Faith, food and the future: Policy pathways for ecological justice through indigenous food systems

This paper builds on the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute’s (SAFCEI’s) 2025 Faith, food and the future: Indigenous food systems for climate and community resilience publication to advocate for policy frameworks that are supportive or detrimental to indigenous food systems, which are critical for preserving and enhancing biodiversity, contributing towards food and nutritional security and sovereignty and building climate resilience in an inclusive and just way. These systems play a key role in culture, identity and spiritual practice; they have for centuries helped to maintain relationships within the community of life on Earth. This is the second document in a series of three reports on Faith, food and the future: Research report, Policy recommendations and Examples of indigenous foods.

Special thanks and acknowledgement to Claire Roussel for participatory research with faith leaders and experiential research at the 2024 Amadiba indigenous seed and food festival, forming the basis of the earlier working paper on which this study builds, for her drawings and illustrations. We also thank Stefanie Swanepoel for bringing all the initial research together, her further research, and the grounding of this paper in science and faith, as well as for her editing work. We are grateful for the active participation of faith leaders in this study, who generously shared their time and knowledge.