As one of South Africa’s representatives in the G20 Working Group on Food Security and Nutrition our Director Prof Julian May played a direct role in shaping the policy papers and negotiations that led up to the September 2025 meetings in Cape Town. Working alongside experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), he contributed to drafting sections on food systems policy, nutrition, and agroecological transition. After participating in this process, Professor May shares the breakthroughs and the impasses that emerged when ministers met to finalise their priorities and agenda’s – insights that now inform his reflections on why hunger unites nations, but farming continues to divide them.
In September 2025, two groups of G20 ministers gathered in Cape Town to discuss global food systems. One meeting, on Food Security and Nutrition, ended in consensus. The other – on Agriculture – collapsed into disagreement. For Professor May the contrast reveals something deeper than diplomatic friction. It exposes what he calls the “wickedness” of food systems: problems so entangled that they defy neat solutions.
“We cannot separate the right to food from the politics of agriculture,” says Professor May
“The ministers responsible for food security could agree easily,” he explains. “Because hunger can be framed as a humanitarian issue, nobody wants to be seen opposing that. But once the conversation turns to agriculture, you are talking about power, money and influence. That’s where consensus breaks down.”
Combatting Hunger as a Shared Ideal
The South African Food Security Ministers’ bold declaration, adopted as a framework during the 19 September meetings, invoked and encouraged Ubuntu, the belief that “I am because we are.” It reaffirmed the right to food, condemned starvation, and committed governments to cooperation through the UN Committee on World Food Security.
“This was important,” says May. “The symbolism of invoking Ubuntu created moral alignment. It reminded everyone that hunger is simply wrong, that to allow people to go hungry is an ethical failure, not a technical one.”
Yet moral unity has limits. The declaration avoided naming who counts as “vulnerable” and stopped short of tackling the politics of production and trade. “It’s easier to agree on feeding people than on changing the systems that make them hungry in the first place,” May notes.
Farming as Contested Terrain
The Agriculture Ministers’ meeting, held the previous day, reached no such unity. While they agreed on supporting women and youth and on valuing innovation, talks fractured over deforestation, climate change, biodiversity, and trade. Developed and developing nations clashed on whether climate goals should constrain growth and whether agroecology and Indigenous rights should be formalised.
May explains: “Cheap food has been central to the development model of wealthy nations. Anything that raises food prices, such as stricter environmental rules, threatens economic growth. For countries trying to catch up, those controls feel like barriers.”
He points out that agriculture forces governments to make trade-offs: between protecting ecosystems and expanding production, between smallholders and agribusiness, between short-term yields and long-term resilience. These are value-laden choices that expose inequalities of power.
“Food systems are wicked because the people trying to fix them are often part of the problem.” – Julian May
The idea of wicked problems comes from development planning: challenges with no clear right or wrong answers, shaped by competing interests and incomplete knowledge. “It depends who you ask,” May says. “One person says the solution is to produce more food cheaply. Another says the problem is that cheap food keeps farmers poor. Both are right — and both are wrong.”
Within the CoE-FS, this framing has become a guiding principle. “Our food scientists argue for more shelf-stable products to reduce waste; our dietitians argue for less ultra-processed food and more fresh produce. Both views are valid. The challenge is managing disagreement rather than pretending it can be resolved.”
For May, recognising the wicked nature of food systems is not an excuse for paralysis but a call for humility and adaptation. “Science allows us to test imperfect solutions and learn. That’s how you move forward in a complex system.”
Lessons from the G20 for South Africa
Hosting the G20 meetings, South Africa found itself both mediator and mirror. “It was fascinating to see our own government lead the discussion,” May reflects. “And I left feeling surprisingly optimistic.”
He credits the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development for its leadership and for using Ubuntu as a negotiating frame. “That was brilliant. It reframed food security as a moral obligation, not a trade issue.”
The contrast between consensus on food and division on farming echoes South Africa’s domestic paradox: the country produces enough food, yet one in three children is stunted. “Our problem is not scarcity,” May says, “it’s access, affordability and inequality. Governance is fragmented, mandates overlap, and accountability is weak. Until we close the ‘ideas-to-action’ gap, food security will remain an aspiration rather than a reality.”
“When South Africans put our minds to solving problems, we’re actually quite good at it.” — Julian May
May believes South Africa’s experience with inequality and conflict may be its greatest asset. “We’ve learned that we can’t sweep things under the carpet. We have to confront our legacies of dispossession and violence. That willingness to face uncomfortable truths gives me hope.”
Speaking Truth to Power
Beyond analysis, May sees the CoE-FS as an active participant in shaping national dialogue. “We’ve had a good year in terms of profile,” he says. “Colleagues from the Centre are contributing to petitions that will go to the President, and others are writing his speeches. That’s what ‘speaking truth to power’ really means bringing evidence into political spaces.”
He emphasises that influence comes through collaboration. “Our strength lies in the alliances we’ve built – between researchers, activists and policymakers. Whether you’re a plant scientist or a theologian, you’re contributing to the same goal: making South Africa’s food system fairer and more resilient.”
A radically honest lens
Looking ahead, May is turning his attention to what comes after the current National Development Plan (NDP 2030). “For 20 years after the transition, we pretended we were some other kind of country,” he says. “We designed plans that assumed we were like Europe, or that we could skip the realities of informality and inequality. We can’t. We have to understand South Africa for what it is, a hybrid economy with deep contradictions.”
He notes that South Africa’s agricultural output, as a share of GDP, is lower than that of Kenya, Ghana or Nigeria. “We’ve neglected agriculture because for a century we relied on mining. But now, building the agricultural sector – beyond the narrow idea of commercial versus subsistence – is crucial to our future food security.”
“We need to think about this country as it really is , not as we wish it to be.” – Julian May
World Food Day and the Way Forward
The theme of World Food Day 2025, “Water is Life, Water is Food: Leave No One Behind,” resonates with May’s argument that food security cannot be detached from justice, governance and power.
“The G20 paradox reminds us that declarations mean little without structural change,” he says. “Transforming food systems requires institutions that are inclusive, accountable and resilient. It means embracing complexity, not simplifying it away.”
As South Africa prepares for a new era of national planning, the CoE-FS aims to deepen its role as both knowledge producer and catalyst for change. “Our task is to keep evidence feeding into policy,” May concludes. “To strengthen the science-policy interface, to support young scholars, and to ensure that the right to food becomes real for everyone.”
World Food Day is a reminder that if food insecurity is a “wicked problem” then food security is a multi-layered goal. This year, Professor Julian May astutely reminds us that, ‘We cannot separate the right to food from the politics of agriculture.’
