Governing Regional Food

Reducing food waste has become a key benchmark for building better food systems. Those systems cannot be sustainable–ecologically, socially, economically–if too much food intended for our plates is left unpicked in the field, spoiled in transit or at the grocery, or forgotten in the fridge.

For those who work with and study food, it is now commonplace to talk about the food system and to advocate for taking a food systems perspective. How can we make this systems perspective meaningful in food law research, while being mindful of its challenges?

Flows in the Food System One of our projects is to better understand the governance system for food in Atlantic Canada–that is, the landscape of rules and decisions that influence what food gets produced where, how that food moves through the region, and who holds the power to gain access and make choices about food.