FSC Newsletters

6. Environment and Agriculture

Executive Summary

A healthy environment is the basis of a resilient and sustainable agro-ecosystem. Agriculture affects and is affected by the natural world, and as such it must work within natural systems. Canadian agricultural systems must build and maintain healthy soil, clean water and air, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, mitigate and adapt to climate change, protect and enhance biodiversity, protect farmland, and reduce waste.

English

5. Sustainable Fisheries and Livelihoods for Fishers

Executive Summary

On the Atlantic coast, federal fishery policy, supposedly designed to protect fish stocks, has been disastrous. It is driven by the assumption that a highly mechanized fleet catching fish for export is best for the economy. On the Pacific coast, the DFO (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) regulations enable corporations to own the fishing boats, forcing fishers with quotas to work as "sharecroppers".

What is needed is a fisheries policy that accords coastal communities control over their harvesting, ensuring long-term economic stability.

English

4. Agriculture, Infrastructure and Livelihoods

Executive Summary

Canada’s farm sector is one of the world’s least profitable. Our food production system is one of the world’s most export-focused - Canada has quadrupled food exports since the late 1980s. Our food system is energy-inefficient and climate-destabilizing. It is increasingly corporate-controlled. And it often operates counter to Canadians’ health and wellness aspirations.
 

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3. Access to Food in Urban Communities

Executive Summary
 
The purpose of this discussion paper is to highlight the barriers to food sovereignty for urban residents and provide policy solutions to those barriers. We focus on three action areas: 1) economic barriers to healthy food and reliance on charitable providers for low-income populations; 2) limitations to urban food production; 3) the inability for many population groups to connect with local food sources and information.

Recommendations:

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2. Food Sovereignty in Rural and Remote Communities

Executive Summary

The industrial food system raises numerous challenges for the food sovereignty of rural and remote communities. For communities that are further away or more tenuously connected to commercial centres, the cost of store-bought food is higher and the nutritional value lower.

English

Discussion Papers of the People's Food Policy

The following 10 policy discussion papers capture the many ideas and conversations that came out of our Kitchen Table Talks (People's Food Policy Project 2009-2011). 

They are living documents, recognizing that we are constantly evolving and expanding these ideas.

Resetting the Table: A People's Food Policy for Canada captures the top policy priorities from each of these papers.  


1. Indigenous Food Sovereignty

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