PROGRAM DETAILS
Thursday, June 18, 2026
The theme of Growing focuses on deepening discussions, advocacy efforts, and partnerships.
This day will explore how nurturing innovation, supporting community leadership, and building on shared knowledge helps our food systems flourish.
Plenary (FCN) - Government Relations and Food Resilience
More information to come
Live recording of Dignity and Joy: A podcast from FoodShare. Collective reflections on building a bigger table to strengthen our relations
Throughout this year’s Common Good Food Forum the team from Dignity & Joy: A podcast from FoodShare will be circulating and soliciting insight and reflection on the forum’s theme, “Building a Bigger Table: Strengthening Our Relations.”
Dignity and Joy is a podcast that centers food justice through conversations with people who are building more just, caring, and resilient systems in food and beyond. Grounded in lived experience, community knowledge, and relationship-building, the podcast explores how dignity, joy, and collective responsibility can guide food futures beyond charity and crisis response. Over the course of the forum, FoodShare asks attendees to consider how relationships between communities, organizations, institutions, and the land are foundational to food justice work, and what it takes to nurture those relationships in practice.
On the closing day of the session, the podcast team will invite those moving through the ‘Connection Corner’ to share short reflections with host Sheldomar Elliott that emerged for them throughout the week around strengthening relations, hoping to explore questions such as:
- What does it mean to build food systems rooted in dignity rather than extraction or scarcity?
- How do we sustain relationships across difference, power, and place?
- What conditions allow joy to coexist with struggle in food justice movements?
- How can institutions make space for community-led knowledge while remaining
accountable?
Diverting from its standard format of one-on-one interviews and instead bringing the Dignity and Joy podcast into a shared physical space, FoodShare aims to model a different way of convening; one that values listening, care, and collective learning as essential tools for strengthening our food systems.
Presentations - Transitions in Canadian agriculture
Status of the agroecological transition in Quebec
Jane Morrison, Darren Bardati
This study investigates how farmers in Quebec are transitioning from conventional agriculture to agroecological practices. To capture these changes, surveys were distributed to owners and managers of ecological farms across the province in 2019 and again in 2025. Ecological farms, in this context, refer to a broad spectrum of farms that aim to implement practices promoting environmental sustainability. A comprehensive database of ecological farms was created using publicly available online sources, and participants were contacted by email. The surveys aimed to identify key issues, concerns, and resource investments, highlighting areas where farmers need support and potential directions for future research. Comparing responses from both years allowed us to observe trends over time. The survey received 196 complete responses in 2019 and 182 in 2025. Overall, findings indicate a positive shift toward agroecological practices. More farms now self-identify as “fully” ecological, reliance on external inputs has decreased, and environmental sustainability has become a higher priority. However, challenges remain. The most frequently cited barriers were financial constraints, followed by time limitations and management complexities. These obstacles underscore the need for targeted policy interventions and support programs to facilitate transitions. This research provides an optimistic outlook on farming in Quebec, demonstrating tangible progress toward sustainability while identifying critical areas for improvement.
Diversification through agritourism: Small niches but big potential
Eva Escandon
There is a range of economic and social dynamics that are negatively impacting farmers’ livelihoods. One clear problem is demographic: Canada’s farming population is both shrinking and aging, with the average farmer now 56 years old. Another central and interrelated problem is economic, as many farmers face long-term financial constraints. The economic challenge of farming today stems from a range of factors, including the high costs of farm machinery, which result in low unit margins and are especially challenging for small- and medium-scale farmers. In response, some small- and medium-scale farmers have begun diversifying their farming activities to increase profitability and address low margins.
One emerging approach to on-farm diversification is the growth of agritourism, which can be broadly described as efforts to provide visitors with authentic experiences on working farms, which can include participation in activities such as harvesting produce (e.g. apple or berry picking), feeding and interacting with animals, and seasonal pastimes (e.g. hay-rides and corn mazes in the fall, maple sugar bushes in the mid-winter).
This research sets out to examine the landscape of agritourism in Canada, including an assessment of the varied forms it takes, along with the associated revenue streams and educational claims. This is an underappreciated subject in Canadian food studies, as agritourism – when pursued effectively – has the potential to not only contribute to small farm livelihoods, through additional income and higher margin sales, but can also have a role in educating visitors about the nature of food and farming. By better understanding the forms of agritourism being pursued in Canada, along with the expressed objectives, my goal is to not only help set out a research agenda for scholars in food studies but ultimately generate insights that could be of service to small farmers considering how to incorporate this into their operations.
Tackling transitions: Farmer perspectives on the challenges of farm succession
Claire Perttula
The farm succession crisis is a critical issue to the future of farming in Ontario. 60 percent of farmers are over the age of 55 and approaching retirement but lack succession plans, while a decreasing share of farmers are under 35. Despite being essential to the future of the sector, young and aspiring farmers face many barriers to access. Many of these challenges are rooted in colonialism and the power dynamics that it entrenched, including racism and private property regimes. Some provinces have new entrant strategies to address the barriers new farmers face and strengthen the farming sector overall. Ontario does not, nor is there a national strategy.
This research argues that the challenges faced by farmers across career stages- aspiring, new, and retiring- are all connected and thus require a full system strategy, not just a new entrant strategy. Throughout 2025, farmers across career stages were interviewed to understand their perspectives, particular challenges, and wishes for future of farming in Ontario and for navigating transitions into or out of the sector. The experiences of the aspiring, new, and retiring farmers interviewed are analysed using a food sovereignty framework to identify intergenerational struggles with common root causes. From these intergenerational challenges, potential leverage points related to access, diversity, and governance are identified.
