Descriptions of Workshops

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

A1 - Food Movements, Civic Engagement, and the Struggle over Edmonton’s Food and Agriculture Strategy

Room: Shaw Theatre

Chair: Roger Epp, University of Alberta

Speakers: Elizabeth Smythe, Concordia University College of Alberta, Deborah Schrader, University of Alberta, Hani Quan, City of Edmonton and Lorelei Hanson, Athabasca University

This panel traces the development of a local food movement, beginning with activists questioning the provenance of their food, where it comes from and how it is produced, and the growing concern about preserving farmland in Edmonton’s northeast.  It shows how citizens’ mobilization culminated in the City of Edmonton’s decision to develop its first food and agricultural strategy.  It then outlines the process of civic engagement including an advisory committee, citizen panel, on-line surveys and focus groups and other activities aimed at raising public awareness. The panel examines the role citizens can play and what influence they can have in developing a resilient local food and agriculture system within the urban and municipal context of complex growth pressures and land use decisions.

A2 - Addressing Food Insecurity through the Food Movement in Canada

Room: X111

Speakers: Valerie Tarasuk, University of Toronto, Lynn McIntyre, University of Calgary, Patricia Williams, Mt. St. Vincent University

This interactive workshop will present an overview of research on food insecurity in Canada and examine its relationship to food security in this country. Participants will look for areas of common ground and potential disconnects between those who are seeking to reduce income-related food insecurity and those who are working for food security for all. Together, we will identify the key elements of a unifying strategy to address both aims.

A3 - Seafood Sustainability: Local to Global Issues and Responses

Room: J008

Speakers: Michele Patterson, Vancouver Island University, David Bruer, Inter Pares, and Jordan Nikoloyuk, Ecology Action Centre

This workshop will involve three presentations and discussion on the topic of seafood sustainability.  David Bruer will present a talk called:  The True Cost of Shrimp, which looks at the downsides of the global model in the shrimp industry in light of the fact that Canadians consume vast amounts of imported shrimp – without much understanding of where it comes from or the impacts of its production on people and the environment.   Jordan Nikoloyuk will give a presentation called:  Fish is Food, which looks at local initiatives to bring small-scale fisheries into direct, regional and mainstream markets and making innovative businesses economically viable; including looking at lessons learned from terrestrial food systems.  Michele Patterson will talk about a research project titled:  From Cucumbers to Clams:  the role of seafood in regional food security; which will investigate the links between food security, seafood and health, in order to define seafood security in a BC context.

A4 - Indigenous Actions aimed at Rebuilding Food Sovereignty

Room: H005

Speakers: Leon Simard, Four Arrows Regional Health Authority, Joseph Leblanc, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and Eric Joamie, Feeding my Family

This panel includes 3 indigenous food actionists who are addressing food access issues in remote communities in Northern Canada. Eric Joamie will share his perspective as spokesperson for feedingmyfamily.org and as the co-creator of the Facebook group Feeding my Family. Starting in Nunavut the group now has over 20000 members and has garnered global attention by focussing on the high food prices in Northern Canada. Joseph LeBlanc will discuss Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s Get Growing Project. As participants in Get Growing, 5 remote First Nations communities in Northern Ontario have undertaken community-based food system planning and implemented their plans over 2 years. He will highlight some of the communities’ actions and discuss the impacts on their local food systems. Leon Simard will give an overview of projects underway in Northern and remote areas of Manitoba centered on local food production initiatives such as raising heritage chickens, greenhousing, and raised bed gardening. The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion with the presenters.

A5 - Scaling up the Role of Farmers' Markets in the Developement of more Resilient Food Systems

Room: North Lobby

Speakers: Mary Beckie, David Connell, Jenica Frisque and Hannah Wittman

Farmers’ markets, often organized as grassroots, non-profit organizations, are prominent and strategic venues linking producers and consumers of local food while fulfilling multiple social, economic and environment objectives.  However, there are a number of constraints limiting the role of farmers’ markets within the larger food system including, scale, scope, accessibility and convenience, physical infrastructure, and organizational capacity. In this workshop we will discuss emerging innovative strategies for improving farmers’ markets. We will begin by presenting research results from British Columbia and Alberta farmers’ markets and then invite participants to reflect on these findings and present other examples of innovation. In this workshop, participants will engage in an exploration of existing and potential mechanisms for scaling up the role of farmers’ markets in the development of more resilient food systems and more resilient communities.

