At the Canadian Association for Food Studies Conference (June 2-5, 2025 at George Brown College in Toronto), panelists from the Common Ground Network and the Future Harvest initiative will reflect on what Net Zero means in the Canadian context, how scholars and partners are engaging with the concept of Net Zero, and the associated consequences and opportunities. “Net Zero” has become the defining lens for understanding climate policy performance. It is simultaneously a scientific concept, a mitigation target and a policy instrument. To maintain stability in earth’s systems, achieving Net Zero requires transformational cuts to current emission levels. Canada has set a Net Zero by 2050 target and has allocated reductions across sectors. Net Zero presents novel challenges concerning the potential over-reliance on future (unproven) technologies, the distributional implications of Net Zero, and the socio-ecological impacts of systematic transformation – all of which are exemplified in the case of Canada and in Canadian agriculture and food systems.
This 90-minute session is organized by the SSHRC-AAFC-funded Common Ground Network led by Karen Foster at Dalhousie University, in partnership with Future Harvest Partnership, an NSERC-SSHRC-funded Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative led by Andrew Spring at Wilfrid Laurier University. Both projects interact with NetZero as a theme in food systems research and therefore are well placed to lead this critical discussion on the topic.
Moderator – Alicia Martin, Dalhousie University, Common Ground Network
Debora Van Nijnatten – Wilfrid Laurier University – Providing critical thinking about net zero, and contextualizing current net zero thinking within international and national dialogues.
Ryan Katz-Rosene – University of Ottawa – Providing the broader policy and political context for net zero in agriculture within Canada
Andrew Spring – Wilfrid Laurier University – Providing an on-the-ground example of evolving work on food systems and climate change through the Future Harvest Partnership
Emily Duncan – University of Regina – Presenting her evolving research on discourses around net-zero in agriculture from producer and industry perspectives.
