Common Ground Food Forum
June 15-18, 2025, Orillia Ontario The Common Ground Food Forum is a key project of the Common Ground Network. Food is inherently social, involving people in every stage—including how it is produced, processed, distributed, consumed, and disposed of, and who is involved at every step. Because of this, shifting agriculture, fisheries and food systems toward […]
Roundtable: Critical Perspectives on Net Zero and ‘Beyond Net Zero’ in Canadian Agriculture and Food Systems
Common Ground Network members gathered at CAFS for a roundtable panel to discuss “Critical perspectives on net zero and beyond net zero inCanadian agriculture and food systems”. Emily Duncan (University of Regina), Ryan Katz-Rosene (University of Ottawa), and Andrew Spring (Wilfred Laurier University) covered 1) the concept of net zero and its limitations for “agriculture”, and 2) a lack of implementation of tools and general paucity […]
Just transition in food systems webinar
Discussing a Just Transition in Agriculture and Food Systems A just transition to net zero must be fair, inclusive and encompass “more than net zero” within the context of agriculture and food systems. “More than net zero” requires achieving holistic sustainability goals and objectives that go beyond simply addressing carbon emissions reductions. Social Sciences and […]
Territorial food systems webinar
Territorial food systems for greater food autonomy, resilience and sustainability Territorial food systems are emerging as an approach to regionalize food systems while also prioritizing collaborative governance. They are embedded in regional/ local/supra local contexts and involve a diversity of food systems actors and civil society. A key goal of territorial food systems is to improve local food autonomy while also […]
Roundtable: Critical Perspectives on Net Zero and ‘Beyond Net Zero’ in Canadian Agriculture and Food Systems
Thursday, June 59-10:30am 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 […]
Webinar recording: Ensuring greater resilience in Canadian food systems during a trade war
The Common Ground Network hosted a roundtable event entitled Ensuring greater resilience in Canadian food systems during a trade war on April 2, 2025. Experts from the Common Ground Network including Sophia Carodenuto, Erick Duchesne, Gavin Fridell and Vivian Valencia discussed the current trade war context and strategies to strengthen Canada’s food systems amidst trade challenges. Watch […]
Virtual Roundtable: Ensuring greater resilience in Canadian food systems during a trade war
Wednesday, April 2 3-4:30 EST Join us for a virtual discussion about how we can work towards ensuring greater food systems resilience in Canada, including working towards Canada’s net zero by 2050 goals. During this bilingual roundtable webinar, experts from the Common Ground Network will discuss these issues and possible pathways forward to ensure greater […]
Policy Chat – Tim Lang, Centre for Food Policy
In time of Shock: Why resilience, defence and democracy help redesign food systems. Common Ground members attended this Policy Chat in February 2025 and strongly recommend it as a detailed summary to present to classrooms and stakeholders. The event, “Beyond competitiveness: rethinking the ideologies shaping our food systems”, was organized by FEAST, a Horizon Europe […]
166 Network Members Surveyed!
In Fall 2024, Common Ground launched a survey to reach beyond the existing connections of members and identify researchers and experts who work on food systems transformation across academic disciplines and across Canada/Indigenous Territories. A summary of survey results from January 2025 is available here. The survey will still be active, so if you are […]
Announcing Common Ground Network Funding!
Launching in the Fall of 2024, this new network will be funded to a total of $1.93M for 5 years by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), in partnership with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). The proposal was developed by a team of over 50 academics and community food systems actors led by […]