Toward a more sustainable and equitable food system: a call for collective action

Food Systems Summit 2021: Stage 3 dialogue report
Dialogue Date: June 30, 2021
Convened by: Agriculture and Agri Food Canada
Link to Dialogue event webpage on the Gateway (available in English only): https://summitdialogues.org/dialogue/14355/

Participation

Number of participants[1] from each stakeholder group
Multinational corporation 1
Small-scale farmer 8
Medium-scale farmer 3
Large-scale farmer 2
Local Non-Governmental Organization[2] 20
International NGO 2
Indigenous people 5
Science and academia 6
Workers and Trade Union 1
Government and national institution[3] 14
Private Foundation / Partnership / Alliance 2
Consumer Group 1
Others – groups representing all scales of farmers, restaurants, international agriculture organizations, marketing 12
Total 77

1. Participants self-identified stakeholder group at Dialogue registration.

2. Local NGOs includes food industry associations and civil society organizations.

3. Government included provincial/territorial and municipal/local government representatives; federal government officials participated as organizers, facilitators and note-takers.

Major focus

The purpose of this Stage 3 Dialogue was for participants to reflect on outcomes from earlier dialogues and identify potential game-changing solutions for more sustainable and equitable food systems by 2030. Breakout group discussions focused on four overarching themes that were considered in the Stage 2 Member State Dialogues. At registration, participants identified one or two breakout group themes and vision statements they would be most interested in discussing:

Theme 1: Food insecurity – root causes, measurement and solutions

Vision statement: By 2030, all people in Canada are able to access a sufficient amount of safe, nutritious, and culturally diverse food.

Theme 2: Inclusive and resilient food systems

Vision statement: By 2030, domestic food systems will have capitalized on Canada’s diversity to be more resilient to economic and environmental shocks, and better positioned to seize opportunities.

Theme 3: Integrated approaches to food systems

Vision statement: By 2030, interconnected social, health, environmental and economic components of food systems are integrated in decision-making across all food system actors, including all orders of government, the agriculture and food sector, stakeholders and partners.

Theme 4: Sustainable production, consumption and disposal

Vision statement: By 2030, Canada’s food system is recognized as the most sustainable in the world.

The following questions were provided to participants in advance, to help guide the discussion in each theme:

  • What commitments and/or targets need to be made and by whom to achieve this vision?
  • Which key actions/solutions identified in the Stage 2 Dialogues and other UN Food Systems Summit discussions would make the most meaningful progress towards achieving the commitments?
  • What barriers exist and how can they be overcome?

Main findings

Theme 1: Food insecurity – root causes, measurement and solutions

  • Participants identified that a more comprehensive national measurement and monitoring framework is needed to make progress towards reducing food insecurity. Particular gaps to address include lack of robust and consistent reporting on food insecurity among at-risk populations, and lack of specific goals, targets and indicators related to federal programs and initiatives whose objectives include addressing food insecurity.
  • Opportunities were identified to improve collaboration and policy coherence across orders of government (federal, provincial and territorial, municipal), in particular on social programs, housing initiatives and measurement.
  • Participants agreed that Indigenous perspectives and rights need to be respected, and supported self-determined, holistic approaches to food insecurity that improves health, economic, and cultural well-being. Access to country food is essential for Indigenous communities, as is the capacity to practice traditional agricultural and food practices. Participants also identified the need for programs supporting Indigenous communities to be tailored to regional and local needs, respecting historical community contexts.

Theme 2: Inclusive and resilient food systems

  • Participants identified collaboration, education, rights-based approaches and establishing a performance measurement strategy (including a national sustainability index) as key actions to achieve positive change across food systems.
  • Participants expressed broad support for “Everyone at the table”, including young farmers, immigrants and Indigenous communities.
  • Biodiversity, improving food literacy for resilient and healthy populations, and business risk management practices for producers to sustain external shocks were highlighted as mechanisms for improving sustainability.
  • There was broad support for developing legislation and regulations with a local or regional lens, to incorporate community contexts, promote food autonomy and food sovereignty, particularly for Indigenous communities.
  • Participants also expressed support for action to support local food systems, including investments in local food infrastructure to grow and process food.
  • Root causes of food insecurity raised by participants include poverty, food prices, food deserts, lack of diversity, and lack of power in decision-making regarding local food systems.