A6 - New Federal Rules for Non-Profits and the Future of FSC

Room: WB314

Speakers: Eric Chaurette, Holly Solomon and Joyce Rock

All federally incorporated non-profits and charitable organizations must update their bylaws and constitutions by October 2014 to bring them into compliance with the new federal Not For Profit Act. This is framed as improving “transparency, accountability, and efficacy” but in fact has real impacts on our sector. Food Secure Canada’s membership is navigating these waters and beginning a process of updating our bylaws at the Steering Committee level. Join members of the Steering Committee Governance Sub-Committee and our lawyer Holly Solomon to discuss the new rules and implications for our movement in general, and FSC in particular. This discussion will provide important background and context for the discussion that will be held at our AGM on Sunday and over the coming year.

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

B1 - Changing the Way We Do Business:  A Round Table on Money, Markets and Social Change

Room: Shaw Theatre

Chair: Diana Bronson, Food Secure Canada

Speakers: Stephen Huddart, President of the J.W. McConnell Foundation, Nick Saul, Community Food Centres Canada, Joanne Bays, Farm2Cafeteria, David Askew, Askew's Food BC

As the food movement grows and more and more organizations are invested in it, we need to think about the way we do business with a critical lens.   We are not only trying to change the food system, but also the ways in which civil society organizations intervene in that system.  How do classic funder-grantee relationships need to change? How can we not only dream big dreams but finance our vision for the future in new ways? Join some of the key leaders in the world of food and financing for a stimulating discussion about the best and perhaps most controversial ideas about the future of food. 

B2 - Biofuels, Fossil Fuels and Renewable Energy: Fueling the Canadian Rural Sector

​Room: WB314

Speakers: Nydia Dauphin, Food Secure Canada, and Jeff Gillies

This presentation will firstly present the ecoENERGY Initiative, one of the Harper government's solution to a greener and more energy efficient Canada. This initiative also hopes to reinvigorate our country's rural sector by stimulating the industry of biofuels. It will be discussed how this initiative falls short on most of its promises: providing a sustainable energy source, creating considerable jobs in the rural sector, amongst others. Our presentation will conclude with a concrete example of individual interventions that can reduce farm dependence on fossil fuels: the Rocky Mountain House Project. The creators of this project will present how they plan to transform 5 acres of land into an energetically self-sufficient permaculture demonstration farm.

B3 - CFICE Round-Table: Campus-Community Partnerships in the Canadian Food Movement

​Room: X111

Speakers: Peter Andree, Carleton University, Caitlin Colson, Meal Exchange, Cathleen Kneen, Food Secure Canada, Dayna Chapman, BC Food Systems Network, Connie Nelson, Lakehead University, Katherine Pigott, Waterloo Public Health, Steffanie Scott, University of Waterloo, Charles Levkoe, University of Toronto, Mustafa Koc, Larry Brigham and Raili Roy

How do we build strong and supportive relationships between universities and non-profit organizations working to build sustainable, just and healthy food systems in Canada? This round-table will feature speakers from a variety of campus-community partnerships in teaching and research. Brought to you by the Community Food Security hub of a new research project headed by Carleton University (Ottawa) and Food Secure Canada called CFICE (Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement), the goal of the discussion will be to describe a range of existing or new campus/community partnerships, to identify the ingredients that make them work for the food movement, and then to examine the issues that should drive the hub’s research agenda for the next three years.

B4 - Measuring Our Impact: Strengthening & Simplifying Evaluation in the Community Food Security Sector

​Room: J008

Speakers: Meredith Davis, Community Food Centres Canada

Non-profit organizations are increasingly under pressure to demonstrate the value that their programs create for program stakeholders, the wider community and society as a whole. This can be a daunting task given the many demands that running an initiative already imposes. This workshop will aim to reduce anxiety around evaluation and explore some easy and practical evaluation concepts and tools that have been tested on the ground by The Stop Community Food Centre and Community Food Centres Canada. A participatory approach will be taken which will allow participating community food security organizations to explore how they can best adapt the ideas presented to their own contexts and ultimately foster an evaluative culture of reflection and adaptation across all levels of their organizations.

