The Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) is currently convening a two-day national policy conference in the light of the recently announced government initiated food security strategy and the consequent need to influence the shape and content of this strategy.

The conference starts today and will end tomorrow afternoon.

In addition to the Fawu leadership and other speakers, representatives from the Congress of South African trade unions (Cosatu), the South African Communist Party (SACP), the African National Congress (ANC), and senior officials from the Department of Land Affairs and the Department of Agriculture.

The conference is structured into four sub-themes, including deliberations on the need for job creation and the importance of convening a sector job summit in the food industry as per the outcome of the Growth and Development Summit.

The conference will also deal with both sides of the debate on the role of genetically modified organisms in the enhancement of food security, and the skyrocketing food prices in 2001, remaining a cause for concern and will be a subject of discussion during the conference.

The role of land reform and agricultural transformation on the question of food security will also come under scrutiny.

The conference will combine the four themes (particularly the latter three) in the deliberations to pave the way forward and in order to promote food security and poverty eradication in South Africa.