Network Goal
The Common Ground Network’s goal is to increase the accessibility and genuine use of social science and humanities (SSH) expertise in the strategic pursuit of sustainable agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food systems to support a just transition to a net-zero economy coast-to-coast-to-coast.
Launched in the Fall of 2024, this network is funded for 5 years by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), in partnership with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).
Common Ground brings together SSH researchers and agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food systems actors, including civic/community organizations, government, industry organizations, and Indigenous and settler communities, to pursue the following four specific objectives:
(1) formalize and coordinate the SSH expertise around sustainable agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food systems such that there is discussion, understanding and, to the extent possible, alignment around shared assumptions, principles, goals, strategies and metrics;
(2) forge the connections necessary among SSH researchers, other disciplines, and other affected groups in agriculture, fisheries, forestry and food systems to enable the flow of knowledge, identify knowledge gaps, increase collaboration and seed new research around sustainable food systems issues across Canada and Indigenous Territories;
(3) work in partnership to develop holistic sustainability goals and objectives that encompass not only reductions in carbon emissions, but the right social relations to underpin the shift toward ‘more than’ net-zero; and
(4) direct resources to where they are most needed and most impactful in this newly aligned and coordinated community.

CGCN members Monika Korzun, Phoebe Stephens, Elizabeth Fitting, Kathleen Kevany, and Karen Foster at the 2023 Food Futures workshop held at Dalhousie University.
Photo credit: Nick Pearce