​Room: H005

Speakers: Jessie Housty, Alexander Boulet

B6 - FOOD FOR MEDIA THINKING

​Room: North Lobby

Speakers: Wayne Roberts, Daylin Breen, Mack Male

Food for thought is one thing, food for the media is another. This session features tricks of the trade for communicators as well as thoughts about the key role of communications in food movement leadership. Daylin Breen moderates and shares his experiences with food labels and marketing as communication. Wayne Roberts has stories from 20 years as a freelance food columnist. Edmonton's leading citizen blogger (mastermaq.ca) will tweet your interest in social media. Consider this training, but also education on central aspects of movement building.

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

C1 - Seed Sovereignty is Food Sovereignty: The Role of Seed Savers, Farmers and Plant Breeders in Building a Resilient Food System in Canada

​Room: North Lobby

Speakers: Jane Rabinowicz, USC Canada, and Melanie Sylvestre

Historically, farmers around the world selected their plants and saved seeds, knowing these practices bred resilience in their communities. Today, many rely on imported seeds from the US, Europe or further afield. These seeds are often not bred for their climate and cannot be saved to replant the next year. Canada’s ecological seed producers sell mainly to backyard gardeners and struggle to meet farmers’ demands for high quality bulk seed. These and other concerns - genetic modification, loss of seed knowledge, climate change - call for a new movement of seed savers and plant breeders in Canada.

Thankfully, the seed sovereignty movement in Canada is growing and communities coast-to-coast are working to regain control over their seed, and food, supply. This session will provide a brief background and explore current dynamics in seed biodiversity, market development, cooperatives, organics and new developments in the Canadian seed scene. No need to be a seed expert to attend! The objective is to build understanding and integrate seed into discussions and action on local food across the country.

C2 - Promoting Health through Food Security and a Sustainable Food Supply

​Room: Shaw Theatre

Speakers: Pat Vanderkooy, Dietitians of Canada; Lynn Roblin, OCGHEPA; Anne-Marie Legault, Equiterre; Kayla Atkey, University of Alberta and Elietha Bocskei, BC Ministry of Health

New food initiatives and strategies in Canada have been driven by growing interest in local food systems and concern about food insecurity and poverty. But – what about health? How have population health and prevention of food-related diseases driven or at least informed our work toward a sustainable food supply and access to healthy food for all? Join us to discuss how food consumption trends and factors have contributed to our current epidemic of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancers and to explore how provincial and national organizations are addressing these issues in Canada. Now is the time to take this opportunity to create a vision for putting health into the driver's seat, steering change in the food supply and food policy for the future.

C3 - Livestock, Meat and Food Security: An Interactive Session

​Room: X111

Speakers: Eleanor Boyle, Patrick Tohill, World Society for the Protection of Animals, and Darcy Goodrich

The meat on Canadian dinner plates poses a major food challenge for our time. Industrial agricultural corporations are taking over more and more land, over-using fertilizers and antibiotics, polluting water and soils, and mistreating animals. This interactive session will challenge participants to come up with solutions aimed at a more resilient, sustainable and humane food system.

Patrick Tohill, of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, will discuss the report What’s On Your Plate? The Hidden Costs of Industrial Animal Agriculture in Canada. Cheap food is not so cheap, he'll argue, when one accounts for these hidden costs. Darcy Goodrich is a sustainable livestock producer in Alberta, and is active in promoting eco-friendly meat. Eleanor Boyle, author of the just-released High Steaks: Why and How to Eat Less Meat (New Society Publishers) will show that the problems, while contentious and complex, are ready for solutions from us, as individuals, as consumers, and as citizens.

C4 - Food Justice I:  Dismantling Racism to Grow a Just Food Movement

​Room: J008

Speakers: Utcha Sawyers, FoodShare Toronto, Joseph Leblanc, Nishnawbe Aski Nation

Join FoodShare Toronto and others to explore the work being done in aboriginal communities and neighbourhoods across Canada to build a more inclusive food system by explicitly naming racism in the food system and developing a more inclusive process.