High yields, low returns: A longitudinal analysis of technology packages and farm incomes in southwestern Ontario
Richard Bloomfield
Small-medium scale independent farmers in Canada—and around the world—have shown remarkable resistance to the forces of capitalist restructuring. Despite ongoing substitutionism (the replacement of farmers’ autonomy and knowledge with dependence on external inputs and expertise) and appropriation (the extraction of value from farming for capital accumulation), many continue to navigate and resist these pressures (van der Ploeg, 2018). While much attention has been paid to peasant movements and alternative food networks, less scholarly focus has been given to small- and medium-scale commodity crop farmers, particularly in the Global North, who operate within consolidated input-output systems and are often embedded in deeply financialized landscapes (Clapp, 2025). Scholars have pointed out at the macro level the stagnation of commodity prices and thus smaller share of income the farmer captures despite the increase in prices for retail products—such as bread—as well as the macro trends of net income for farmers in Canada trending down and ever more unequally (Qualman et al., 2018).
This presentation will offer an empirical case rooted in four decades of data from a family-run farm in Southwestern Ontario. Drawing on field-level records of input costs, yields, and net incomes, I examine the promises made by agribusiness—particularly in relation to stacked-trait seed varieties and “technology packages”—and assess their material outcomes for farmers. Specifically, I compare yield and net income per acre between genetically modified hybrid corn varieties and conventional seeds across multiple decades. I seek to provide a detailed longitudinal analysis that challenges the assumption that technological intensification leads to improved farm prosperity to shed light on the lived realities of smaller-scale commodity crop farmers in Canada. In centring a farm-level perspective this presentation will contribute to ongoing agrarian political economy debates about the dynamics of capital, resistance, and the future of farming in Canada.
O’Brien farm and new found farmers: A thriving farming incubation program in a dying agricultural province
Aaron Rodgers
This session is O’Brien Farm and New Found Farmers: a thriving farming incubation program in a dying agricultural province and presented by Aaron Rodgers, General Manager of O’Brien Farm. O’Brien Farm Foundation was founded in 2011 on the 31 acre, 212 year old O’Brien Farm within the city of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. When the last living member of the O’Brien Family died in 2008, the farm fell into disrepair. A community group, led by a mixture of governmental, heritage and agricultural professionals, started reimagining the farm as a place for cultural and agricultural learning.
Over the next decade, the farm was rebuilt into a thriving local resource with a heritage home, interpretation centre, wood working social enterprise, rental venue and small farm incubator. Our incubation program, New Found Farmers, was launched in 2021 and over the last 5 years has facilitated the development of 8 small farm businesses, and 6 small garden businesses, with individual revenues ranging from $1,000-$40,000 annually. O’Brien Farm provides land, infrastructure, irrigation, equipment, and expertise to help get new entrant farmers started in agri-business while covering 90% of the programs operational costs. This year 4 of the farmers will matriculate out of our incubation program to their own sole proprietor agri-business operations which will increase the number of farms in Newfoundland and Labrador by over 1%. This presentation will explore the startup of this program and provide insight to successes and failures and impact of food security by agri-business incubation programs.
Panel (FSC & CAFS) - From public grocery stores to social supermarkets
Jenelle Regnier-Davies, Sara Edge, Jennifer Sumner; Daraksha Rehman, Beccah Frasier, Aaron Vansintjan
Food costs in Canada have reached the level of a public health crisis, and with ongoing disruption and uncertainties associated with our largest trading partner, are likely to worsen. Since 2020, grocery prices have increased by nearly 30 percent, and food retail profits have more than doubled relative to pre-pandemic norms (Stanford, 2023; Mouré, 2023). At the same time, food insecurity has accelerated across the country, with approximately 25% of the Canadian population experiencing food insecurity or inadequate access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food (PROOF, 2025). Growing public distrust of Canada’s hegemonic food retail system, where five large chains control over 80 percent of the market, has prompted Canadians to think beyond the corporate big-box grocery model and consider public and community-driven alternative solutions and economic models.
On the one hand, calls for publicly funded supermarkets have gained traction in recent years. This shift reflects emerging public discourse on alternative models in the United States and Canada, as political leaders are increasingly proposing a “public option” for food retail (see Patel et al., 2026). On the other hand, social supermarkets or “solidarity stores” have become increasingly prevalent across the social sector in Canada. These non-profit or social economy models are characterized by the sale of wholesale or surplus food and essential goods at heavily discounted and/or sliding-scale prices, with a strong emphasis on local engagement, mutual aid, and addressing unique community needs (Bedore, 2017; Pettman et al., 2024; Wills, 2017). Public grocers and solidarity stores represent underexplored strategies for reducing the burden of food costs and expanding access to nutritionally dense food nationwide.
This panel examines the range of grocery alternatives that could address Canada’s food price crisis. Bringing together community leaders, practitioners, and food system scholars, this panel urges a reimagining and exploration of practical measures that could be used to build more equitable and sustainable food systems and improve food access for Canadians.
