Industrialized food production and international food supply chains significantly increase food insecurity, worsen environmental degradation, and lead to inadequate livelihoods especially for women and youth. Food systems have the potential to be multi-functional levers for change. Small-scale, Indigenous, and traditional approaches can offer needed solutions for transformation.

Last week at Dawson College, a group of food researchers from Kenya, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and other parts of Canada met each other for the first time as part of a new major international project to identify, measure, and tell the stories of regional sustainable food systems. The project is called FLOW (Food, Learning and Growing) Partnership: Seeding Sustainability Transformation.

Alison Blay-Palmer of Wilfrid Laurier University, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair on Food, Biodiversity and Sustainability Studies, is the lead researcher on the seven-year project. Funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant, the team includes 35 partner organizations across four continents. FLOW research will map and monitor specific practices that are driving sustainability on a regional level and amplify them to influence meaningful, long-term policy decisions globally.

“This is the first study to compare regional sustainable food systems over time,” says Alison Blay-Palmer. “We’re engaging policymakers in each country from the beginning so they can tell us where the gaps are and what kind of metrics they need to implement changes. In Brazil, our partners are literally bringing decision-makers into the field and educating them about what an agroecological food system can look like. As a result, laws have been changed to accommodate a more regionalized food system.”

Dawson’s Anna-Liisa Aunio (Faculty, Sociology) is working with Blay-Palmer as a co-director of the project, responsible for the Montreal region. Anna-Liisa brought food researchers to visit some noteworthy Montreal food projects in the Peter McGill district of downtown Montreal, in Verdun and at Dawson and delegates shared their local food research during a three-day conference May 14-17.

We asked the participants some questions about their experience last week. Irena Knezevic from Carleton University in Ottawa and Maureen Murphy from the University of Melbourne in Australia shared their thoughts.

Were there any projects in Montreal or at Dawson that you heard about that inspired you? If yes, how so and are you thinking of bringing these ideas back to your community partners?

Irena: The entire landscape of Montreal food organizations and initiatives is inspiring. From Roundhouse Café to Grand Potager, many people are doing many things to make food fairer and more sustainable in and around the city. With “connector” people and organizations, like our Dawson colleague Anna-Liisa Aunio and Le Conseil du système alimentaire montréalais, those community efforts are making inroads into policy discussions. If the city uses their insights wisely, Montreal will be a model for many other cities to follow.

Dawson’s approach to sustainability was also inspiring and certainly something I’d like to see at my institution. I will be talking about it at home!

Maureen: The Roundhouse Café is an impressive project. There are similar social enterprises in Melbourne where Indigenous young people are provided with training to enter the hospitality industry, and paid a wage while in the training program. However, I noted with the Roundhouse Café the two-phase approach, where in the first instance people are able to work a short shift to earn money, while the second phase takes the more usual approach that supports a transition to the job market. This is a case study that we can share with our local government partners in Australia.

What did you get out of the conference this week? What was most interesting, insightful, useful?

Irena: It was great to hear how communities in different parts of the world are dealing with big issues that impact food, including climate change. Drawing on local, traditional knowledge seems to be key in these efforts – similar to how some jurisdictions are finally turning to Indigenous forest management practices to mitigate fires.

Maureen: Connecting with the Canadian and international partners and learning about the work in their FLOW region was a highlight of the week. I was surprised by the common issues and challenges shared across all FLOW regions, North and South. This suggests it will be possible to identify a suite of shared indicators that measure long term outcomes across all FLOW regions, that can be supplemented by context-specific indicators for each FLOW region. This indicator development work has the potential to cement and strengthen international collaboration.

In a few sentences, why is this project important and what are your hopes for the project and this community of practice?

Irena: Our food practices look different place to place, but we face many similar political and environmental challenges. I hope that this project will enable project partners – community initiatives and researchers — to learn from one another. Together, maybe we can figure out how to grow and multiply sustainable practices to build a better food system for all.

Maureen: Healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems are critical for global food security. Environmental stresses, biodiversity loss, urban encroachment on productive land, climate shocks and war are among those risks to food systems that are leading to higher food prices, global hunger and food insecurity. The FLOW project and work across all FLOW regions is a partnership that brings together global partners working together on a shared vision for resilient, regional food systems. I hope the FLOW project and community of practice can help advance us towards this vision and a more just, equitable and sustainable food system.

Anna-Liisa Aunio (Faculty, Sociology) and community food partner Anne Marie Aubert of the Conseil SAM present Montreal and its food tables to participants at the FLOW Conference on May 14 at Dawson’s Co-lab.