Workshop toward a National Food Policy and Council

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The challenge for any effective National Food Policy is to address both the (a) market-based requirements for a prosperous (e.g. profitable, competitive) food system and (b) the externalities or consequence of commercial activity that affects other parties without being reflected in the cost of the goods or services.  To help meet this challenge food system stakeholders, with both an interest in food security and competitiveness, are meeting in Ottawa, March 23, for a roundtable discussion to review proposals for a National Food Policy Council. It has been proposed that such a Council would have representation from public, private and civil society actors.

Background documents that will help to inform this discussion are:

The roundtable panel is being live-streamed and includes:

  • Larry McDermott, member of Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, Executive Director of Plenty Canada, and former
    Ontario Human Rights Commissioner;
  • Pat Mooney, founder of ETC group and winner of the Right Livelihood Award (the “Alternative Nobel Prize”) from the Swedish Parliament;
  • Lauren Baker, formerly with Toronto Food Policy Council;
  • Ted Bilyea, Past Chair and Special Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Agri-Food
    Policy Institute;
  • Dr. Catherine Mah, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University.

The event hosts are Diana Bronson, Executive Director of Food Secure Canada, and Peter Andrée, Associate Professor and Associate Chair in Political Science at Carleton University

The sponsors of this discussion are Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE), Food Secure Canada, Faculty of Public Affairs (Carleton University), and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

This discussion is open to the public. A livestream webinar can be accessed  at: https://zoom.us/j/691401927 . For those who can attend in person the meeting is being held in Room 4007, Faculty of Social Sciences Building (4th floor),120 University Private at the University of Ottawa.