We are approaching policy work by focusing in on one question at a time. “If Atlantic Canada wants to feed itself more securely, it has to ask a deeper question: who is the food system actually for? Is it for the profit-takers, or is it for the public good?” This question has become the Centre for Local Prosperity’s first deep dive into applying Community Wealth Building to a specific regional system: food.
ONGOING: Atlantic Canada Food Systems Listening Project
This work is supported through Atlantic Action’s Beyond the Choir Fund. It is being carried out in partnership with the Atlantic Food Action Coalition, a developing regional network focused on strengthening relationships and shared action across food systems in Atlantic Canada.
We are now moving into a synthesis phase. We’re beginning to identify the common narratives, shared principles, and recurring tensions that have emerged across more than 150 conversations with farmers, processors, distributors, researchers, Indigenous organizations, municipalities, institutional buyers, food businesses, community organizations, and other food system careholders across the lands and waters of Atlantic Canada.
So far, the work has involved more than 25 early sensemaking and groundtruthing conversations with key careholders across the region. Those conversations helped shape a qualitative research framework, which has since been turned into two practical tools: a listening conversation guide, now being used in one-on-one conversations across more than 10 food system sectors, and an online survey available in English and French.
To date, more than 60 one-on-one listening conversations have taken place, with a goal of reaching roughly 150. These conversations include farmers, fishers, processors, distributors, independent retailers, food security organizations, Indigenous organizations, community groups, researchers, policy people, and others whose work is tied to food systems in different ways.
We’re also inviting people across the region to fill out and share the online survey: https://bit.ly/atlanticfoodsurvey
Read our blog here where we talk more in-depth about this work.