Food Counts: Food systems report cards, food sovereignty and the politics of indicators

2025-03-19 22:03:35 | Contributor(s): Charles Z. Levkoe, Alison Blay-Palmer | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.277

The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems recognized that "current systems will be held in place insofar as these systems continue to be measured in terms of what industrial agriculture is designed to deliver, at the expense of many other outcomes that really matter in...

Food for thought: How trade agreements impact the prospects for a national food policy

2025-03-19 22:03:35 | Contributor(s): Elizabeth Ann Smythe | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.282

This article examines the prospect for a national food policy through the lens of trade agreements and the concept of policy space. It traces the shrinking of domestic policy space in recent decades as a result of trade agreements. Advocates such as Food Secure Canada seek a “coherent” food...

Forever young? The crisis of generational renewal on Canada's farms

2025-03-19 22:03:35 | Contributor(s): Darrin Qualman, A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, Sharada Srinivasan | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.284

There are fewer and fewer young people actively farming in Canada. Farmers under the age of 35 are leaving farming at twice the rate of the general farm population. As a result, Canada faces a crisis of generational renewal on its farms. This article explores the factors that mitigate against...

Governance recommendations from forty years of national food strategy development in Canada and beyond

2025-03-19 22:03:34 | Contributor(s): Peter Andrée, Mary Coulas, Patricia Ballamingie | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.283

This paper contributes to Canada’s current national food policy discussion by introducing lessons gleaned from the development of two earlier Canadian government food policy efforts, A Food Strategy for Canada (1977) and Canada’s Action Plan for Food Security (1998), as well as lessons drawn...

Federalism and fragmentation: Addressing the possibilities of a food policy for Canada

2025-03-19 22:03:34 | Contributor(s): Sarah Berger Richardson, Nadia Lambek | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.281

Canadian federalism poses unique challenges for the development of a national food policy. Under the Constitution Act, 1867, the federal government and the provinces are granted powers to govern exclusively in certain areas and to share jurisdiction in others. Where one level of government has...

The public plate in the transnational city: Tensions among food procurement, global trade and local legislation

2025-03-19 22:03:33 | Contributor(s): Jennifer Sumner, Hayley Lapalme | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i1.268

Local food systems are crucial to sustainability, and one of the most effective ways to develop them is to harness the buying power of large public institutions, such as hospitals and universities.  Steering public funds toward local food systems, however, is not as easy as it might...

Self-operated vs. corporate contract: A study of food procurement at two universities in Manitoba

2025-03-19 22:03:33 | Contributor(s): Michaela Bohunicky, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, Meghan Entz | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i1.280

Public institutions are increasingly being pressured to demonstrate how they are meeting their responsibilities and obligations to sustainability. Yet there is little academic research on food procurement at universities in Canada. This article examines issues related to procurement of local...

Food procurement in English-language Canadian public schools: Opportunities and challenges

2025-03-19 22:03:33 | Contributor(s): Shawna Holmes | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i1.265

This paper examines the changes to procurement for school food environments in Canada as a response to changes to nutrition regulations at the provincial level. Interviews with those working in school food environments across Canada revealed how changes to the nutrition requirements of foods...

Gleaning in the 21st Century: Urban food recovery and community food security in Ontario, Canada

2025-03-19 22:03:33 | Contributor(s): Jennifer Marshman, Steffanie Scott | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i1.264

Historic gleaning activities in Europe took place in farmers’ fields where gleaners could collect the leftovers of the harvest. One of the primary motivations for modern gleaning in Canadian cities is to donate fresh food to local organizations such as food banks. As there is currently little...

The role of alcohol in Canadian family food practices: Commensality, identity, and everyday tastes

2025-03-19 22:03:32 | Contributor(s): Brent Hammer, Helen Vallianatos | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.334

The authors use an anthropological lens to examine the role of alcoholic beverages and their consumption within everyday food practices of contemporary Canadian families. Anthropology and anthropologists have a long history of interest and fascination in the ceremonial and ritual use of...

