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

2025-03-19 22:03:34 | Article | 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...

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

2025-03-19 22:03:34 | Article | 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...

Special issue on building an integrated Food Policy for Canada: An open letter to the Canadian food policy community

2025-03-19 22:03:34 | Essay | Contributor(s): Peter Andrée, Charles Z. Levkoe, Amanda Wilson | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.335

This editorial introduces the special issue of Canadian Food Studies, “Building an integrated Food Policy for Canada”. In a letter to the food policy community, the guest editors assert that the federal government’s development of a Food Policy for Canada will be just the beginning. Many...

Creating a local food procurement community of practice: The Alberta Flavour Learning Lab

2025-03-19 22:03:34 | Report | Contributor(s): Mary Anne Beckie, Leanne Hedberg, Jessie Radies | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i1.267

In order for local food initiatives (LFIs) to have a transformative effect on the larger food system, greater levels of economic, organizational and physical scale are needed. One way for LFIs to reach the scale necessary to generate a more significant impact is through increased institutional...

Greening Canada’s Arctic food system: Local food procurement strategies for combating food insecurity

2025-03-19 22:03:34 | Report | Contributor(s): Angel Chen, David Natcher | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i1.301

Across northern Canada community gardens and greenhouses are being used as alternatives to imported foods that are often unaffordable, are of compromised quality, or simply unavailable in local retail outlets. Community gardens and greenhouses are seen as part of the solution to lessen local...

Disruptive innovation and operationalization in local and sustainable food systems: Examining the University of Toronto-Local Food Plus partnership

2025-03-19 22:03:34 | Report | Contributor(s): Lori Stahlbrand | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i1.269

This paper traces the partnership between the University of Toronto and the non-profit Local Food Plus (LFP) to bring local sustainable food to its St. George campus. At its launch, the partnership represented the largest purchase of local sustainable food at a Canadian university, as well as...

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

2025-03-19 22:03:33 | Article | 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...

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

2025-03-19 22:03:33 | Article | 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...

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

2025-03-19 22:03:33 | Article | 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...

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

2025-03-19 22:03:33 | Article | 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...

From contracts to culture: Exploring how to leverage local, sustainable food purchasing by institutions for food systems change

2025-03-19 22:03:33 | Review | Contributor(s): Jennifer Reynolds, Beth Hunter | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i1.285

In recent years, certain hospitals, schools, and campuses across Canada have shown that they can transform their practices to serve more local and sustainable food. These changes have often been led by visionary champions, and in some cases aided by supportive public policies or programs. Yet...

Introduction to the special issue on food procurement

2025-03-19 22:03:32 | Essay | Contributor(s): Jennifer Sumner, Lori Stahlbrand | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i1.350

A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat by Eric Holt-Giménez

2025-03-19 22:03:32 | Review | Contributor(s): Jennifer Sumner | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.329

Book Review.

Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat? by Philip H. Howard

2025-03-19 22:03:32 | Review | Contributor(s): Chloé Poitevin-DesRivières | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.209

book review

The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America by Virginia Sole-Smith

2025-03-19 22:03:32 | Review | Contributor(s): Meredith Bessey | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i2.364

Book Review

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

2025-03-19 22:03:32 | Article | 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...

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

2025-03-19 22:03:31 | Article | 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...

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

2025-03-19 22:03:31 | Article | 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...

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 | Article | 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...

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

2025-03-19 22:03:30 | Article | 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...