Panel (CG) - Canada and the world: Asserting Canadian leadership in building more just and sustainable global food systems
Moderator: Rachel Friedman (UVic)
Panellists: Monika Korzun (Sustainability and Environmental Studies, St. Thomas University); Johanna Wilkes (Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University); Kristen Lowitt (School of Environmental Studies, Queen’s University); Jodi Koberinski (Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo); Peter Andree (Political Science, Carleton University)
While Canada is a net exporter of agri-food and seafood products, many of the foods we consume daily, such as fresh produce, coffee, cocoa, and oil palm, are sourced from outside our borders. This active involvement in the global food economy presents Canada with an opportunity to lead in advancing a transition to more just and sustainable food supply chains. Increasingly, governments are facing pressure to take responsibility for deforestation, biodiversity loss, and social injustices that are embedded in supply chains, both at home and abroad. Given the current political climate and the importance of food security and trade resilience, examining this opportunity is timely and impactful for both Canada and its trade partners. In his recent speech at the World Economic Forum, Prime Minister Mark Carney asserted Canada’s commitment to sustainability and forging strong relationships in a new world order. In Canada’s 2024 Fall Economic Statement, the government also expressed renewed energy for supply chain accountability and scrutiny of human rights issues. Besides being a growing national priority, sustainable trade policy opens possibilities of partnership and demonstrates global leadership and policy innovation by taking responsibility for its global footprint, while creating opportunities for Canadian business expansion. Bringing the conversation back home is critical to developing our understanding of what can work for Canada, while still addressing time-sensitive and crucial sustainability issues. While there are many models for holding supply chain actors responsible for their impacts, what will work in the Canadian context requires exploring different policy options and fostering dialogue between actors in the policy process with diverse interests and priorities for supply chain performance.
This roundtable discussion will explore the policy tools and processes at Canada’s disposal to eliminate the social and environmental harms perpetuated along transnational food supply chains. Proposed format: Following introductions and context-setting, the moderator will take the next 50 minutes to facilitate a discussion among the panellists on the three main topics: (1) plausible policy instruments; (2) barriers to actions; and (3) research gaps. For each topic, audience members will be able to ask questions and add to the discussion.
Presentations - Dreaming of a better tomorrow: Optimism for food system change
How would our food systems look if they were built on care, reciprocity, and respect for all beings?
Steffanie Scott
As a source of nourishment, meaning, and belonging, food systems can help us recognize our deep entanglement with the natural world. Reflecting on relational food system transformation is an opportunity to use post-humanist and food sovereignty frameworks to explore broader relational shifts between humans, non-human actors, and the biophysical spaces that enable them. In this presentation, we report on a pilot study in a central, older neighbourhood in Waterloo Region, Ontario, that looked at biocultural identities: how neighbourhood residents feel a sense of connection to the community and to nature.’ Although food was not an explicit focus of our questions, it emerged as an important theme. In semi-structured‚ walk-along interviews walking around the neighbourhood with residents, people shared about emergency food sources, growing and drying herbs, hunting for berries, mutual aid, and sharing food with human and non-human neighbours.
Food was rooted in nourishing relationships. It was a way of connecting with each other and with the land, including more-than-human beings. The concept of ‘becoming a corner house’ catalysed and focused our curiosity about this relationship-building. A corner house is a “gateway to community,” creating opportunities for local engagement with food, knowledge, and neighbours. We wonder how each of us can become a corner house for community. This research reveals how people at the neighbourhood scale are already cultivating something different from today’s dominant, extractivist food systems through community gardens and neighbourly networks of care. Imagining better futures requires not just technical solutions, but emotional, cultural, and ethical shifts that prioritize connection over consumption. The next iteration of this research will diversify interviewees and invite residents and organizations to co-create visions of a future in which food systems are inclusive, resilient, and connected to place.
How food change agents navigate tensions between their utopian ambitions and everyday realities
Rebecca Laycock Pedersen
Dominant food systems are ecologically unsustainable and socially unjust. To address this, food change agents seek to align their everyday practices, organisational forms, and relationships with the values they wish to realise. However, change agents’ efforts are often constrained. Better understanding these constraints, and how change agents navigate them, can provide insight into the relative efficacy of different approaches, as well as into how barriers to sustainable and just food system transformations might be addressed. Drawing on interviews, this presentation examines how change agents involved in sustainability- and justice-oriented food initiatives in Calgary, Canada, and Malmö, Sweden, navigate the tensions between their prefigurative ambitions and the constraints they encounter. I first explore the strategies change agents use to cope with, negotiate, or resist these constraints in their day-to-day decision-making, considering when these strategies enable survival and learning, and when they risk undermining transformative potential. To conclude, I examine the mechanisms through which prefigurative efforts are constrained, and how a better understanding of these mechanisms can enable more strategic action to overcome, circumvent, or dismantle forces that limit transformations toward sustainable and just food systems.
How might the 2nd EAT-Lancet report’s recommendations influence food regime change and food system transformation?
Amar Laila, Alicia Martin, Costanza Conti, Jennifer Clapp
Currently, our food systems are not sustainable nor just. They contribute significantly to transgression of planetary boundaries and inequitable environmental harm as well as food insecurity and malnutrition, unlivable wages, and harmful working conditions for millions. Inequities in our food systems exist both across countries and within countries.
Food regime analysis is used to understand how global food systems are shaped by the dominant powers of their time. Capitalism has prompted growth and intensification of food production and globalization of food systems. Considering the unsustainability and injustices of food systems, researchers, governments, and civil society organizations have called for food systems transformation. One such prominent and recent call for food system transformation is the 2nd EAT-Lancet report on food system justice and sustainability. The solutions they provide include but are not limited to mandating of the planetary health diet, implementing school meals, intensifying production using ecological practices, halving food loss and waste, better and wider coverage of social protection policies, and higher wages for food systems workers. Such a transformation is difficult and will require buy-in and collaboration across sectors. Furthermore, some researchers argue that structural changes are necessary. Thus, this paper will outline where the 2nd EAT-Lancet’s recommendations are situated within different food regimes.
In this perspective paper, we analyze the solutions provided in the 2nd EAT-Lancet report using a food regime analysis. We show that most solutions fall into a Progressive food regime with some solutions falling into a Radical food regime, so a drastic rethinking and reshaping of current food regimes are needed to achieve food system transformation. This paper also considers the implications of current geopolitical shifts on food system transformation efforts. This is important because this analysis points to how the report is influencing food regime change and food systems transformation (or not).
