À Table: Nourishing Hard Conversations in Food Law and Policy
Governing food systems requires tackling difficult and complex questions. What is the role of food law in allocating scarce resources? When should transnational supply chains be prioritized over local markets and vice versa? How should tensions between quantity and quality be reconciled? What practices are truly sustainable? At the heart of these questions and many more are divergent, even contradictory, perspectives about what the most pressing problems facing our food systems are and how best to address them.
For our 6th Canadian Association for Food Law and Policy (CAFLP) Conference, we will grapple with hard conversations about the governance of our food systems. Rather than seeking consensus or to smooth over divides, we will explore the role of law and policy in shaping our food systems, reflect collectively on sources of tension, and map opportunities for research and advocacy.
The conference will be organized around four hard conversations about our food systems and their legal, regulatory and policy landscapes.
1) The State of Agriculture: What is the state of farming in Canada? What food production and agriculture models are supported and enabled through food law and policy, and which aren’t? Do we need to change course?
Potential topics of discussion include agriculture as Canada’s proposed economic driver, scales of agricultural production, models of production (industrial, conventional, organic, agroecological, etc.), farmer renewal, access/rights to land and other productive resources, big data in farming, supply management, animal welfare, pesticide regulations, and youth engagement in farming.
2) The State of Supply Chains: Are our supply chains functioning? If so, for whom? What role does law and policy play in shaping them?
Potential topics of discussion include pandemic, climate and conflict supply chain disruptions, opportunities and challenges for regional supply chains, market concentration and consolidation, antitrust and competition, supply management, transnational supply chains, public procurement, trade and export restrictions related disruptions, block chain and emerging technologies.
3) The State of Work: What roles do law and policy play in shaping who works, and under what conditions, in Canadian food systems?
Potential topics of discussion include labour shortages up and down supply chains and in service industries, the future of migrant worker programs, labour conditions and organizing (on the farm, in the abattoir, at the grocery store, in restaurants, on delivery apps, etc.), health and safety in a lingering pandemic, the daily work of food and care (feminist and relational approaches to food), and systemic racism in Canada’s food work landscape.
4) The State of Sustainability: Is food law and policy law and policy helping to reduce environmental impacts of our food systems or contributing to environmental degradation? How can law and policy assist in responding to the impacts of climate change on our food systems?
Potential topics of discussion include the tensions between economic growth and environmental protection, the impact of agri-food systems on climate change, adapting production models and supply chains to a warming planet, the impact of climate change on the North, northern food security, Indigenous food sovereignty, and the impact of Canada’s target GHG reductions on our food systems (farming methods and inputs, processing and distribution, alternative proteins, access to country foods, etc.)