C5 - Northern Grub: Community Food Planning and Action in Northern Labrador

​Room: H005

Speakers: Kristie Jameson, Food Security Network of Newfoundland, Jill Airhart, Frances Boase and Rebecca Schiff, Memorial University

Over the past three years the Food Security Network NL (FSN-NL) has partnered with community groups province-wide to complete Community-led Food Assessments (CLFA) to facilitate community planning to develop locally-appropriate solutions to challenges of food accessibility, adequacy, and affordability. CLFAs have been completed in Hopedale; Upper Lake Melville; Labrador West; and the Burin Peninsula. Each of these communities took a unique approach to the CLFA and developed Food Action Plans outlining their goals and initiatives, including a community freezer, children’s garden, and community market, which aim to improve local food security.

This session will provide an overview of the CLFA process; showcase the resulting initiatives from the Upper Lake Melville and Hopedale CLFAs; and engage participants in activities to start to thinking about how to host a CLFA in their community. The session will co-presented by representatives from the Upper Lake Melville and Hopedale CLFAs, and FSN-NL. 

Saturday November 3

10:30 am - 12:30 pm

D1 - Municipal / Regional Food Policy: Cross Country Check Up

​Room: X213

Speakers: Kendal Donahue, Sustain Ontario, Lauren Baker, Toronto Food Policy Council, Katherine Pigott, Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable, Aimee Watson, Kalso Food Security Project, Barbara Emmanuel, Toronto Public Health, and Moe Garahan, Just Food Ottawa

In February of this year, a team of researchers and policy advocates undertook the Municipal and Regional Food Systems and Strategies research project. The project was initiated to identify best practices and opportunities related to food policy planning, development, implementation and governance. The research project's findings will be released in a report later this year.
 
The goal of this panel will be to help food policy initiatives work more effectively within their respective municipal and regional contexts by identifying the opportunities and impediments to implement, strengthen and scale up food policy initiatives.
 
During this session, key findings will be shared and panelists from organizations across Canada will speak first hand to some of the topics addressed in the report. The panel will offer ample opportunity for audience contribution, so as to dialogue about moving forward with municipal/regional food policy work across Canada.

D2 - GM Crops Will Not Feed the World: Info and Arguments to Take on Corporate PR

​Room: Shaw Theatre

Speakers: Lucy Sharratt, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network; Augusta Henriques, Secretary General, Tiniguena; Miguel de Barros, Programs director, Tiniguena; Eric Chaurette, Inter Pares; Taarini Chopra, University of Waterloo; Teshager Dagne, Thompson Rivers University

The biotech industry argues that genetically engineered (genetically modified or GM) crops are needed to feed the world’s growing population and that we therefore have a moral imperative to push ahead. It’s a persuasive but false argument. A deeper look at GM crops and their impacts on farmers, especially in the Global South, exposes a different reality. Activists from West Africa, India and Canada will use case studies and examples from around the world to expose the myths behind corporate public relations. We will take on some of the major arguments you hear repeatedly, and give you the tools to understand and rebut them. Find out how GM crops are failing to meet their own promises of higher yields and decreased pesticides, why small-scale farmers are not benefiting, why GM technology is not needed to help farmers adapt to climate change, how GM technology is not more precise than farmer breeding, and what non-GM solutions are already in the ground!

D3 - Growing to Learn, Learning to Grow: Children & Gardening

​Room: X111

Chair: Jennie Barron

Speakers: Dustin Bajer, Leah Lees, Brent Andressen, Chris Guilbault and Anisha Mawji

Children are the future, and childhood and adolescence is the time to inspire a love of good food and the skills of producing, preparing and sharing it.

This 2-hour workshop explores a variety of exciting initiatives that are helping children re-connect with the source of their food, the earth and their own communities through gardening. Presentations from five different groups/projects will give workshop participants insight into the phenomenal power of gardening as a teaching tool, right across the curriculum; as a means of building social and ecological resilience; as an expression of environmental justice; and as a strategy for ensuring that food production and access to food and nutrition remains in the hands of people rather than industrial corporations, regardless of their background and financial circumstances.

Video clips, slide shows, and participatory activities will bring to life the vitality and excitement being generated by these projects - inspiration guaranteed!

