartheid, and unequal access to food and water are significant issues. During our first week, we had the opportunity to visit two farmer’s markets to help visualize these inequalities. The first was the Oranjezicht City Farmers Market located in the Cape Town waterfront district, a tourist area with restaurants, shops, live music and a Ferris wheel. The second was a farmer’s market in Khayelitsha, a township comprised of informal housing located in the Cape Flats of Cape Town.

We started one Saturday morning off by visiting the Oranjezicht market, which was recently highlighted in the New York Times. This market had one main section dedicated to pastries, cheeses, teas, oils and vinegars, breads, vegetables, and meats, all of which had sample trays for customers to taste the products. Another section of the market was dedicated to plants of all types, along with jewelry and clothes. The back of the market consisted of food stalls where cooks prepared all different cuisines of food for anyone who wanted a hot meal for breakfast or lunch. To top it all off there were adorable puppies being sold for adoption at the entrance of the market. The atmosphere was a bit loud with mostly white touristy people swarming all over the place, but this farmer’s market had something to offer for everyone. Although questionable as to whether it truly qualified as a “farmer’s market”, the Oranjezicht City Farmers Market was impressive nonetheless. The only aspect I struggled with is that it didn’t represent the demographics of Cape Town, which is predominately populated by “Colored” and “Black African” people. The prices were also relatively high, so I got the sense the market was only intended to attract rich tourists.

(Scenes from the Oranjezicht market)

After spending some time at the Oranjezicht market, we made our way to the market in Khayelitsha which is the largest and fastest growing township in South Africa. We were all pretty silent in the car as we drove past the long stretches of shanties that lined the N2 highway coming out of Cape Town. The small shanties were made of metal and wood scraps and were packed very close together. There were clusters of outdoor toilets here and there, dogs laying in the streets, and garbage everywhere. I couldn’t look away. Seeing that magnitude of poverty up close gave me an intense feeling that I’m unable to put into words. I felt a bit bewildered as we got out of our van and walked into the market after just coming from the extravagant market at the waterfront. The Khayelitsha market was outside of a primary school and consisted of five or six tables set up under small blue tents. Their arrangement of products consisted of handmade shoes, jewelry, coffee, smoothies, artwork, and some South African dishes. There were hay bales in the middle of all the tables for people to sit and eat. There was a singer who came to perform at the market, but it took a while for the entertainment to start because they kept losing electricity, which also impacted the sellers’ ability to prepare some of their food and drinks. Our group, along with two or three others, were the only white people in the space. That was intimidating for sure, but we became more comfortable as we sat and got to know the local people.

Mallory Hedden (middle, grey hoodie) with friends at the Khayelitsha market

These two markets were vastly different from each other. The Oranjezicht farmer’s market was bustling with tourists while the Khayelitsha farmer’s market was composed of locals from the township and had less than 50 people come through the market during our time there. The prices were significantly lower at the Khayelitsha market as well. I paid R20 (approx. $1.40 in U.S.) for a latte and pastry at the market in Khayelitsha, whereas at the Oranjezicht market I paid around R60 for a single chocolate bar. Sure, all the sellers at the Oranjezicht and Khayelitsha markets were striving to make some money that day, but I could tell that my purchases were much more contributive and meaningful to the Khayelitsha sellers.

That Saturday illustrated how urban agriculture can be restrictive for certain communities and feasible for others. A recent review paper written by Santo et al. from John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future mentions how urban agriculture projects led by lower-income communities and people of color have experienced limited access to land, government funding, and political support in comparison to urban agriculture projects led by white and middle-class groups. Once up and running, urban agriculture projects are usually sustained through public funds, donations, and volunteer labor, and not through food sales. This creates a very challenging set of conditions because it requires lower-income communities to find people and sources that are willing to provide continuous support. This is hard to come by, and it is typically those people in poor communities who need the food or money that urban agriculture produces the most. Whether the motive behind urban agriculture is food scarcity, creating a livelihood, or education, the ability to meet the end goal is largely dependent on money and resources. Anyone can take on urban agriculture, but it is not a leveled playing field due to unequal access to money and resources.

I’ve been in Cape Town for four weeks now, and as I’ve listened to the locals’ stories and learned about the history of this beautiful country, I’ve come to realize there are a lot of similarities between Cape Town and my country, the United States. The website, 10 years Civil Eats, discusses U.S. history and how it has contributed to unequal opportunities in farming. There have been a variety of unjust events and laws created to keep people of color from having equal access to land and opportunities. These events and laws include removing Native Americans from their homelands, the Homestead Acts that gave white settlers and corporations subsidized land, and the USDA discriminating against people of color for lending and support. All of this led to the implementation of structural racism and I think this story is in some ways similar to South Africa’s history. To oppose structural racism, white landowners in the U.S. need to donate land, vehicles, farm equipment and houses, and share their expertise with farmers of color. These individual actions may seem like baby steps towards what needs to be a large systematic transformation, but these individual initiatives are necessary to start the process towards positive change.

With all of this said, I’m not trying to suggest that urban agriculture shouldn’t be implemented, because it should for many reasons. There are a variety of benefits that can come with urban agriculture such as improved community membership, mental health, and access to nutritious foods. However, with all these benefits, the discrimination and marginalization of certain populations can be overlooked. It’s important to recognize that urban agriculture can accentuate differences and therefore steps must be taken to minimize those differences.  To better the Cape Town markets, I think there needs to be more of a dialogue between the two markets because I’m sure the Oranjezicht sellers have a lot of advice and information they could share with the Khayelitsha sellers. I also think it would be beneficial and empowering to get more young people involved with the markets because they tend to bring energy and a fresh perspective on issues such as the one I’ve just described. As a young person myself, I plan to bring the motivation and inspiration I’ve acquired throughout my time in Cape Town back to the United States, so that I can continue in my contribution to figuring out obstacles around urban agriculture.

Mallory (center, teal) with parters at an urban farm in Khayelitsha