Food as an agent of change: Planetary health food movement
Maddie Youngman
This presentation outlines the urgent challenges posed by current food systems, which substantially contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and chronic disease. Industrialized food systems also undermine farmer livelihoods, food literacy, and social justice, while driving rising healthcare costs and preventable diseases. Food environments, including hospitals and universities, are failing to provide sufficiently nourishing, sustainable options. Without significant shifts in institutional food provision leading to societal shifts, international health and climate goals will remain unmet. Despite public institutions’ potential to leverage influence, mandate, and success, a planetary health food movement has yet to be realized. Addressing food-related challenges requires coordinated, cross-sectoral, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Individual actors have limited impact, but coalitions—spanning civil society, academia, and government—extend influence and resources, enabling the co-design and implementation of diets that support planetary health, including sustainability. Over the past five years, organizations, alliances, and coalitions have worked to co-design sustainable diet movements to ignite needed change, demonstrating powerful strategic partnerships. Such partnerships are essential for effective interventions, communications, and tools to spark positive change amid uncertainty and complexity. Academics and community practitioners are collaborating to catalogue and scale up the creative and collective efforts to disrupt dominant food system patterns threatening human and planetary health. This presentation builds upon proven theories and practices for transforming food systems to be more equitable and sustainable; we illuminate and critique initiatives that improve institutional food systems across sectors. We conclude with strategies that are catalyzing shifts within institutional food culture and environments to accelerate the planetary health food movement.
From soil to sea: Cultivating resilience through alternative food networks
Bruna Negri
Contemporary food systems are characterized by deep contradictions, producing abundance alongside persistent social and ecological inequalities. Climate change and recent global shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic have further exposed the fragility of dominant industrial food regimes, emphasizing the need for alternative pathways that foster resilience, justice, and sustainability. This research explores the role of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) in contributing to food system resilience through a comparative, cross-sectoral lens that bridges terrestrial and marine food systems. Drawing on a multiple-case study design, this research examines two alternative food networks operating in the Global North. One case focuses on a land-based network centred on soil regeneration and sustainable agricultural practices, while the other examines a community-based seafood network that supports small-scale fisheries and local food systems. Together, these cases allow for an integrated analysis of how land- and sea-based food networks respond to environmental, economic, and social disruptions, while navigating power relations, governance structures, and questions of access and equity. The study is informed by resilience and transformation theories, the Multi-Level Perspective on socio-technical transitions, and the “Three Spheres of Transformation” heuristic, alongside a political ecology framework grounded in Latin American scholarship. Methodologically, the research combines document analysis, semi-structured and life-history interviews, and participant observation to trace how values, relationships, and strategies evolve within these networks over time.
Workshop - School food program in the far north
Aira Villanueva
Access to healthy, culturally meaningful food remains one of the most pressing challenges for communities and schools across Nunavut. This facilitated 90-minute Workshop introduces a school food program that integrates Inuit knowledge, local food systems, and educational outcomes. Drawing on recent research and on-the-ground collaboration with schools, families, and community partners, the session explores how holistic food initiatives can strengthen both student well-being and learning engagement. The Workshop begins with a brief overview (15 minutes) of the current realities of food insecurity and school-based feeding efforts in the far north. Participants will then engage in small-group discussions to examine key themes: sustainability of funding models, inclusion of country food, and partnerships between educators and local hunters or organizations. Each segment invites participants to share perspectives and identify adaptable strategies for their own contexts. By centering Inuit voices and values, this session highlights how school food programs can become vehicles for cultural renewal, health promotion, and educational equity. Attendees will leave with practical tools, policy considerations, and action frameworks for supporting community-driven approaches to school nutrition that go beyond feeding and toward empowerment and resilience.
Panel - Basic income and the future of food: Strengthening social relations for a just and sustainable food system
Ben Earle, Josephine Grey
This panel examines basic income as a necessary‚ but incomplete‚ policy tool for advancing food security and transforming food systems in Canada, with a focus on Ontario. Income adequacy is one of the strongest predictors of household food security, yet current interventions remain fragmented and place responsibility on individuals rather than addressing structural inequities. A basic income provides a stable and dignified foundation that reduces precarity while reshaping the social and economic conditions in which food system actors operate, including strengthening demand for and viability of locally produced food.
Panellists will explore three interconnected themes.
- First, they will outline why basic income is essential for reducing food insecurity but cannot, on its own, resolve deeper challenges such as corporate concentration, land access barriers, and the erosion of local food economies.
- Second, they will highlight basic income as a platform for broader food system transformation‚ one that deepens relationships between people and land, rural and urban communities, and producers and consumers.
- Third, the discussion will examine how growers, producers, small-scale processors, and community food organizations benefit when residents have stable purchasing power, reduced financial stress, and greater ability to participate in local food networks. These conditions support more resilient local food production and strengthen community-based food systems. By bringing together researchers, community practitioners, and food system actors, this session advances the Forum’s goals of knowledge sharing, building social expertise, and developing shared cross‚ sector objectives.
The panel aims to seed new collaborations and contribute to a more equitable, sustainable, and sovereign food system – one built on stronger social relations and a larger, more inclusive table.
Panel - Addressing northern food systems challenges through agroecology
Dr. Andrew Spring, Chief Lloyd Chicot, Mindy Price, Jennifer Temmer
Northern food systems are increasingly shaped by intersecting social, ecological, and political-economic pressures. In regions such as the Northwest Territories, food insecurity is understood in relation to on-going impacts of settler colonialism, fragile supply chains, rising costs of living, and social and economic marginalization.