D4 - (Breaking) the Silent Harvest: Experiences of Agricultural Migrant Workers in Canada

​Room: X203

Chair: David Bruer, Inter Pares

Speakers: Jose Sicajau, President of the Association of Guatemalans United for our Rights (AGUND), Juan Luis Carbajal, Associate Secretary of the Guatemalan Pastoral Commission for Human Mobility (PMH) and Pablo Godoy, National Representative, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada)

Canada’s agricultural sector relies increasingly on international labourers enrolled in temporary migrant worker programs. These programs now bring approximately 35,000 temporary migrants to Canada each year to work in the farm and food industry.

Tragedies such as the February 2012 death of 10 Peruvian farm workers near Stratford, Ontario, have drawn some national attention to the risks faced by seasonal workers. However there remains a great deal of ignorance about the socio-economic context under which the migrant workers come and the conditions under which they live and work once they are here.

The workshop will highlight the experiences of community organizers from Latin America and Canada at the forefront of the struggles for migrant workers’ rights. Speakers include José Sicajau, President of the Association of Guatemalans United for our Rights (AGUND), a grassroots Guatemalan organization formed by 60 former migrant workers who were blacklisted from the program for speaking out about abuses.

D5 - Students in the Food Movement: From a National Student Food Charter to Campus-Specific Programming

​Room: X205

Speakers: Caitlin Colson, Meal Exchange, Marc LeBlanc, Dana Lahey, Sierra Youth Club of Canada, Brynne Sinclair-Waters, Cathy Sprague, Carla Mayer

Post-secondary campuses have a huge impact on the nature of our food system, they act as an influential community of potential game changers and innovators. This interactive session will address the unique barriers to food security and food sovereignty that campuses face and the innovative solutions being developed on campuses and in communities - both nationally and locally.

Meal Exchange, Sierra Youth Coalition and students from the University of Alberta will present on the National Student Food Charter’s development - its significance, its role in movement building, and its uses for students. Students from the University of Alberta will provide grounded examples of students’ responses to food insecurity by presenting on three innovative food programs on their campus.

Participants will reflect and engage with each other on these issues and generate their own ideas to address this growing challenge.

D6 - Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility matter!

​Room: X107

Chair: Christie Young, FarmStart

Speakers: Mike Lewis, Centre for Community Renewal, Sally Miller, Metcalf Fellow,  and Linda Best, FarmWorks

This workshop will explore real and sustainable opportunities and challenges to building connections between investors and the places where they live, and the resilience of their food systems.  We will explore both organizational and financial models that help to creating vital relationships and new sources of capital for new, small, diversified, and innovative farm and food enterprises as well as helping to enable farm sector succession and farmland access.

D7 - Community Food Centres Canada - Where we've come and where we are going

​Room: E202

Speakers: Elizabeth Fraser and Kathryn Scharf

Join CFCC (a new national organization that emerged from The Stop) for a discussion about the role of community food centres in the Canadian food movement, as well as the role of CFCC at the national level to advocate for a more just, sustainable food system.

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

E1 - Beyond the Same Old: Models for Diversifying Funding

Room: Shaw Theatre

Speakers: Beth Hunter, J. W. McConnell Family Foundation, Tasha Sutcliffe, EcoTrust Canada, Devika Shah, Pembina Institute, Sarah Saso, Greenshield Canada, Bruce Campbell, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

In a time of scarce government resources and limited foundation funding, organizations are called upon to diversify their funding in old, new and creative ways. This workshop will present examples and encourage lively discussion with participants and presenters. Examples of funding strategies will include social enterprise (EcoTrust), consulting (Pembina), membership development (CCPA) and corporate funding (Greenshield).

E2 - Food Justice II: Frameworks and Tools for Understanding and Action

​Room: E115

Speakers: Natalie Gibb, Kathryn Lennon and Hannah Wittman

How can the food movement cultivate food justice? What does food justice mean when we begin with an understanding of anti-racism? This workshop introduces anti-racism as a framework and approach to creating fair, inclusive, and diverse food systems. By reflecting on real-world examples, participants in this workshop will learn about the roots of oppression and injustice in relation to food systems, and become aware of how food movements may variously reinforce, transform, and/or challenge current patterns of power and food (in)justice. In the second part of this workshop, we will move from theory to action and present tools for building alliances between diverse communities interested in working towards a just food system. Participants will be introduced to a series of activities, and challenged to assess if and how these tools might work in their own lives and/or organizations. There will be ample time during the workshop for questions and discussion. For those wishing to participate in this workshop, we encourage you to email us (natalie.gibb[a]gmail[dot]com and kathrynlennon[a]gmail[dot]com) prior to the Assembly with one or two questions you hope to explore in the workshop.