Theme 3: Integrated approaches to food systems

  • Participants reflected on key considerations with respect to integrated food systems in the Canadian context, noting the diversity of Canada’s multiple food systems (Indigenous, market, non-market etc.) that operate at different levels — local, regional, national, international.
  • Participants affirmed the need for integrated, systems-based approaches to addressing the social, economic, health and environmental aspects of our food system. In recognizing the diversity of food systems across Canada, participants identified the need to advance a collective vision and create opportunities to hear all food system perspectives when making decisions.
  • The importance of integrating the perspectives of Indigenous, Black and other marginalized peoples, and supporting Indigenous food sovereignty, was highlighted. Community- and Indigenous-level participation in the food system can increase local economic resilience and improve food security and accessibility. Participants noted big opportunities in enabling community-based programs like community gardens and local processing.
  • Participants also identified the need for evidence-based targets and benchmarks for the economic, social, environmental and health dimensions of sustainability. These measures could catalyze change across the food system, helping to align food actors, improve public trust, and provide a new lens for policy-making. Leadership in this area could bring competitive advantages for the “Canada brand”, support sustainable economic growth, and make environmental and social improvements.
  • Participants identified the potential for integration on key issues where the interests of many stakeholders align, such as reducing food loss and waste and increasing procurement of healthy and sustainable foods in public institutions. Early successes in these areas can bring other partners/stakeholders to the table and build broader coalitions for food system transformation.
  • Barriers and critical success factors raised by participants include competing interests among food system actors, insufficient transparency and traceability, need to shift public perceptions towards trust and empowerment, enhancing food literacy, and increased
  • innovation and financial support to adapt to rapidly evolving food systems.

Theme 4: Sustainable production, consumption and disposal

  • Participants reflected on the multiple dimensions of sustainability — environmental, social, health and economic — and affirmed that it should be a key priority for the food system moving forward. Recognizing the broad range of natural and industrial eco-systems across Canada, it was noted that activities to enhance food system sustainability may look different from place to place. Even so, participants identified the need to develop an overall direction to guide all food system actors.
  • The discussion centred primarily around four key areas where commitments and actions could improve sustainability: benchmarking goals, targets, and metrics with full-cost accounting across all four dimensions of sustainability; incentivizing innovation and adoption of climate solutions by the agriculture and food sector; reducing food loss and waste; and encouraging the shift to sustainable consumption. Some of the cross-cutting actions include continuous engagement of all food system actors, investments in research and innovation, consumer education and awareness, and policy coherence and coordination.
  • Barriers and critical success factors raised by participants include financial and communication barriers to adopting best management practices, reluctance to collaborate among some stakeholders, unintended consequences of regulatory requirements, ensuring efforts to improve sustainability are strategic and focused, and making sustainability part of Canada’s competitive advantage globally.

Discussion topic outcomes

Theme 1: Food insecurity – root causes, measurement and solutions

Potential commitments

  • National food insecurity reduction goal(s) and target(s).
  • A comprehensive, reliable, consistent and commonly-used food security measurement tool with robust indicators to track progress.
  • Increased access to food through economic and social programs.
  • A national healthy school food program.
  • Recognition of the “right to food security” through legislation.
  • Improved access to water.

Potential actions

  • Establish a federal observatory/dashboard to publically report on progress toward food security goals and align with the Poverty Reduction Strategy (Canada’s Official Poverty Dashboard) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
  • Reassess food security indicators including the Market Basket Measure (MBM) and Low Income Cut-Off (LICO). In particular, participants noted that the metrics in the MBM focus on urban areas and poorly reflect smaller and rural regions’ food system realities.
  • Consider the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) — or elements of it — as a model framework of minimum standards for “right to food security legislation.
  • Incorporate information on Indigenous food security in national indicators, respecting a rights-holder approach. The First Nations Food, Nutrition, and Environment Study was highlighted as a model for methodology and data strategies.
  • Support self-determined approaches to programs and policies for Indigenous communities. Some participants expressed support for more market-based initiatives in Indigenous communities, including independent food and grocery stores and increasing local food processing capacity. Support for regional food hubs and research on addressing food insecurity were also identified as potential actions to improve access to food.
  • Support collaboration between civil society and the private sector on mutual commitments toward common food security goals.
  • Increase funding for food councils or advisory bodies to increase support for civil society’s engagement on topics related to food security.
  • Improve income support initiatives. Participants noted that those launched during the pandemic have shown to reduce poverty and that stable employment can also reduce food insecurity.
  • Improve access to water for consumption, broaden water rights for irrigation, and impose stronger penalties for environmental mismanagement.