This panel brings together Indigenous leaders, and community-based researchers to critically examine these conditions and to explore agroecology as a pathway toward more resilient, just and culturally grounded northern food systems. Panelists will discuss key food systems challenges facing northern communities including climate change, rising food costs, threats to local knowledge and culture, and inadequate policies and offer community-led solutions to overcoming these challenges and creating more resilient, sustainable and equitable food systems. By situating agroecology within a northern context, the panel emphasizes it not as an imported solution, but as an approach connected to Indigenous knowledge systems, social relations, and governance structures. Examples from northern communities will illustrate how agroecological practices can strengthen cultural continuity, support local economies, and enhance resilience to climate change.
Ultimately, this panel argues that agroecology in the North offers a vital alternative to conventional agriculture that supports food sovereignty, restores relationships to land, and creates more just and sustainable northern food systems in the face of ongoing colonial, climatic, and socio-economic pressures.
Presentations - Alternative food systems and social economies
Solidarity markets and kitchens as spaces for the creation and reinforcement of social relations and communities
Laurence Godin, Cloé Bélanger, Blossom Belzile
This communications presents the results of a research project conducted in Quebec City which looks at the development of a sustainable and just food system at the neighborhood-level. Participant observation in solidarity kitchens and solidarity markets, as well as interviews with people who participate in them and with community organizers, showed how these spaces are powerful generators of social relations and integration; they offer people the possibility of meeting, connecting and working alongside each other in a way that lessens the effects of privilege, masks vulnerabilities, and contributes to the empowerment of the more disadvantaged participants, thereby redefining their position within the community.
Fighting inequalities is an important focus of the initiatives that are part of this study. However, the concept of food justice isn’t well suited to account for the dynamics they create. The idea behind food justice as both a concept and a movement is to deconstruct the structures of power and oppression that weigh heavily on marginalized populations and various actors in the food system. While fostering more just food systems is among the intentions behind the solidarity markets and kitchens that we investigated, their effects are on another level, namely in the creation and reinforcement of communities and solidarities. Following this, and in order to reflect on the relationships that are formed and the communities that are created in these spaces, we propose the concept of food solidarity. This concept aims to account for the way solidarity markets and kitchens, among others, can represent anchor points from which people connect with one another, invest their neighborhoods and communities, and take action on the concrete manifestations of socioeconomic inequalities, in a way that leads ultimately to political action and the formation of political collectives.
Empowering the excluded: Alternative food retailers as catalysts for social justice and agency in Quebec
Ali Romdhani
Food system governance currently faces a “lock-in” dominated by corporate concentration, where 80% of the Canadian market is controlled by five major players. This imbalance of power keeps farmers precarious and forces consumers—particularly those from marginalized backgrounds—into passive roles within a system that values profit over equity. This research positions alternative food retailers (AFRs) not merely as shops, but as spaces of social innovation designed to restore agency to those traditionally excluded from food policy and leadership. Drawing on practice theory, we investigate the “consumption junction” to understand how AFRs specifically engage with populations beyond the “privileged” demographic typically associated with sustainable consumption. Our study documents how community-led groceries and cooperatives move beyond neoliberal “individual responsibility” to foster collective empowerment. By integrating marginalized citizens into daily operations and governance, these retailers provide a platform for “infra-politics”—the politicization of everyday life. Through semi-structured interviews and “go-along” observations, we explore how AFRs reduce disempowerment by stimulating intrinsic motivation, competence, and self-determination. This research contributes to the Forum’s goal of “building a bigger table” by demonstrating how alternative retail models can dismantle systemic barriers, ensuring that the transition to a sustainable food system is both ecologically sound and socially just.
From land sharing to farmers markets: Mapping alternative food networks (AFNs) in Canada
Alissa Overend
Food insecurity in Canada is at an all-time high and experiencing the third consecutive increase in three years (Proof, 2025). Combine this with increased grocery store prices and ballooning corporate food profits, it is no surprise that many are searching for viable alternatives to the current food system (Patel, Vansintjan, Paskal & Schweizer, 2026). This research provides the first content and comparative analysis of AFNs across Canada. While much has been written on AFNs (Edwards, 2016; Wilson & Levkoe, 2022; Wittman, 2023), no study to date has offered a comprehensive, nation-wide overview of specific programming taking place. Heeding critiques that some AFNs focus too narrowly on food systems change (Edwards, 2016; Fourat et al., 2020; Levkoe et al., 2019; Maye, 2013), this research will document specific programs and initiatives taking place looking for similarities and differences in their offerings, while also analyzing the degrees to which they advance systemic change based on key facets of food sovereignty. Secondary data was collected using a content and comparative analysis, effective for large sample sizes (Neuendorf, 2017). Data was collected using publicly available website and social media content—including mission and value statements, event postings and notifications, public programming descriptions, bylaws, and other online content. Data was organized and analyzed i) by province (all ten provinces were included, excluding northern territories due to cultural, geographical, and historical specificities); ii) by city (the four largest cities per province were selected based on their population size as well as geographical disbursement), and iii) by sector (i.e. grassroots, government, or for-profit programs). This research aims to document and explore what AFNs in Canada are doing and where there are significant gaps in their offerings.