E3 - Permaculture & Aquaponics: The Future of Global Food Security, Community Health & Self-sustaining Communities

​Room: X205

Speakers: Rene Michalak, ReThink Red Deer​, Paul Modde and Dustin Bajer

Permaculture is a design science that builds sustainable human habitat by applying the patterns inherent in Nature. It is founded on a basis of ethics that integrates and reconnects us with the natural environment – the source of all life. It is uniquely positioned to address the converging crises of our time, backed with solid scientific metrics. This presentation will explain the science behind permaculture design with a special emphasis on aquaculture as a means to create sustainable and regenerative food systems. Examples of successful projects will include Australia's International Permaculture Research Institute (Zaytuna Farm, NSW), Jasper Place High School's food forest and aquaculture project, the Centre for Urban Agriculture in Alberta's urban homestead, and stories from Canada's first Urban Agriculture Summit held in Toronto this past August.

E4 - Cross Cultural and Indigenous Food Justice and Sovereignty

​Room: X111

Speakers: Dayna Chapman, BC Food Systems Network, Bree Blottner, Arctic Institute of Community Based Research, Erin Rowsell and Nitanis Desjarlais, Vancouver Island & Coastal Communities Indigenous Foods Network, Dawn Morrison, Indigenous Food Sovereignty Network

The ability to access sufficient amounts of nutritious and safe foods affects Indigenous people in many different ways. For example, store-bought foods can be very expensive, poor quality, and of poor selection; accessing foods harvested from the land can also be challenging with changing land conditions, high fuel and equipment costs, and changes to wildlife health and migration patterns.

This session will include a presentation by the Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research (AICBR) on community-based actions towards food security taken in Yukon Territory as an approach to health and well-being.

This Session will also include a presentation by Vancouver Island & Coastal Communities Indigenous Foods Network (VICCIFN). VICCIFN is a loose network of Indigenous and allied-members who work in a number of communities on Vancouver Island to create opportunities for discussion, collaboration, and systemic change for Indigenous food systems.

The two presentations will be followed by an open discussion led by the BC Food Systems Network that explores the challenges of building and maintaining cross cultural food networks that are rooted in indigenous food sovereignty. We hope to facilitate a highly participatory session that will include participants' stories from across Canada to add to this important dialogue, which can inform the practice of network-building for the BC Food Systems Network, Food Secure Canada, academia and others.

E5 - It’s Not Just About Bacon!

​Room: X213

Speakers: Stuart Clark, formerly of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Jennifer Clapp, Waterloo University and the Centre for International Governance Innovations

Since the food price crisis of 2007/8 the prices of the basis of our food supply – wheat, corn, soybeans, edible oil – have not returned to ‘normal’.  In fact, most observers now accept that this volatile situation is the ‘new normal’.  But what will this mean for Canadians and Food Secure Canada in particular?  What are the big forces driving this change?  What can be done to cope with this new world?  And what about bacon??

E6 - New Farmers Round Table: Growing the Capacity of a New Generation across Canada

​Room: X203

Chair: Genevieve Grosseenbacher, USC & Notre Petit Ferme

This round table, hosted by FarmStart and FarmON.com, will feature short presentations by folks who work to support a new generation of farmers from each part of the country. The intention of this Roundtable is to create a space to share across regions as well as across program areas and approaches. 

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

F1 - Food is a Human Right: What Does that Mean?