Barriers and critical success factors

  • Legal and regulatory barriers to land for Indigenous communities to improve their access to culturally appropriate food and traditional food practices.
  • All food system stakeholders have a role to play; collaboration and coordination among partners and across sectors and jurisdictions will be essential to setting realistic, commonly agreed-upon goals, improving measurement and achieving targets.
  • Participants identified the federal government as having lead responsibility for the measurement framework and data collection (such as through Statistics Canada), with provincial and territorial participation.
  • Federal and provincial/territorial governments need to work together to improve policy coherence where jurisdictions overlap. Municipal governments also influence important factors for food sovereignty, including the price of land, rental rates and access to space, especially in large cities.
  • Academia could play a key role in advancing collaborative research.
  • Physical access to processing facilities is a barrier to the availability of healthy, locally-sourced food.
  • Participants agreed that food banks are not a long-term solution to food insecurity and that many of these organizations advocate for eliminating the need for their services.

Theme 2: Inclusive and resilient food systems

Potential commitments

  • A farm-to-table approach based on relationship building across food system stakeholders and consumers.
  • More diversity in diet, agriculture and business by empowering farmers, small- and medium-sized food companies and by supporting migrant workers.
  • Strengthened local food system infrastructure, including food storage, food security organizations, schools, Northern communities, and by promoting Canadian products.
  • Rights-based approaches, including implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), supporting rights of Indigenous Peoples to participate in hunting/fishing, and supporting food sovereignty.
  • A more agile and adaptable legislative and regulatory framework.

Potential actions

  • Increase collaboration through dialogue and policy advisory bodies.
  • Develop and share business risk management strategies to support producers in risk management and mitigation, including adapting to and overcoming environmental and economic shocks.
  • Support consumer education and engagement in food systems to promote positive health, social, environmental and economic outcomes.
  • Create a National Sustainability Index for food systems that incorporate health, social, environmental and economic considerations.
  • Support public research into seed development, establishing public plant breeding programs and seed banks that promote biodiversity.
  • Reduce food prices in the North by improving the Nutrition North food subsidy and addressing the root causes of food insecurity rooted in poverty, high cost of living and lack of power.
  • Enhance long-term funding commitments to better support Indigenous communities.
  • Improve access to land and ensure food production assets are in the hands of many people, including younger farmers and Indigenous farmers.
  • Increase dialogue on social determinants of health and food systems and incorporating food security indicators as a measure of social programming achievement.
  • Link poverty reduction initiatives with food security and providing additional effective income supports, like the Canada Child Benefit.
  • Reduce regulatory barriers to accessing traditional food.

Barriers and critical success factors

  • Geography — Food distribution is a challenge in a country with a large geography and dispersed population. This is particularly evident in the North where lack of adequate storage for fresh food is a barrier to access for many communities.
  • Policy incoherence — Participants discussed incoherence between policies that promote health and nutritious diets and those that support less nutritious food choices.
  • Lack of connection between communities and the policies that are intended to support them.
  • Overly complicated growing systems dependent on costly external inputs and maintenance and do not address local needs — such as establishing greenhouses in Northern communities that traditionally rely on hunting, and harvesting country food.

Theme 3: Integrated approaches to food systems

Potential commitments

  • A mechanism to report on the food system as a whole, with metrics to track, define and set targets on important considerations across social, economic, health and environmental dimensions. These metrics should include, but are not limited to: food insecurity, food culture, Indigenous well-being, farmers’ incomes, food affordability, health, food literacy, diversity, traceability, and trade.
  • A more integrated approach to healthy and sustainable public procurement. This affects multiple dimensions of the food system, and can provide an opportunity to bring together all food system actors and communities to build collective commitment for social, health, environmental and economic objectives.
  • A more coordinated and food systems-based approach to addressing food loss and waste, that integrates environmental, social and economic perspectives. The integration of action across all orders of government was highlighted as a key factor, particularly the need for better integration of municipal and territorial perspectives.
  • Advance globally a more holistic approach that considers local, gender and Indigenous perspectives when addressing food system issues such as trade, food waste, food security and human rights. The UN Committee on Food Security and EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy were cited as examples.
  • A more integrated and structured decision-making process where the private sector, academics, and civil society have a role to provide perspectives to governments.
  • Better integrated health considerations in food systems decision-making, focusing on healthy local products, supporting organizations to promote healthy eating, and reducing chronic diseases
  • A resilient regulatory system that supports food safety, food security, and trade, particularly in the face of climate change and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Potential actions