Renforcer les chaînes d’approvisionnement agroalimentaires du Nord de l’Ontario grâce à des interventions axées sur l’approvisionnement local
Morel Kotomale, Acheton Altenor, Ghasem Shiri
L’insécurité alimentaire demeure un enjeu majeur de santé publique dans le Nord de l’Ontario, où plus de 20 % des ménages du Nord-Ouest en sont affectés, exacerbant les disparités socioéconomiques régionales. Cette étude vise à identifier les principaux obstacles à l’approvisionnement alimentaire local, à tester des interventions permettant de renforcer les liens entre producteurs, transformateurs et acheteurs, à promouvoir des chaînes de production durables et à diffuser les connaissances générées auprès des acteurs locaux. L’étude s’appuie sur une approche par méthodes mixtes. Une revue systématique de la littérature a d’abord été menée afin d’analyser les obstacles à l’approvisionnement local, permettant d’identifier 30 barrières regroupées en sept catégories. Cette analyse a été complétée par quatre groupes de discussion réunissant des acteurs clés du système alimentaire, une étude de cas descriptive de l’Algoma Produce Auctions (APA) selon le cadre méthodologique de Yin (2018), ainsi que l’analyse de deux histoires de réussite. Les résultats mettent en évidence des goulots d’étranglement majeurs aux niveaux de la production, de la transformation et de la distribution. Plusieurs stratégies d’intervention sont proposées, incluant, au niveau fédéral, des subventions plus flexibles (p. ex. AgriStability), des investissements en infrastructures (p. ex. stockage à froid), l’intégration de clauses de préférence locale dans les marchés publics et des programmes élargis d’adoption technologique (p. ex. SNAPP). Au niveau provincial, les mesures recommandées comprennent la réduction des barrières tarifaires et le renforcement de la formation. Enfin, au niveau municipal, des initiatives telles que l’adoption de chartes alimentaires (p. ex. le modèle de Thunder Bay), la mise en œuvre de projets pilotes en résidences collectives et le développement d’annuaires régionaux d’agroentreprises sont proposées.
Presentations - Food policy
Exploring policy options for environmental accountability in Canada’s agri-food trade
Rachel S Friedman
Global food supply chains play a sizeable role in the current worldwide environmental crisis, leading to habitat loss, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions, largely associated with commodities traded between developing economies to industrialized nations. While consumer countries are trialing new regulatory approaches to reduce the persistent social and environmental harms embedded in global supply chains, how to mitigate these impacts remains a contentious issue, with divergent interests and values trying to shape policymaking. While Canada has recently advanced corporate human rights accountability through the 2024 Modern Slavery Act, it still lacks comparable mechanisms to address environmental impacts embedded in agri-food imports. Inspired by theory on “institutional fit,” this study examines how potential Canadian policy options align with the interests, priorities, capacities, and norms of domestic agri-food supply chain actors, and identifies the political and practical hurdles associated with designing effective environmental sustainability policy measures. We do so by bringing together diverse experts via a policy Delphi: two sequential online surveys followed by a workshop to promote dialogue. Panelists bring expertise in the agri-food sector, corporate accountability, supply chain sustainability, and international/trade policy. Findings highlight areas of agreement and contention, with mandatory supply chain due diligence and other regulatory measures featuring prominently, while a subset of respondents favored incentive mechanisms. Despite general support for mandatory measures, respondents voiced concerns about policy design without adequate consultation, disproportionately harming small firms and marginalized actors, including smallholder farmers, and imposing external governance models on producer countries in ways that resemble contemporary forms of economic or regulatory colonialism. While a single policy is unlikely to meet the range of preferences and concerns raised in this study, the findings help establish a foundation for defining the mix of policies suitable to Canada’s agri-food import sector.
Municipal Land Use Planning Policies that Promote Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems
Cyndie Pearson, Sharmini Balakrishnan
Food systems are shaped by social relations that connect people, land, and governance. Land use planning is a powerful yet under-examined lever for advancing access to nutritious food and protecting farmland. The presentation will share findings from a rapid review conducted by Ontario Dietitians in Public Health that asked: What municipal land use planning policies effectively promote an equitable and sustainable food system? The review synthesized peer-reviewed and grey literature (2013–2023) addressing policies related to farmland preservation, food access, and community food security. Findings indicate that top-down land use policies, particularly when combined with bottom-up community food initiatives, are associated with stronger farmland protection. Multifunctional planning approaches which recognize food systems as sources of cultural heritage, ecological services, economic activity, and health assets was linked to denser development patterns that conserve agricultural land while improving local food access. Government structure and interdepartmental collaboration strongly influenced whether agriculture and food issues were integrated into planning policy, and coordination across municipal, provincial, and federal levels and alignment with agricultural and community food strategies enhanced effectiveness. Engagement of diverse community partners including Public Health, local food advocates, the agri-food sector and the presence of strong political will were critical enablers. The review identifies actionable levers for practice. Public health involvement in official planning processes, advocacy for farmland protection, multifunctional planning frameworks, and cross-sector collaboration can strengthen local food systems. Framed within the Forum pillars of People and Land, Rural and Urban communities and People in/and Food Systems, this session invites dialogue between Public Health, government, agriculture and food system actors, Indigenous communities, researchers, planners, and community organizations, on how land use policy can build a bigger table.
Achieving optimal growth of local food economies: How much is enough?
John Wagner, Kaitlyn Adam
In this paper, we describe the characteristics of the local food movement in the Upper Columbia River Basin and assess the extent to which it might displace the industrial food system that continues to dominate the region. We focus especially on the Okanagan region in British Columbia but include information from the Central Kootenays as well, and the Columbia Basin Project area in Central Washington State. Our team conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with leaders of various local food initiatives (LFIs), provided volunteer farm labour for several initiatives, and reviewed an extensive body of published literature and website information. While our findings demonstrate that LFIs offer many positive benefits, such as enhanced regional food sovereignty and food security, a stronger local economy, improved ecological resilience, and deeper connections to community, land and food, they also underscore the fact that LFIs face significant barriers in respect to the costs of land and labour, and inefficiencies in local food storage, processing, distribution and sales networks. They also reveal that the government agencies responsible for food policy do not have a mandate to rebalance the overall food system in favor or LFIs, and neither do LFIs themselves articulate clear goals in respect to what percentage of local food, ideally, should or could be grown locally. In this paper, we argue that LFIs are unlikely to reach their full potential in the absence of clear and agreed upon targets regarding the optimal size of the local food economy, targets that need to balance the sometimes-conflicting goals of farm income with food sovereignty, food security, ecological resilience, and individual and community well-being.
