Moving beyond awareness to action and food system transformation: prioritizing labor in food systems governance work

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare many of societies’ existing social and economic inequalities, one of which is illustrated in the challenges facing food and farm workers across the food chain. Despite this upsurge in public recognition, the circumstances facing food and farm workers remain unchanged, and this lack of action is reflected within the work of food systems-focused civil society organizations (CSO) in Canada. Several authors have noted the lack of recognition of labor issues within food systems work. This paper further explores the nature of this disengagement, particularly in food systems governance work, and identifies barriers to more meaningful engagement and possible avenues to overcome these challenges. Findings draw from a set of 57 interviews conducted from 2020 to 2023 with a range of food system CSO representatives across Canada, examining their understanding of, and engagement in, food systems governance work and their involvement in labor issues (or lack thereof). The paper concludes that though there exists widespread awareness of the challenges facing food and farm workers, and a desire to engage in a more sustained fashion, many food system CSOs have not yet found the tools or pathways to do so on an organizational level. Several discursive openings are identified that offer an opportunity to leverage the heightened awareness of food and farm workers during the pandemic into concrete collective action

School Meals Case Study: Canada

This school meals case study forms part of a collection led by the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition’s "Good Examples" Community of Practice. Developed by a sub-group of academic members of the Canadian Association for Food Studies' School Food Working Group and validated by Canadian Coalition for Healthy School Food, the School Meals Case Study of Canada serves to document how the school meals programme is organized, funded, and monitored throughout the country. The objectives of this case study include presenting an introduction to the country profile, outlining the design and implementation of school feeding programmes, describing their monitoring and evaluation processes, and highlighting lessons learned, best practices, and challenges. This case study is written as a working paper, and can be updated to reflect evolving circumstances. The ‘Good Examples’ Community of Practice supports the evidence generation of the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition, the evidence-generating arm of the School Meals Coalition. The Research Consortium’s objective is to carry out independent research across diverse sectors and generate solid, compelling, and actionable evidence regarding the benefits of school food programs to inform evidence-based decision-making on school health and nutrition policies and practices

Mapping the solastalgia literature : a scoping review study

Solastalgia is a relatively new concept for understanding the links between human and ecosystem health, specifically, the cumulative impacts of climatic and environmental change on mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Given the speed and scale of climate change alongside biodiversity loss, pollution, deforestation, unbridled resource extraction, and other environmental challenges, more and more people will experience solastalgia. This study reviewed 15 years of scholarly literature on solastalgia using a scoping review process. Our goal was to advance conceptual clarity, synthesize the literature, and identify priorities for future research. Four specific questions guided the review process: (1) How is solastalgia conceptualized and applied in the literature?; (2) How is solastalgia experienced and measured in the literature?; (3) How is 'place' understood in the solastalgia literature?; and (4) Does the current body of literature on solastalgia engage with Indigenous worldviews and experiences? Overall, we find there is a need for additional research employing diverse methodologies, across a greater diversity of people and places, and conducted in collaboration with affected populations and potential knowledge, alongside greater attention to the practical implications and applications of solastalgia research. We also call for continued efforts to advance conceptual clarity and theoretical foundations. Key outcomes of this study include our use of the landscape construct in relation to solastalgia and a call to better understand Indigenous peoples' lived experiences of landscape transformation and degradation in the context of historical traumas