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The vitally important provision of food through the food system is not a simple linear process, but a contested outcome of a complex system. This systematic literature review was undertaken to better understand the inherent complexity of this system and inform a long-‐term scenario-‐planning process aimed at ensuring a food secure future in South Africa.

The past 40 years have seen an emphasis on the notion of ‘food security’, which was defined at the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996 as existing ‘when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’(FAO 1996: 2). However, the term ‘food security’originates from the 1970s focus on national self-‐sufficiency where the main goal was to produce sufficient food domestically in order to decrease reliance on the international food market. This‘productionist’view of food security was premised upon the Malthusian idea that population would outstrip food production, making supply the key area of focus, which necessarily resulted in many interventionist and protectionist policies in the agriculture sector (Devereux & Maxwell 2001).