Panel - Building a Bigger Table for Food Sovereignty and Solidarity: Reflections from the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum
Sarah Siska, Madeline (Maddie) Marmor, Celeste Smith, Bryan Dale, Jessie MacInnis
Across diverse contexts, communities are working to transform food systems toward justice, reciprocity, and collective well-being. While much food systems work is grounded locally, it is increasingly shaped by relationships, struggles, and movements that extend beyond borders. International spaces of convergence can play a critical role in strengthening these connections, while also raising important questions about how solidarity is practiced, translated, and sustained across contexts.
This roundtable brings together reflections from members of the North American delegation to the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum on Food Sovereignty, held in Kandy, Sri Lanka in September 2025. Drawing on experiences from the Forum and participants’ ongoing work in so-called Canada, the session explores how global food sovereignty movements inform, challenge, and deepen local and regional food systems efforts. Rather than centring on outcomes alone, the panelists will emphasize process: relationship-building, political education, and the tensions and possibilities of working across difference.
The session will invite dialogue on what it means to “build a bigger table” in food systems work, one that centres justice, reciprocity, and accountability, while strengthening connections between research, organizing, and practice. Participants will leave with insights into how international solidarity can support more grounded, relational, and transformative food systems work in so-called Canadian contexts and beyond.
Panel - Law and policy solutions to food loss and waste
Allison Penner, Dr. Heather McLeod-Kilmurray, Patricia Galvao-Ferreira, Tasha Sioufi Stansbury, Taite Palidwar
About half of food produced in Canada is wasted or lost, yet globally there are law and policy solutions that have been shown to be effective. This Panel will be co-hosted by Allison Penner (Executive Director of Reimagine Agriculture), Dr. Heather McLeod-Kilmurray (Law Professor from the University of Ottawa) and Prof Patricia Galvao-Ferreira, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University Tasha Sioufi Stansbury (PhD Student at the University of Ottawa), and Taite Palidwar (law student at the University of Ottawa). It will provide the up-to-date context of food loss and waste in Canada including its ties to climate change, food affordability and insecurity, and corporate concentration in the food system. This will include discussing where food is wasted along the supply chain and the broader context around how such valuable resources are not valued and prioritized. Panelists will also share about their real world experience with dumpster diving, food recovery, and paying witness to the harms done to animals within the food system.
Following, the Panel will reference successful global case studies and highlight related law and policy solutions in Canada. This includes implementing the Target Measure Act framework, increasing food donations (including by clarifying liability), reducing the use of best before dates, banning organics from landfills and building institutional frameworks for developing critical collaborations.The Panel will be designed to enable knowledge sharing and create essential cross-sector networks across areas of practice and different jurisdictional levels.
Presentations - Corporate concentration and food system financialization
Assessing impacts and asserting values on a speculative climate frontier
Mindy Price
Ontario Dietitians in Public Health conducted a rapid review to examine the question: What are the governance structures that support local food systems and how is their effectiveness measured? Dietitians working in population health increasingly face food system challenges that impact nutrition behaviours, such as food insecurity, climate change, and barriers to food sovereignty. To inform public health practice, the review synthesized evidence published between 2018 and 2023 on local and regional multi-sectoral collaboration for sustainable food systems. Findings were organized into three areas: governance structures, elements required to build and sustain them, and measures of effectiveness. Governance structures included internal (government-embedded), external (community-driven), and hybrid (shared authority) models. Hybrid models were most common, reflecting the need for collaboration across public health, planning, agriculture, community organizations, and civil society.
The review identified five key elements of governance structures: (1) a shared vision, (2) diverse, equitable, and inclusive membership; (3) coordinated action; (4) a relationship with local government; and (5) resource acquisition. Together, these elements enabled networks to advance policy change, strengthen community engagement, and integrate food system priorities into broader municipal strategies.
While measuring effectiveness remained challenging, food system networks demonstrated tangible impacts such as policy advancements, increased community engagement, sustainable food production initiatives, and the integration of food system goals into municipal planning processes. Overall, the review highlights that governance structures, particularly those that balance community leadership with government partnership, can strengthen food security, sustainability, and health equity, offering practical insights to strengthen local food system governance in Ontario.
The roots of concentration in the Canadian grocery retail sector
Rachael Vriezen
The majority of Canadians access food via grocery stores or supermarkets, and just four large firms control 66% of Canada’s grocery sector. As food prices rise and corporate profits soar, there have been increasing concerns about the corporate power potentially being exercised by Canada’s grocery retail giants in such a concentrated market. For example, dominant grocery retailers may be able to wield disproportionate power over suppliers and consumers, leading to negative impacts such as higher prices, reduced choices, and fewer opportunities for meaningful participation in governance. Understanding how Canada’s consolidated grocery retail sector emerged is critical for developing strategies to address the harms of concentration and to promote just, sustainable food systems transitions. This presentation will discuss preliminary findings from a process tracing analysis that identifies factors contributing to the historical development of the consolidated grocery sector in Canada; these factors include the increasing financialization of the sector, prior concentration in upstream industries, and the pursuit of economies of scale. The analysis also identifies enabling historical conditions that facilitated these processes, including the development of transportation infrastructure across Canada, post-WWII changes in consumer ideology, and later shifts towards neoliberal policy priorities. The paper highlights the ways that historical processes affect modern food retail, while also contributing to our understanding of the evolution of corporate power in food systems and the ongoing challenges that such power poses for the people in those systems.