  • Promote a vision statement for Canada’s food systems that integrates social, health, environmental and economic benefits, and align government, industry and NGO action behind it.
  • Develop a comprehensive Food System Sustainability Index, that establishes a commonly agreed-upon set of indicators and benchmarks on sustainability, backed by evidence.
  • Advance an integrated approach that includes shared objectives and performance indicators for food-related policies and programs across federal departments and agencies as well provinces and territories that provides great coherence and predictability.
  • Improve or establish standards and tools to support integration, including data standards, guidelines, models, frameworks, and decision making tools. Important considerations include comparability, flexibility based on differing data availability and accessibility, and data sovereignty.
  • Strengthen Indigenous food systems and food sovereignty. This could include continued progress on reconciliation, creating space for Indigenous voices, and programs at Indigenous and community levels, such as community gardens, school food program, local processing/treating of foods. Participants supported the need to celebrate success stories of community action underway to demonstrate what is possible and build on these in future efforts.
  • Establish a more formal process to foster collaborative decision-making. As an example, a participant noted the need for a platform to bring all departments together that are responsible for any aspect of the food system.
  • Use the “One Health” approach to better integrate environmental, animal, and human health, break down silos, and get decision-makers on board.
  • Improve traceability and information flow through food systems in both directions — from producers to consumers, and from consumers to producers. This will lead to better decision-making throughout the system, not focused only on origin and endpoints. The use of IT/mobile technology to facilitate information flow was raised.

Barriers and critical success factors

  • Attracting food system actors to participate in efforts to better integrate food systems. There is a need to articulate a value proposition for different stakeholders — more explicit language on why this is important for communities, kids, businesses, etc.
  • Lack of food (system) literacy. There is a need to embed multiple aspects of food literacy (nutrition and health, food skills, eco-literacy, civics) within the education system, particularly as the connections across the food systems are learned inherently when taught at a young age. School food programming could provide an opportunity to advance food literacy.
  • A negative perception of food production and/or viewing it as “someone else’s” issue (that is, rural people or farmers). There is a need to promote the narrative that food production is empowering and encourage people to participate in it. Better outreach and awareness efforts (for example, funded by government) can help change mainstream discussions about food.
  • The dynamic nature of food systems that are constantly evolving could pose a challenge to integration. There is a need to continually innovate and adapt, and consider the implications of choices on all four dimensions of sustainability.
  • The availability of financial capital to ensure that the system will adjust to the new challenges (such as sustainability, packaging) in the food system.
  • Transparency will be needed to adopt transformational change, particularly in light of food system changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Competing self-interests of various actors can pose a challenge to co-operation and integration.
  • Ensuring more diverse voices are at the table so that solutions from their communities come forward, are listened to, understood and heard.

Theme 4: Sustainable production, consumption and disposal

Potential commitments

  • A leadership role in global discussions on sustainability.
  • A process for benchmarking sustainability goals, targets, and metrics that are: science-based, achievable and measurable; include full-cost accounting across economic and environment factors; and integrate flexibility to account for the great variability across Canada’s diverse eco-systems.
  • A process for identifying agriculture- and food-driven climate solutions and link these solutions to proper incentives to ensure as rapid uptake as possible.
  • Dietary transitions to more nutritional, sustainable diets, and national targets to reduce the carbon footprint of Canadians’ healthy diet consumption (for example, by 35%).
  • National target(s) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in production and supply chains (for example, by 50% by 2030).
  • National target(s) to reduce food loss and waste (for example, by 20% to 30% in the next five years; by 50% by 2030).
  • National target(s) to achieve electrification of all on-farm vehicles by 2035.
  • Concrete goals to reduce nitrous oxide emissions across food systems.