​Room: X111

Speakers: Rebecca Schiff, Memorial University and Annette Desmarais, University of Regina

F2 - How to get Academic Researchers to Help You Get Things Done

​Room: X205

Speakers: Peter Andree, Carleton University, Cathleen Kneen, Food Secure Canada, Connie Nelson, Lakehead University, Katherine Pigott, Region of Waterloo Public Health, Steffanie Scott, University of Watherloo, Charles Levkoe, University of Toronto, Mustafa Koc, Ryerson University

The goal of this workshop is to help community-based organizations turn their day-to-day information needs into researchable questions, as a first step towards building relationships with academic institutions. How do we evaluate the effectiveness of our programs? How can we get the provincial government to raise social assistance rates? What is the evidence needed to advance a specific policy proposal? These are questions that academics (undergrad and graduate students, as well as profs) can help you address, but only if you can take the step of turning your need into a question that is "researchable". Participants should come with their ideas, and we'll work together to turn them into research questions that they can then share through various networks (including the Canadian Association for Food Studies listserv) in the hopes of identifying suitable academic partners.

F3 - Our Changing Homeland, Our Changing Lives

​Room: Shaw Theatre

Speakers: Norma Kassi, Arctic Institute of Community Based Research

Produced in partnership with the Vuntut Gwitchin, this film tells an amazing tale about the people of Old Crow, Yukon. The land that has sustained the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, People of the Lakes, in the Far North of Yukon Canada is undergoing rapid changes from global warming. This film takes you on an incredible journey from nearly 20 years ago to the present, with a community whose very survival is at risk. This film explores the conference theme of resilience and illustrates the need for resilient systems and the beginning of food security interventions in Old Crow, Yukon. The film may also be followed by a question and answer period.

F4 - The Global Food Security Situation and Food Assistance: Canada’s Role

​Room: X213

Speakers: Jennifer Clapp, Waterloo University and the Centre for International Governance Innovations and Paul Hagerman, Canadian Food Grains Bank

Rising food prices and ongoing food price volatility on world markets over the five years has had profound implications for global food security. Hunger has been on the rise in the world’s poorest countries, as rising food prices affect access to food for the world’s most vulnerable people – those who typically spend up to 80 percent of their income on food. This session aims to provide an overview of the global food security situation and to unpack some of the key responses of global community to rising hunger, with an emphasis on international food assistance. Canada’s role in particular will be highlighted, given its significance in the global context of food assistance in recent years. After fully untying its food aid in 2008, Canada took a lead role in the renegotiation of global rules governing international food assistance in 2010-12.

F5 - New Farmers Round Table: Growing the capacity of a new generation across Canada

​Room: X203

Chair: Genevieve Grosseenbacher, USC & Notre Petit Ferme

All are welcome to join the facilitated discussion that will carry over from session E6.  We will talk about the BIGGER ISSUES affecting our work and farmers across the country, and strategically about how we can work together to support and encourage opportunities for new entrants, farm succession and agricultural sector resilience.  We aim to create and perhaps clarify a sense of our next steps, joint efforts and communication across the country.

F6 - What are Land Grabs and How Can We Take Action to Stop Them?

​Room: X107

Speakers: David Bruer, Inter Pares, and Lauren Ravon, Oxfam

Agricultural land is being bought up by foreign investors at an alarming rate in the global South. Over the past decade, two thirds of these land deals have been in countries with serious hunger problems, and they have often led to mass evictions of small farmers and pastoralists. This workshop, facilitated by Lauren Ravon from Oxfam Canada and David Bruer from Inter Pares, will provide an overview on where and why this is happening, and who is behind the trend. It will also present case studies to illustrate how land grabs are affecting local communities in the South, with particular attention to the impact on rural women.

The workshop will connect North and South by presenting the results of recent research into Canadian financial involvement in the global land rush. Participants will be invited to brainstorm around possibilities for mobilization in Canada. Come learn and bring your creative ideas for action!

Sunday November 4

9:00 am - 10:30 am

G1 - Charity Chill: Advocacy in the Current Political Context

​Room: Shaw Theatre

Speakers: Diana Bronson, Food Secure Canada and Michelle Gauthier, Imagine Canada

Michelle Gauthier, VP, Public Policy and Community Engagement at Imagine Canada, is witnessing first-hand how the nonprofit sector's relationship with government is changing.  Charities and non-profits are facing increasing demands for accountability, transparency, and efficacy and many are feeling "charity chill", concerned about advocacy for public policies related to their mandates, especially since the last budget. Governments, for their part, are considering new funding and delivery models, and re-examining their relationships with the nonprofit sector. We invite you to join Dr. Gauthier for a presentation and discussion about this changing landscape, how these issues are playing out at a federal level, and the challenges and opportunities that exist for organizations to engage at the local and provincial level.  How can charities and nonprofits set their own course in the current context? Hear a first-hand account of what an audit looks like from Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) which was subject to an audit this year as a project of Tides Canada Initiatives. How can you prepare and what can you expect?

