Understanding the Effects of Water and Energy Crises on Small-Scale Urban Food Systems’ Resilience in Cape Town

Abstract

This research examines the impacts of recent water and energy crises on small-scale food systems’ resilience in Cape Town, South Africa. Small-scale food system activities are argued to be highly vulnerable to disturbances. However, there is limited research on how the sector is affected by interrelated water and energy crises, how resilient the diverse food systems activities are in response to such crises, and how crises can induce ‘transformative’ change across sectors. Through in-depth interviews with small-scale food actors in Cape Town, this research finds that underlying social vulnerabilities exacerbate vulnerabilities to water and energy crises and hinder the implementation of resilience strategies. The research also finds that the small-scale sector inhibits moderate transformative capacities in the form of innovations in farming practices. However, financial and institutional barriers hinder the successful implementation of more technological innovations. In order to increase small-scale food system resilience to water and energy crises, this research suggests that water, energy and food resources should be coordinated by local authorities, who can pay better attention to place-based attributes. Moreover, providing access to non-networked water and energy sources to small-scale actors is seen as a solution to current vulnerabilities. The research furthermore suggests that new conceptualisations of resilience would benefit from including nexus thinking to minimise trade-offs of sectoral resilience strategies.