Exploring Perceptions of the Food Environment Amongst Congolese, Somalis and Zimbabweans Living in Cape Town
| Published date | 01 August 2017 |
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12274 |
Exploring Perceptions of the Food
Environment Amongst Congolese, Somalis
and Zimbabweans Living in Cape Town
Jo Hunter-Adams*
ABSTRACT
In low and middle-income countries, the nutrition transition to highly processed, high-sugar
diets has been extraordinarily rapid. Yet in these same settings, obesity and hunger are often
experienced within a single household. As part of a broader study of cross-border migrants’
experiences of maternal and infant nutrition in Cape Town, in this article I explore the individ-
ual and collective meanings associated with foods in a specific migrant context, as well as
their connections to changing food environments in Cape Town, South Africa. While there
was relative silence over food scarcity, the food environment seemed to present constraints to
dietary diversity. The migrants’views and experiences suggest the relevance of improving the
accessibility and affordability of already desirable, nutrient dense foods.
INTRODUCTION
The relationships between food security, nutrition policy, and the lived experience of a food
environment are extraordinarily complex. This is particularly true in low-and-middle income
countries (LMIC), where overnutrition and undernutrition intersect. Nutrition policy in South Africa
remains broadly focused on undernutrition. Given that South Africa is one of the twenty countries
worldwide with the highest burden of undernutrition (Bryce et al., 2008), it is not unexpected that
the integrated national policy for nutrition has this focus (Department of Health, 2013). Indeed, in
a recent study of food security in urban centres across the southern African region, only 15 per cent
of residents in Cape Town were found to be food secure, with 5 per cent mildly food insecure, 12
per cent moderately food insecure, and 68 per cent severely food insecure (Crush and Frayne,
2010). One challenge in effectively responding to food security is that certain aspects of food secu-
rity –food shortages and lack of dietary diversity –may be easier to measure than other aspects.
For example, it may be difficult to quantify the reasons for lack of dietary diversity, or the ways
that individuals navigate the desirability and affordability of food groups that seem to be readily
accessible within a geographic location.
Moreover, food insecurity and obesity are overlapping phenomena in many countries, including
South Africa. Obesity and associated non-communicable diseases are prevalent among all popula-
tion groups in South Africa, including the poor (Kruger et al., 2005; Van Der Merwe and Pepper,
2006). Thus the nutrition transition is well underway in South Africa, though the definitions and
approaches to this transition are rightly contested. Defined in terms of a transition towards
increased consumption of edible oils and caloric sweeteners, the nutrition transition is driven by
* Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town
doi: 10.1111/imig.12274
©2017 The Author
International Migration ©2017 IOM
International Migration Vol. 55 (4) 2017
ISS N 00 20- 7985 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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