Settler colonialism and the (im)possibilities of a national food policy

2025-03-19 22:03:37 | Contributor(s): Sarah Rotz, Lauren Wood Kepkiewicz | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.275

In this perspectives piece we ask: is it possible for a national food policy to form the foundation for sustainable and equitable food systems in Canada? First, we argue that under the current settler government, such a policy does not provide this foundation. Second, we consider what is...

Building joined-up agricultural policies: Lessons from Québec

2025-03-19 22:03:37 | Contributor(s): Hugo Martorell, Elisabeth Abergel | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.322

In an effort to think about innovative and comprehensive federal food and agricultural policies, this commentary offers some insight into Québec’s integrated agricultural policy framework. In theory, key operating principles such as the precautionary principle, multifunctionality and...

The need for contextual, place-based food policies: Lessons from Northwestern Ontario

2025-03-19 22:03:37 | Contributor(s): Connie Nelson, Charles Z. Levkoe, Rachel Kakegamic | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.327

In recent years, several reports have highlighted the need for a national food policy that takes a comprehensive approach to addressing food systems (CAC, 2014; Levkoe & Sheedy, 2017; Martorell, 2017; UNGA, 2012). These findings suggest that, at the core, resilient food systems must be...

Closing the loop on Canada's National Food Policy: A food waste agenda

2025-03-19 22:03:37 | Contributor(s): Tammara Soma | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.314

In the near future, Canada will be implementing a national food policy; in doing so, it will be joining a growing number of countries with policies and strategies that address the growing problem of food waste. Food waste is a major economic drain estimated to cost Canada $31 billion dollars...

A food policy for Canada, but not just for Canadians: Reaping justice for migrant farm workers

2025-03-19 22:03:37 | Contributor(s): Anelyse M. Weiler | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.312

In this policy commentary, I highlight opportunities to advance equity and dignity for racialized migrant workers from less affluent countries who are hired through low-wage agricultural streams of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Core features of the program such as 'tied' work...

What about the other 50 percent of the Canadian population? Food allergies ignored in national policy plan

2025-03-19 22:03:37 | Contributor(s): Susan Elliott, Francesca Cardwell | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.326

Food allergy is a growing public health epidemic in Canada, affecting 50 percent of Canadian households either directly or indirectly. Despite the physical, psychosocial and quality of life impacts to those affected, food allergy has recently been ignored in the Canadian policy context. While...

New farmers and food policies in Canada

2025-03-19 22:03:36 | Contributor(s): Julia Laforge, Ayla Fenton, Virginie Lavalée-Picard, Stéphane McLachlan | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.288

As the demographics of farmers are shifting, the ways agricultural and food policies affect and influence the decision-making and behaviours of new farmers is also changing. At the same time, there is growing interest in contesting and rebuilding Canadian food systems to address environmental...

The case for a Canadian national school food program

2025-03-19 22:03:36 | Contributor(s): Kimberley Hernandez, Rachel Engler-Stringer, Sara Kirk, Hannah Wittman, Sasha McNicholl | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.260

Canada is one of the only member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) without a national school food program. Good nutrition impacts children’s health, wellbeing, and learning; and school food environments offer an important setting to promote health...

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...