Potential actions

  • Conduct a scan/inventory of existing benchmarking methods and indicators and identify priority metrics that align with the sustainability outcomes we are attempting to achieve.
  • Identify climate solutions and strategies that have co-benefits for both the environmental and economic benefits on-farm, and increase support for further research to evaluate solutions to ensure the benefits and costs of adoption are well understood and shared with stakeholders.
  • Develop incentives for adopting climate solutions, with governments ensuring that all stakeholders throughout the value chain are engaged, incentives target the correct level of stakeholder (such as small family food producers, large scale farms), and adequate incentives are offered for participation.
  • Increase government-led efforts to help small farms engage in local markets, that is, support small scale local farming.
  • Reduce food loss and waste through better measurement/tracking, identifying areas of action, developing public-private partnerships; participation of all supply chain actors; and research on behavioural considerations of consumer food waste.
  • Increase agriculture and food sector-led discussions on ways to discourage unsustainable/harmful practices, reward innovators, and shift the whole sector forward through continuous improvement.
  • Support shifts to sustainable diets through measurement, food reformulation and consumer education. Develop methods to ensure that sustainability metrics consider the nutrient density of food in determining sustainable consumption recommendations (such as considering nutritional equivalence when assessing recommendations to replace animal protein foods). Participants indicated that there should be policy coherence/alignment with Canada’s Food Guide recommendations.
  • Enhance government and industry collaboration to build public acceptance and trust scientific developments and technologies that can improve sustainability performance (such as genetically modified foods).
  • Increase government provision of, or funding for, research and extension services/training and not leave this to industry, due to potential conflicts-of-interest. Universities are a good source of extension services (research), and there is a need to better connect farmers, universities and governments on innovation development and adoption.
  • Encourage farmers to preserve and regenerate soils (such as by diversifying agricultural production).
  • Advance circular food economy approaches, particularly as it applies to food waste and agricultural waste (such as manure).
  • Establish a carbon sequestration credits-system for farmers.

Barriers and critical success factors

  • The focus on the near-term harvesting season that food production requires can make it challenging to think about longer-term climate impacts. There is a need for continued engagement and involvement of food producers.
  • Ineffective communication of best management practices (BMPs) can create barriers to understanding and adoption. There is a need to improve access to information and expertise, and explore how best to share information, such as farmer-to-farmer, demonstrations, extension services.
  • Financial barriers that prevent governments from investing more to ensure that adequate supports and incentives are provided. There is a need for industry to engage governments to determine the extent to which extended support may be needed and where it is going to come from.
  • Reluctance of some supply chain stakeholders to work collaboratively, at both national and global levels, because sustainability measures may be considered proprietary and not fit to share openly. Establishing a dialogue with stakeholders that communicates the virtue of collaboration and that the environment is a common good may help break down some of these barriers.
  • Regulatory requirements can create disincentives to action and/or innovation. Examples were given of certain provincial regulations that prevent farmers from putting in a bio-digester or prevent hydro companies from buying electricity from farms.
  • The large number of UN Sustainable Development Goals may spread efforts too thin and risk achieving very little. There is a need to focus efforts those that have the most significant impacts on sustainability of the work becomes so fragmented there will be the danger of achieving very little.
  • Sustainable products are not part of our global or bilateral trade “brand”. If Canadian food production is not considered sustainable, it becomes a trade barrier with more environmentally discerning countries.

Areas of divergence

Theme 1: Food insecurity – root causes, measurement and solutions

  • Some participants identified that local food production, programs and food systems are assets, noting that local hunting, fishing, and gathering, local farm to school programs, and local economic development all contribute to food security. Others emphasized that local food is not the solution to food insecurity; an expanded local food market does not necessarily resolve the issue of accessibility and affordability for many with low incomes.

Theme 2: Inclusive and resilient food systems

  • While some participants expressed support for vision statement and commitments and actions/solutions toward a resilient food system, others express ed the view that the vision statement should be more focussed on local food systems and tightening local “food loops”. One participant proposed the following vision statement: “By 2030, domestic food systems will be resilient and inclusive through protecting and enhancing the right and ability of people and communities to produce food for themselves and for others.”
  • Investment in agri-food technology, suggested as a solution by some participants, was considered too disruptive by others.

Theme 3: Integrated approaches to food systems

  • No significant areas of divergence were noted for this theme.

Theme 4: Sustainable production, consumption and disposal

  • In the discussion on metrics, some participants focused on the primacy of quality metrics before getting to solutions. Other participants noted that climate change is happening now, and while metrics are important, the absence thereof should not preclude setting ambitious goals and taking action.
  • Some participants saw the shift to sustainable diets/consumption as a key component of the transition to sustainable food systems. One participant did not see an opportunity to make big sustainability changes with this focus, noting that sustainable consumption really depends on how consumers cook, not the commodity used (such as fried chicken).
  • While some participants advocated for universities as a good source of extension services, one participant raised the risk of conflict-of-interest as university research is often paid for by industry.