Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how urban food gardens attempt to counter the neoliberal food system in Cape Town through a qualitative approach. The findings demonstrate the conscious efforts of urban food gardens to promote food justice through the conscientization of local communities on food rights.

Paper long abstract:

The literature on urban agriculture argues that urban food gardens have the potential to promote food justice through the provision of alternative food and food decommodification. Nonetheless, most of such studies have focused on global-North cities with little literature on other regions like Africa where food insecurity is rife. This paper examines how urban food gardens attempt to counter the neoliberal food system in Cape Town through a qualitative approach. The findings demonstrate the conscious efforts of urban food gardens to promote food justice through the decommodification of vegetables, improved access to healthy vegetables, and the conscientization of local communities on food rights. Nevertheless, the impact of such efforts remains curtailed because of the unsustainability of community gardens and the limited coordination of activities. The paper argues that more coordination is required to create an effective movement that could have a more impactful and sustained role within these distressed communities