Canada and France bring together agroecosystem living labs from across the globe

It was a proud moment for Canada as living lab participants and organizers gathered from around the world to discuss a unique approach to building sustainable food systems.

Known as living labs, the approach brings together farmers, scientists and other agri-food collaborators to co-develop, test and continuously fine-tune innovative solutions to environmental challenges in agriculture. Created in real-world farming conditions, the solutions borne out of a living lab are not only practical and sustainable but can be more quickly and efficiently put to use on the farm.

"With the urgency of climate change, we needed an approach that would allow us to come up with innovative solutions much faster. One that would help remove the silos that isolate the biophysical and social sciences, while putting farmers at the forefront," says François Chrétien, Co-President of the Forum and Associate Director of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) Living Labs Division.

AAFC first presented this approach to the G20 in 2018 — just over five years ago.

"We took a risk by implementing something new without having perfect knowledge of how it might turn out in practice," François reveals.

And the risk was worth it. Since then, the living labs approach has been used to drive change and innovation for agri-food systems across the globe. The European Union is about to embark on two sizeable projects inspired by AAFC's initial work.

"The great thing about living labs is its unique approach to bringing research and innovation together," notes newcomer Dr. Aman Deep, Director of Research Development and Technology Transfer, who recently joined the Living Labs Division at AAFC. "It fosters the development of an agriculture and agri-food system that is environmental, socially and economically viable."

To take stock of the challenges and lessons learned and to foster collaborations between living labs, AAFC teamed up with France's National Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement, INRAE) to host the first International Forum on Agroecosystem Living Labs (IF-ALL). Held at the Palais des congrès in Montréal, Quebec from October 4 to 6 and embedded within the Adaptation Futures 2023 conference, IF-ALL welcomed over 240 attendees from at least 18 different countries, both in-person and online.

"The response to our calls for presenters and attendees far surpassed our expectations," says François. "This shows the tremendous amount of growth and interest in the transformative power of agroecosystem living labs since we first introduced the concept more than five years ago."

Presenters and attendees all took an active part in sharing their research, case studies and practical lessons gained from their own living lab experiences around the world.

"Attendees came from different stages of their own living lab process — some just starting out, some more experienced," says René Morissette, organizing committee member and Agroecosystems Modeller for AAFC's Living Labs Division. "It made for great discussion and they were able to help each other by sharing their diverse experiences."

Working from the ground up

IF-ALL's program focused on four central themes: promoting agricultural innovation, the transition towards sustainable food systems, empowering living lab participants, and measuring success.

"A living lab is not a research project. It is an innovation project supported by research," says Chris McPhee, Innovation Management Specialist at AAFC and member of IF-ALL's organizing committee. "The approach encourages innovation — meaning the development of new or improved farming practices, for example. But innovation is nothing without adoption. A living lab creates the conditions needed for sharing knowledge and encouraging the broader adoption of the innovations by others."

By involving farmers throughout the process together with scientists, agroecosystem living labs develop solutions that are centred around the farmers' needs and socioeconomic realities. This ensures that the farming solutions are scientifically sound, affordable, feasible and even socially acceptable.

"It's one thing to change the farm practice, but quite another issue to allow for that change," adds Dr. Ann Lévesque, Innovation Officer for AAFC's Living Labs Division and a member of the IF-ALL organizing committee. This is why living labs involve partners such as local communities and officials, non-governmental organizations, and other agri-food stakeholders, for example. "This will ultimately allow for holistic change to take place."

When asking individuals to work together across different disciplines and perspectives, time is needed to interact, strengthen relationships and build trust. Living labs must balance the rigours of science with the urgency of real-world decision-making, all while juggling short-term with long-term goals.

While AAFC's nationwide network of living labs currently focuses on solutions for the farm, some living lab projects in other countries are looking at the agri-food supply chain as a whole and involve food processors and consumers. The core principles are the same, but the applications may be different. For instance, one living lab in Poland focused on culinary innovations, which connected insights from consumers, food companies, and researchers to explore creative ways for promoting sustainability and minimizing environmental impacts both on the farm and throughout the value chain. Three living lab projects in Germany are looking to encourage insect-friendly agricultural landscapes through a collaborative co-design process based on agroecological principles. This work is centred on the farmer's needs while aiming to stop the loss of biodiversity at a landscape scale.

Given the many different types of living labs and the melding of different disciplines, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to measuring success, which was one of IF-ALL's four main themes.

"We tend to use simple quantitative metrics when evaluating programs, such as the number of partnerships or papers," says François. "But what about the quality of long-term relationships that are built or a change in mindset or social values? What we need are multi-faceted evaluations that go beyond traditional indicators."

A look in the field

In true living lab spirit, the International Forum ended with a field tour to dairy farm and living lab site, Ferme Cristallina, located one hour east of Montréal.

The field trip was co-hosted by the Union des producteurs agricoles, an organization that represents 42,000 Quebec farmers and leads one of two living labs in the province within AAFC's nationwide network of living labs. The field tour presented a unique opportunity for attendees to see innovative farming practices co-developed, tested and adopted by Quebec farmers.

"Attendees were really impressed by the innovative practices they saw," says René. "They wanted to learn more about the producers' challenges and compare the practices used in Canada to what they're doing in their own countries."

The farm's host, Michael Jeker, was one of the producers who worked closely with AAFC researchers to further optimize his diverse cover cropping techniques on the farm. Through his living project, he was ultimately able to more efficiently bring nitrogen into the soil and increase its carbon content.

A leader on the international scene

Although the next International Forum is slated for 2025, the AAFC team is already hard at work. They're deciphering the challenges and opportunities gleaned from the forum, building on that momentum, and looking for ways to help livings labs scale up across the globe.

"The forum itself was a way to network and build synergy, and for us to better understand what is needed," says François. "What can we do to move forward and help the international community? How can we better drive living labs here in Canada and how can we better evaluate them? We will use all this information to improve the living labs approach together."

François moderated an international living labs panel at the COP28 held in Dubai just four months after IF-ALL. What he saw and heard only emphasized the importance of the living labs approach to global food security.

"Put simply, current trends in global greenhouse gas emissions from food systems would prevent the achievement of the Paris Agreement targets," says François. "By scaling up the co-development and adoption of innovative farming practices, agroecosystem living labs have a key role to play in helping to meet the ambitious goal of limiting global temperature rise to within 1.5°C."

COP28 was the first in COP history to recognize the key role of agriculture in the context of climate change with a dedicated day on 'Food, Agriculture and Water.' At the end of the event, 159 nations signed the COP28 Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, all committed to escalating their work protecting food systems and farm communities while conserving and restoring nature.

"There is a spotlight on agriculture and it is shining more brightly than it has ever before," says François. " Farming may have been seen as a climate problem in the past, but today, it is seen as a climate solution. By continuing to help promote, support and scale up living labs worldwide, we can use this collaborative approach to turn international agreements into concrete actions."

In the meantime, AAFC's Living Labs team will continue to share all that they've learned with the global community, including at the upcoming Landscape Conference in Berlin in September 2024.

"It's important that we don't fall back on traditional approaches, where we simply demonstrate farming practices," says François. "The pathway to real change will come through innovation, meaning new and improved practices, developed and refined with farmers, scientists, and other partners working together. That's what a living lab is all about."

Learn more about living labs.

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