Scaling Up Toronto Community Gardens

Community Grown: Vibrant Community Owned Public Spaces Graduate students Janany Nagulan and Aislin Livingstone worked with FoodShare Toronto during the summer of 2016 to better understand the organization’s process to scale from community gardens up to market gardens in the Gordonridge and Flemingdon Park neighborhoods. Through their work, they addressed the question: how do urban agriculture projects expand and strengthen [...]

Feeding Halton Case Study

Feeding Halton: Co-location Food Hub and a Path Toward a More Inclusive Food System This research report, created in 2017 by Nicholas Godfrey as a component of the Toronto City Region Food System Assessment Project, presents a case study of a co-location food hub, Feeding Halton. The food hub is an innovative example of an agency participating in building [...]

Community Connections with Young City Growers

Young City Growers: Practices in Stakeholder Engagement as an Emerging Urban Food Project Lauren Ames worked with Young City Growers, a then new urban agriculture project in Waterloo, Ontario to detail the opportunities and challenges of an emerging urban farm initiative trying to build foundational partnerships. The resulting research report, published in January 2017, summarizes and analyzes interviews with [...]

Rural-Urban Linkages in Sub-Saharan Africa

Rural-Urban Linkages and Food Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Rural Dimension by Karim Hussein & David Suttie Read the full article. The roles that rural economies and societies will have to play (particularly smallholder farmers and other rural producers) in creating sustainable and inclusive food systems, in generating employment and incomes, and in contributing to more balanced, equitable, and mutually [...]

Food Policy Research in Canadian Food Studies

Building an Integrated Food Policy for Canada This post was originally written in 2018, prior to, and in anticipation of, the introduction of the Food Policy for Canada in 2019.  The effects of climate change, neoliberalization, corporate consolidation, declining access to healthy food and country food, and the overall lack of democratic accountability of the food system have left [...]

Community-Led Research in Délįnę

Supporting Community-Led Research in Délįnę by Neala MacLeod Farley Neala's reflection was originally posted in August, 2019.  Although it’s 11:00 pm you wouldn’t know it looking out the window at the clear blue sky. It is easy to lose track of time when the sun only sets for a couple of hours each day. It is my third week [...]

Institution Building and Local Action: Social Movement Engagement in Food Systems Governance

Searching for Fit? Institution Building and Local Action for Food System Change in Dunedin, New Zealand by Philippa Mackay and Sean Connelly Food system change is complex and multifaceted. From the global to the local, concerns about health, the environment, social justice, and economic development reflect diverse priorities for food system change.  While this diversity provides multiple opportunities to [...]

A New Narrative on Agrarianism: Social Movement Engagement in Food Systems Governance

Cooperative Governance and a New Narrative on Agrarianism in Calgary, Alberta by Mary Beckie and Elizabeth Bacon City-regions have become key players in food system governance. As part of the effort to understand how to create more inclusive and democratic governance structures, our chapter, “Catalyzing Change in Local Food Systems Governance in Calgary, Alberta,” in Civil Society and Social [...]

National Food Policy in Canada: Social Movement Engagement in Food Systems Governance

From Local Food Actions to Systems Change: Experiments in Social Movement Governance Through the National Food Policy in Canada by Charles Z. Levkoe and Amanda Wilson Over the past decade place-based alternative food initiatives have had a range of successes in their aims to promote healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems. More recently, these initiatives have become part of [...]

Hunger and Food Insecurity: Social Movement Engagement in Food Systems Governance

Comparing the Effectiveness of Structures for Addressing Hunger and Food Insecurity by Molly D. Anderson Why have some countries and regions been successful in addressing low food security and its extreme form, hunger, while others have not?  This question drove a comparison of different governance structures of decision-making organizations that is presented in the chapter “Comparing the Effectiveness of [...]

Indigenous Self-Determination: Social Movement Engagement in Food Systems Governance

Indigenous Self-Determination and Food Sovereignty through Fisheries Governance in the Great Lakes Region by Charles Levkoe and Kristen Lowitt When we talk about sustainable food systems and the right to food, it is important to ask: on whose lands? And on whose waters? This question is at the heart of the chapter, “Indigenous Self-Determination and Food Sovereignty through Fisheries [...]

The role of NGOs: Social Movement Engagement in Food Systems Governance

Pathways to co-governance? The role of NGOs in food governance in the Northwest Territories, Canada by Carla Johnston & Peter Andrée What are the lived opportunities and constraints for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are interested in improving food security and building sustainable food systems through policy and governance channels? How can these NGOs work collaboratively with government decision-makers and [...]

Local Food Action Plan: Social Movement Engagement in Food Systems Governance

The First Step in Collaborative Governance of Planning is Not Planning: Local Food Action Plan, Columbus, Ohio, USA by Jill Clark What would it look like if a local government shared power with a food movement organization to plan the community’s food system? And why would they do that in the first place? Two local governments in Columbus, Ohio, [...]

Market, State, and Civil Society in Correns, France: Social Movement Engagement in Food Systems Governance

Hybrid Governance as Rural Development: Market, State, and Civil Society in Correns, France by Chantal Wei-Ying Clément What does it take to develop sustainable food systems at the local level? While rural spaces are more often described as places of economic and social decline, they in fact play an essential role in providing people with community, identity, and livelihood. [...]

