The Agroecology for the 21st Century Conference aims to create a space to interact with people, scholarship, practice and the arts towards building a socially just, environmentally sound, nutritious and healthy food system. The three-day conference will bring together a wide range of contributors across disciplines and sectors to discuss the present state and future possibilities of agroecology in South Africa and beyond. The focus is on South Africa and neighbouring countries in the region, but contributions are welcomed from other parts of Africa and across the globe. The conference setting is deeply symbolic, convening in the heart of Cape Town, South Africa – the “Mother City” that was established in 1652 when the Dutch East India Company created a half-way station to provide fresh water and food for ships on trade routes to Asia. This garden marked the beginning of movement of Europeans into Southern Africa, introducing the multifaceted violence of colonisation. Five hundred years later, we are still grappling with the complex nexus of food production, nutrition, culture, knowledge, power and politics