Published 17/12/2012

Organised by The Economist and held at the Hilton Sandton Hotel, the conference on Feeding the World - Africa's role in solving the global food crisis was attended by some 200 International delegates.

Discussions were based around the fact that the world is facing a food crisis with 1.2 billion people being micro-nutrient deficient. In juxtaposition, in 2011, more people died as a result of obesity-related diseases than from hunger.

Both former First Lady Graca Machel and Sheila Sisulu, Deputy Executive Director of the UN's World Food Programme, told the conference that 80% of small scale farmers, which amounts to approximately 500 million, were already responsible for providing food to the African continent. Government and corporate support is vital for these farmers.

Dr Shenggen Fan, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute, suggested a tax be imposed on unsustainable, environmentally-unfriendly farming methods - this would include a tax on meat.

Tozie says: "There is a lack of political will to support small-holder farmers as opposed to industrial farmers.

"Current research indicates that food from factory farming is micro-nutriently inferior. Only last week, research by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) has shown that samples of battery eggs were inferior in Folic Acid content compared to samples of free range eggs."