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14 October 2022 | Story Prof Johan van Niekerk, Dr Ismari van der Merwe, and Ms Elzmarie Oosthuizen | Photo Supplied
Sustainable food
World Food Day is celebrated annually on 16 October to promote global awareness and action to uplift those who suffer from hunger and to highlight the need to ensure access to healthy diets for all.

Opinion article by Prof Johan van Niekerk, Dr Ismari van der Merwe, and Ms Elzmarie Oosthuizen, Department of Sustainable Food Systems and Development, University of the Free State.



World Food Day is celebrated annually on 16 October to promote global awareness and action to uplift those who suffer from hunger and to highlight the need to ensure access to healthy diets for all. However, in 2022 we are faced with an ongoing pandemic, conflict, global warming, rising prices, and international tensions. All these factors are affecting global food security. Educators have an enormous task to help students develop skills to help build a sustainable world where everyone has regular access to nutritious food. 

Although we have progressed towards building a better world, many people have been left behind – people who cannot benefit from human development, innovation, or economic growth. Millions of people worldwide cannot afford a healthy diet, putting them at high risk of food insecurity and malnutrition. But ending hunger is not only about supply. Enough food is produced today to feed everyone on the planet. The problem is access and availability of nutritious food. People worldwide are suffering from the domino effects of challenges that know no borders.

Students have insufficient balance for food

South Africa has seen a significant expansion of student enrolment in the higher education system, with nearly one million students attending one of the 26 public universities. The number of students in South Africa's higher education system is far below other middle-income developing countries. Therefore, the government aims to increase university enrolment to 1,5 million by 2030. However, the cost of attending university greatly exceeds the financial means of most students. 
Students must divide their budget between rent, tuition, utilities, and the remaining insufficient balance for food, which ultimately increases their food insecurity risk.
Moreover, the transition of school learners to university students is more complicated than foreseen since lifestyle changes have health implications, where the excitement is combined with stress from pressure to perform well academically in a competitive environment. Research has found that first-year students are exceptionally prone to food insecurity. They have newfound independence and are still learning to cope with the milieu away from home. A study on the Bloemfontein Campus by the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics indicated that students experience considerable problems in managing their tasks, time, and finances. The challenge of reduced social support results in lengthy emotional and physical separation from family and friends, which influences standard eating patterns. The students have poor nutritional knowledge, limited earning potential, and a lack of budgeting skills and resources for healthy food preparation. Finally, sociocultural diversity is another factor to consider. It influences students' food patterns, while the total student population of the UFS, about 37 800 full-time students, reflects a rich sociocultural diversity. 

Intake of vegetables, fruit, and protein among students is minimal

When required to earn a degree, food insecurity represents a short period of time, but it can precipitate poor lifelong health behaviour and increased risks of chronic diseases. Prolonged exposure may contribute to the development of obesity. The research found food insecurity is related to poor mental health and academic performance. Students endorse increased rates of depression and anxiety, decreased concentration, and low concentration marks. It leads to lower academic achievement and undermines the goals of tertiary education. The importance of studying the aspects related to students' sustainable food consumption behaviour lies in the fact that, at this age, they begin to develop specific consumption patterns that will have long-term effects.

The average of current first-year students forms part of Generation Zoomers (ages 19-22 years). Generation Zoomers (Gen Z) grew up in specific circumstances, known as the first truly digital natives. They grew up living, working, and socialising with the internet and social media. This generation's economic circumstances are more constrained. The latter is partly due to the rise in university tuition fees. Gen Z forms part of diverse communities seen as networked young citizens, but growing social inequalities often limit their opportunities. This generation is labelled as the stay-at-home generation, with indoor and online socialising on the rise. 

During a study by the Department of Sustainable Food Systems and Development on the South Campus of the UFS (student population – ages 19-22 years), we found that the intake of vegetables, fruit, and protein among our students is minimal and will lead to deficiencies. At the same time, rice and pasta are part of their everyday diet. Money to buy these foods is still an immense problem. Students indicated that they would prefer healthy foods when they had the resources to afford it.

No Student Hungry initiative

Gender and student consumption patterns showed that breakfast consumption decreased, with male students consuming breakfast more regularly than females. The results indicated that students preferred soft drinks (energy) and water (available). They argued that the high consumption of fast food is due to its wide availability and accessibility in commercial and informal outlets. The informal vendors make fast food more available and accessible to low-budget student groups due to the lower food prices. The unhealthy consumption movement is driven by aggressive advertising practices and lower costs. 

Students consume more saturated fat snacks, refined carbohydrates, sweetened carbonated beverages, and diets that are short in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and fibres. Researchers indicated that these unhealthy diets and the increasingly sedentary lives of students could lead to non-communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and heart disease.

Currently, the department forms part of the NO STUDENT HUNGRY (NSH) initiative by establishing vegetable tunnels on campus. It remains an indispensable objective of the department, though, to increase the proportion of university students who receive information on unhealthy dietary patterns; however, nutrition knowledge has only moderate effects on students' attitudes and behaviours. Therefore, we use our Food Security modules as an effective strategy to educate our student community on sustainable food systems by ensuring skills development. Teaching contextual skills (e.g., how to plan and prepare nutritious meals within time and financial constraints) could address this unhealthy behaviour of the UFS students and work towards the sustainable development goal of NO HUNGER in 2030

News Archive

Arts and Science collaborate in creating sustainable futures
2016-03-16

Description: Dr Keith Armstrong Tags: Dr Keith Armstrong

Creating a future where living green is the status quo: Dr Keith Armstrong
Photo: Lihlumelo Toyana

In creating partnerships across disciplines, mankind gains a deeper understanding of how to create the future. This is the premise upon which Dr Keith Armstrong bases his research and experimental art. Dr Armstrong is an Australian Hybrid Media artist and a Senior Research Fellow at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

Artists that make things happen

“My journey has shifted from an artist that makes things to an artist that makes things happen,” he said at the New Futures: Innovations in Arts and Science public talk recently at Oliewenhuis Art Museum. The talk, organised by the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, was part of a series of artistic projects presented by the Programme for Innovation in Arts and Development (PIAD). This initiative is spearheaded by the UFS and Vrystaat Arts Festival, kindly supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Dr Angus Hervey – an Australian writer, technologist and science communicator– was also a speaker at the event. Dr Hervey is a co-founder of Future Crunch, a platform for intelligent, optimistic thinking about the future. He strongly shares Dr Armstrong’s passion and viewpoints.

Dr Armstrong’s work is motivated by social and ecological justice. His non-traditional research and more than 60 artworks serve to evoke audiences to create sustainable futures.

Building the future

Dr Armstrong is in the process of making “things happen” in informal settlements across the Free State by means of his Re-Future project. The project brings together sustainability, community development, and creative action. It moves away from conventional art practices and instead offer a platform to rethink and therefore re-future our practices of sustainability.

The Re-Future project has been initiated through a collaboration between the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, the UFS Centre for Development Support (CDS) and Qala Phelang Tala (QPT) and the Vrystaat Art Festival.

According to Anita Venter, a lecturer at CDS and founder of QPT, empowerment is at the centre of the artist-initiated, yet community-controlled project. “It gives a new direction and new hope to the community,” she said.

For more information
Angela de Jesus, dejesusav@ufs.ac.za or +27(0)51 401 2706

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