Nimíciwinán, nipimátisiwinán – “Our food is our way of life”: On-Reserve First Nation perspectives on community food security and sovereignty through oral history in Fisher River Cree Nation, Manitoba

2025-03-19 22:03:31 | Contributor(s): Shailesh Shukla, Jazmin Alfaro, Carol Cochrane, Cindy Garson, Gerald Mason, Jason Dyck, Brielle Beudin-Reimer, Janna Barkman | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.218

Food insecurity in Indigenous communities in Canada continue to gain increasing attention among scholars, community practitioners, and policy makers. Meanwhile, the role and importance of Indigenous foods, associated knowledges, and perspectives of Indigenous peoples (Council of Canadian...

Food Network’s food-career frenzy? An examination of students’ motivations to attend culinary school

2025-03-19 22:03:31 | Contributor(s): Ryan Whibbs, Mark Holmes | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.255

This research presents the findings of a year long study, undertaken between 2016 and 2017, seeking to understand the degree to which students are influenced to attend culinary school by food medias, social media, and the Food Network. The notion that food medias draw the majority of new cooks...

Farm safety: A prerequisite for sustainable food production in Newfoundland and Labrador

2025-03-19 22:03:31 | Contributor(s): Lesley Butler, Ewa M. Dabrowska, Barbara Neis | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.317

A sustainable approach to food production must address both environmental sustainability and the wellbeing of food producers. Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations globally with high rates of injury, fatality, and occupational disease. However, occupational hazards and the practices...

Culinary tourism on Cape Breton Island

2025-03-19 22:03:30 | Contributor(s): Erna MacLeod | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.333

Cape Breton Island is a well-known North American tourism destination with long-standing attractions such as the Cabot Trail and more recently developed world-class offerings such as the Cabot Links Golf Course. Tourism contributes significantly to Cape Breton’s economy, particularly since the...

Supply management and the business activities of Ontario meat processors

2025-03-19 22:03:30 | Contributor(s): Rita Hansen Sterne, Erna van Duren | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.290

Canadian supply management policies in dairy, poultry and eggs have been hotly debated for over 50 years. During the most recent renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 2017-2018, the U.S. threatened to cancel NAFTA if concessions were not made to Canada’s supply...

Honouring the grandmothers through (re)membering, (re)learning, and (re)vitalizing Métis traditional foods and protocols

2025-03-19 22:03:30 | Contributor(s): Monica Cyr, Joyce Slater | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.339

In Canada, Métis cultural restoration continues to advance. Food practices and protocols, from the vantage point of Métis women who were traditionally responsible for domestic work, qualify as important subjects worthy of study because food and food work are integral components of family...

Digging through urban agriculture with feminist theoretical implements

2025-03-19 22:03:29 | Contributor(s): Mary Anne Martin | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i3.356

This article considers the value of using tools from feminist theory to explore the efforts of urban agriculture initiatives that practice to some extent outside the formal economy. Such a lens looks beyond the presence of women in specific projects to the value, extent, purpose, and...

Seed saving in Atlantic Canada: Sustainable food through sharing and education

2025-03-19 22:03:29 | Contributor(s): Norma Jean Worden-Rogers, Kathleen Glasgow, Irena Knezevic, Stephanie Hughes | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i3.352

Seed saving is an important element of seed security. Seed saving can support biodiversity, nourish food systems, facilitate environmental education, and enable the creation of networks that support food sovereignty. Public interest in seed security is on the rise, but local resources and...

Community orchards and Hyde’s theory of the gift

2025-03-19 22:03:29 | Contributor(s): Jennie K Barron | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i3.358

Food scholars and advocates just have long asserted that commodification is one of the fundamental injustices of our dominant, industrial food system, as it stands in direct opposition to the notion of food as a human right. The informal social economy, with its concerns for solidarity,...

Social economy of food initiatives that are nourishing communities through “power-with” practices

2025-03-19 22:03:29 | Contributor(s): Mary Anne Martin, Irena Knezevic, Patricia Ballamingie | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i3.362

From 2014 to 2019, Nourishing Communities: Sustainable Local Food Systems Research Group explored food initiatives in the social economy, many of which use practices like bartering, gifting, and self-provisioning, that remain under-recognized for their economic value. Nourishing Communities...