A Case Study of the Governance of Canada’s Grocery Pricing Crisis
Deborah Komarnisky
Shaped by rising food insecurity, my research examines grocery pricing between August 2022 and February 2024 as a ‚social crisis. I examine three key actors talking about the crisis and its impact: citizen-consumers struggling with food affordability; governmental actors under pressure to respond; and retail grocers in Canada, who defend their pricing and profit margins. In this context, food itself becomes an object of governance, framed by conflicting narratives about food affordability, food insecurity, and retail grocer profiteering. This struggle to shape the dominant food narrative highlights governance tensions, raising questions about when, how, and why governments should intervene and with what tools. I analyze competing narratives in two specific sites of meaning-making: the Competition Bureau market study, conducted between October 2022 and June 2023, and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Foods investigation, conducted between November 2022 and February 2024. The emerging narratives portray governance either as a means of ensuring food access or as interference in the capitalist marketplace. My research project focuses on grocery pricing within this context, which has prompted specific governmental responses to food insecurity in Canada. As a key research question, I ask what the rising cost of groceries, widely framed as a crisis, reveals about how food is made into an object of governance in Canada, and what social consequences follow.
The price is right (for big retailers): AI systems in grocery retail
Sarah-Louise Ruder
Artificial intelligence (AI) may not be on the “grocery list,” but more consumers in Canada and the US are witnessing its effects on their carts and receipts (often without knowing it). In January 2026, No Frills made headlines as consumers raised concerns about “electronic shelf labels” (ESLs) for transparency and competition. The grocery retail sectors in North America are extremely concentrated with a handful of corporate giants dominating the market. These grocery firms are using technological innovation as well as vertical and horizontal integration to maximize profits, when the cost of food and household food insecurity are raising issues across Canada and the US. Our paper outlines the social justice implications of AI systems in grocery retail, with ESLs and dynamic pricing as two examples. We highlight how new technologies interact with historic political economic relations of inequity between large corporations and just about everyone else in the food system. AI is just the newest tool in the “tool-belt” of the sector’s most powerful players as they continually fight to grow their profit and their power. Further, we discuss potential interventions for consumers, civil society, government, and industry to support transitions to more just and sustainable food systems.
Presentations - Food system governance
Governance structures that support local food systems
Sharmini Balakrishnan, Bridget King
Ontario Dietitians in Public Health conducted a rapid review to examine the question: What are the governance structures that support local food systems and how is their effectiveness measured? Dietitians working in population health increasingly face food system challenges that impact nutrition behaviours, such as food insecurity, climate change, and barriers to food sovereignty. To inform public health practice, the review synthesized evidence published between 2018 and 2023 on local and regional multisectoral collaboration for sustainable food systems. Findings were organized into three areas: governance structures, elements required to build and sustain them, and measures of effectiveness. Governance structures included internal (government-embedded), external (community-driven), and hybrid (shared authority) models. Hybrid models were most common, reflecting the need for collaboration across public health, planning, agriculture, community organizations, and civil society. The review identified five key elements of governance structures: (1) a shared vision, (2) diverse, equitable, and inclusive membership; (3) coordinated action; (4) a relationship with local government; and (5) resource acquisition. Together, these elements enabled networks to advance policy change, strengthen community engagement, and integrate food system priorities into broader municipal strategies. While measuring effectiveness remained challenging, food system networks demonstrated tangible impacts such as policy advancements, increased community engagement, sustainable food production initiatives, and the integration of food system goals into municipal planning processes. Overall, the review highlights that governance structures, particularly those that balance community leadership with government partnership, can strengthen food security, sustainability, and health equity, offering practical insights to strengthen local food system governance in Ontario.
Civil society engagement in food systems governance in Atlantic Canada
Monika Korzun, Laura Steeves
Civil society food organizations across Atlantic Canada are playing an expanding role in addressing food insecurity, inequality, and climate-related disruptions to food systems. Increasingly, these organizations recognize that meaningful change requires engagement not only in service delivery but also in food systems governance. This research project examines how food-focused civil society organizations in Atlantic Canada engage in food systems governance through programming, advocacy, and collaborative networks. This project draws on semi-structured interviews with members from civil society organizations across all Atlantic provinces to identify strategies for building food system resilience, key governance challenges, and pathways for strengthening civil society influence. We argue that community organizations advance food systems governance through place-based action, relationship-building, and collective learning, offering insights for scaling equitable and resilient food systems in Atlantic Canada.
Sowing seeds of change: Social transformation through participation in agriculture
Devin Herman
The contradictions of our capitalist political-economic system continue to escalate, creating both social and ecological crises. These crises are a result of our social organization, and significant literature exists to support the real possibility of a high quality of life for all within ecological boundaries. Achieving this will require radical social transformation. My master’s work examines how such a transformation can occur through the anarchist theory of praxis. This is a theory of subjectivation, how the everyday practices and activities we participate in affect our values, capacities, and drives; in turn, these aspects of our subjectivity then, collectively, produce or reproduce society. For this investigation, I interviewed farmers from across Southern Ontario on their agricultural practices, as well as their political, social, and religious views, and what means they envisioned to achieve an ideal society. Farmers were chosen as a population because agriculture requires interaction with nature and produces a socially necessary foundation through food. Farmers are therefore being continually constituted as subjects through a materialist grounding and a socially beneficial purpose. My preliminary findings indicate that sustainable agricultural practices change the participants’ relationships to nature, community, and society. These practices provide a means to reconnect with natural systems’ metabolic flows, and also affected participants’ desires for the socialization of basic needs, decreased resource consumption, redistribution of resources, and an increased obligation of communal care. Importantly, these practices have not only affected their values, but also act as a means to explore developing these capacities through their practice. Each participant was engaged in various projects to attempt to change themselves and their community to better represent these values. In this presentation, I will expand on these results, as well as discuss how this research can translate into informing how practices can produce pro-social and pro-ecological societal transformation.