Traversing Theory and Practice: Social Movement Engagement in Food Systems Governance

Traversing Theory and Practice and the Governance Engagement Continuum by Kristen Lowitt, Jill Clark, and Peter Andrée  Food systems are in crisis. For social movements and organizations working at the front lines to build more sustainable and just food systems, this crisis also represents an opportunity. Civil Society & Social Movements in Food System Governance provides an array of examples [...]

Confronting Settler Colonialism in Food Systems

Confronting Settler Colonialism in Food Systems: Exploring Food Movement Organizations in Australia and Canada by Michaela Bohunicky Settler colonialism is described as a structure, rather than a past event, that aims to systematically eliminate Indigenous peoples and replace them with a settler society (Wolfe, 2006). Canada’s existence today, including its spaces, systems, and stories, is built from and around this [...]

Knowledge is the Key to Adaptation

Knowledge is the Key to Adaptation FLEdGE researcher Andrew Spring and community partners talk about Indigenous food systems research in a digital story about Kakisa, NWT, and in the Handpicked podcast series. If you ask Andrew Spring, FLEdGE researcher and Associate Director of the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, about the value of community-driven and collaborative research with [...]

Urban Resilience Through Food Systems Thinking

True Urban Resilience Can Only Be Achieved Through Food Systems Thinking Food systems thinking must be brought to the fore in discussions of urban resilience, and can no longer be relegated to an afterthought. In a reflective essay in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, FLEdGE researchers and community partners examined the Sustainable Development Goals, New Urban [...]

COVID-19 and the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program

Vegetables and Viruses: How COVID-19 is Exposing the Information Barrier Within the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program by Courtney Jane Clause United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada and Agricultural Workers Alliance (AWA), released their annual report amid the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year. UFCW and AWA support a spectrum of workers across different labour programs, industries, and legal statuses in [...]

COVID-19 Pandemic Survey—Food Access Across Canada

Survey Finds COVID-19 Has Canadians Asking for Better Food Systems and Food Access In 2020, FLEdGE researchers engaged in an inter-provincial project to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security, behaviour, and food systems understanding. Shopping anxiety, higher food prices and individual income limitations are some of the factors making access to food challenging for Canadians during [...]

Succession Planning for Farms

Succession Planning: Reframing a Crisis as an Opportunity By treating succession planning as an opportunity rather than a crisis, we can leverage what communities are already doing across Canada for a more targeted, adaptive, and predictable policy approach to food systems. by Claire Perttula & Johanna Wilkes, Balsillie School of International Affairs The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural [...]

FarmWorks

In Nova Scotia, FarmWorks Investment Co-operative Limited, a Community Economic Development Initiative Fund (CEDIF) is rebuilding the local food sector one farm and business at a time by leveraging more the $1.7 million in common shares supporting $8 million in annual gross business revenues and provide a fair return to investors. By integrating CEDIF opportunities to support emerging and existing [...]

Ecological Resilience – Research Publications

Food Policy – Research Publications

Food Connects – Research Publications

Indigenous Foodways – Research Publications

Food Access – Research Publications

Farmer Livelihoods – Research Publications

Indigenous Food Circle

Indigenous Food Circle The Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy (TBAFS) worked to bring together local food stakeholders to take a coordinated approach to building healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems through research, planning, policy, and program development. Members represent farmers, public institutions, small businesses, and non-profit organizations. The council members are conveners and activators who collaboratively implement the [...]

Mapping Food Policy in Canada

Mapping the Food Policy Landscape in Canada In 2017, FLEdGE and Food Secure Canada presented a series of six themed papers, maps, and summary tables as part of a broader policy scan. The intent of the policy scan was to inform and contribute to a conversation on building a national food policy in Canada that addresses the inter-related issues [...]

Seed Saving and Biodiversity

Seed Saving and Biodiversity Environmental relationships are enriched by preserving biodiversity, developing regional approaches to food, and supporting ecological farming initiatives that protect and conserve precious resources for future generations. In Atlantic Canada, two seed-saving initiatives are building on food movement needs, preserving and ensuring access to seed heritage and biodiversity. Nova Scotia’s Seed Collections Systems The seed collections [...]

Adopting a Food Systems Approach

Adopting a Food Systems Approach: A Case Study of Just Food, Ottawa In Ottawa, Ontario, researchers documented how the not-for-profit organization, Just Food, uses a food systems approach focused on sustainable production and access (e.g. community gardening, farmer training, promotion of local producers). Just Food acts as a coordinating body for a series of projects that address poverty and [...]

Community Stories About “Fish as Food”

Community Stories About “Fish as Food” by Kristen Lowitt In May 2018, members of the FLEdGE Northwestern Ontario Research Node hosted a “fish as food” roundtable session in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the Community Conservation and Livelihoods Conference. The session featured community stories on “fish as food” from the Northwest Territories to Nova Scotia. Collectively, the stories illustrate the importance of [...]

Food Sovereignty Requires Tech Sovereignty

Food Sovereignty Requires Tech Sovereignty How are emerging platform economies and social media opening up new possibilities for transforming unsustainable food systems? The following two reports offer some possibilities for ‘disrupting the disruptors’ and suggest that without technological sovereignty there can be no food sovereignty. The first report, Talking Tech with Foodies, shows how the ‘digital revolution’ provokes both hopes and [...]

Ontario Food Hub Case Studies 2015

Ontario Food Hub Case Studies 2015 Food hubs are actual or virtual spaces through which food is collected and distributed to processors, retailers, restaurants, or other organizations. They can also provide space for other food-related activities including food preparation, handling and/or processing, education and skill-building, and increasing food access. Through funding from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural [...]