Since 2011, FarmWorks Investment Co-operative Limited (FarmWorks) has been boosting Nova Scotia’s farm and food economy through small loans to local food businesses. The fund relies on community investments and relationship-based lending, markers of the provincial government’s Community Economic Development Investment Fund (CEDIF) program. FarmWorks was motivated by decreasing food production, dwindling agricultural employment and the resulting decline of rural communities across the province. These factors were compounded by systemic changes including the increased financialization of the agri-food sector. As a social economy organization, FarmWorks seeks to remedy the shortcomings of the dominant food system by prioritizing the social and ecological regeneration of local communities. It simultaneously works with existing market structures while challenging mainstream practices and developing an alternative model. Through a document review, our paper assesses the extent to which FarmWorks has been successful in its efforts “to increase the viability and sustainability of agriculture and the security of a healthy food supply.” Specifically, we examine economic outcomes (employment, revenue increase, business expansion) as well as social impact of FarmWorks loans. We situate our analysis in literature on social economy, financialization, and sustainable food systems.

Les chercheurs doivent citer ce travail comme suit :

• Stephens, P., Knezevic, I., Best, L., (2025), "Community financing for sustainable food systems: The case of FarmWorks Investment Co-operative", HSSCommons: (DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i3.353)

  Copy Citation | Export metadata as... | JSON | CSV | RO-Crate | BibTex | EndNote

1. Community financing
2. cooperatives
3. local investment
4. sustainable food systems

Original publication: Stephens, Phoebe; Knezevic, Irena; Best, Linda. "Community financing for sustainable food systems: The case of FarmWorks Investment Co-operative." Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, vol. 6, no. 3, 2019, pp. 60-87. DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i3.353. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. Copyright © the author(s). Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/.