Charles Z. Levkoe

(he/him)
People shop at a Loblaws store in Toronto. A collaborative approach to ending food insecurity needs a serious commitment from the federal government. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council: A collaborative approach to strengthening food systems

The Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council offers lessons for strengthening democracy and building participatory governance mechanisms in Canada and beyond.
Tomatoes grow in a greenhouse at Windset Farms, in Delta, B.C., in January 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Canada’s local food system faces major roadblocks without urgent policy changes

Ensuring food security for the future means supporting food producers and building the infrastructure and policies that make local food accessible, affordable and sustainable for all.
A displaced Palestinian boy carries bread as he walks between tents in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Colonialism, starvation and resistance: How food is weaponized, from Gaza to Canada

The destruction of food systems in Gaza and Canada is part of a larger effort of land dispossession and capitalist accumulation. The fight for food sovereignty is about justice and self-determination.
In this July 2011 photo, an Inuit fisherman pulls in a fish on a sea filled with floating ice. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

The future of food is ready for harvest

A recent summit in Ottawa on what’s known as agroecology has shown that more equitable and sustainable methods of producing food are not only possible, they’re beginning to spread around the world.
A stag stands in a neck-high field of canola in Alberta in 2011. The federal government is in the midst of formulating a national food policy aimed at putting more high-quality food on Canadian tables from the country’s ranchers and farmers. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

The promise of a national food policy for Canada

While the federal government is taking a step in the right direction with its attempts to formulate a national food policy, its key objectives don’t go far enough.

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