G2 - Co-operative Approaches to Alternative Food and Farm Initiatives: This is Democracy?

​Room: E115

Speakers: Hannah Renglich, Local Organic Food Co-ops Network, Colin Anderson, University of Manitoba, Paul Cabaj, Alberta Community and Co-operative Association and Hannah Wittman, University of British Columbia

With 2012 being celebrated around the world as the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives, the time is ripe to reflect on the role of co-operatives in agriculture, food systems and community development in Canada. In this session, we will critically interrogate the co-operative model in a dialogue around how food and agriculture co-ops converge with the pursuit of an alternative/co-operative economy-society. Do co-operatives promote inclusivity, democracy, sovereignty and transformation?

This interactive world café will begin with five short PechaKucha style presentations (20 slides presented in 20 seconds per slide) by practitioners and researchers who will orientate the session by providing their perspective on the co-operative model. Next, we will interact around these ideas in facilitated café-style small-group conversations. These will occur in three 15-minute ‘rounds.’ Participants will be encouraged to change tables in between rounds to stimulate the cross-fertilization of ideas. Finally, the facilitators of each table will report back to the larger group as we weave together the threads of our co-operative conversations. This session will be documented to inform a publication that identifies opportunities for co-operative innovation and coalition building.

G3 - The Food Movement and Cultural Change

​Room: X203

Speakers: Vasiliki Douglas, ArcticNet, University of Northern British Columbia, Moe Garahan, Just Food, Randy Haluza-Delay, King’s University College, Pat Kerans, Commisioner, People’s Food Commission, and co-author of National Report; authors team of People’s Food Policy Project

G4 - Growing Forward? Where exactly is the New Agriculture Policy Framework going?

​Room: X205

Speakers: Cathy Holtslander, National Farmers Union

Join the National Farmers Union for an examination of this key policy framework by questioning the direction, the notion of progress assumed by the government and corporate sector, and the idea that there is a destination that is not openly discussed.

G5 - Food Security in Rural and Remote Communities Best Practices & Discussion

​Room: X213

Speakers: Aimee Watson, Gigi Veeraraghavan and David Connell

From a remote First Nations Community to the mountainous region of Interior British Columbia, three small communities come together to share their Food Security Project stories. Rural and remote communities offer unique challenges for our food systems. With fewer people, landscapes that lend themselves to seasonal travel only and declining employment-rural and remote communities have unique and creative solutions for achieving food security.

Gigi Veera will present on behalf of her remote First Nations community that has created a bi-weekly non-profit market in fresh produce.

David Connell will present on behalf of  Beyond the Market project. This initiative works to strengthen the local food systems of central interior BC while addressing sparse population and limited growing conditions.

Aimee Watson of the Kaslo Food Hub will share her rural Food Hub model that deals with all levels of food security; long term, immediate and systematic change.

Three presenters join together for this presentation to offer insights into not for profit markets, rural Food Hubs and building a regional food system.

G6 - The Power of Collaborative Networks for Food System Transformation

​Room: X105

Spearkers: Charles Z Levkoe, University of Toronto, Bree Blotner, Arctic Institute of Community Based Research, Dayna Chapman, BCFSN, Stefan Epp-Koop, Food Matters Manitoba, Ravenna Nuaimy-Barker, Sustain Ontario,Shelley Moran and Marla MacLeod Nova Scotia Food Security Network, Kristie Jameson, Food Security Network of Newfoundland and Labrador

This roundtable discussion will focus on the role of networks within the broader ecology of food initiatives and lessons learned about successful collaboration. Join network representatives from across Canada for an interactive session sharing experiences and discussing the power of collaboration for transforming the food system. We will begin with short presentations from the panelists and provide ample time for broader participation.