The FLEdGE partnership is hosted by Laurierโs Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, a research centre that works to acquire and disseminate knowledge about sustainability.
โThe idea initially was to think through ideas of how we could be integrative across a number of sustainability goals for food systems,โ Alison Blay Palmer, director of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, said.
โSo, food that is fair, green, economically localized as much as possible and engaging of citizens,โ Palmer said.
The FLEdGE partnership in particular brings together thinkers from around the world to share knowledge and learn from each other.
โThis is a partnership, so they all do research and collaborate and share findings,โ Palmer said.
โWe have seven research nodes across Canada. One in the Northwest Territories, one in the West in Alberta and British Columbia, three in Ontario, one in Quebec and one in Atlantic Canada,โ Palmer said.
โAnd we have three international working groups. One around agroecology, one around innovative governance and one around sustainable food systems and metrics,โ Palmer said.
โWe have people here from all over the world. From New Zealand, from South Africa, from Brazil, from across the northern United States … and also from many partners in the EU.”
โSo if you think about [hurricanes] Irma and Harvey, for example, 40% of our greenhouse gas emissions are related to how we produce food in the industrial food system, Palmer said.
Palmer emphasized that collaboration and knowledge sharing is a major function of the meeting.
โWe donโt have all the answers for sure, so itโs trying to get people together to talk and learn from each other. Thatโs really what we try to do,โ Palmer said.
Per the meetingโs program, the weekend saw presentations on topics as diverse as โYerba mate agroforestry systemsโ in southern Brazil and โSustainable Fisheries and Food Systems Governance in the Lake Superior Region.โ
The meeting and the work that the FLEdGE partnership does is supported by a grant from a federal research funding agency.
โItโs a multi-year, five year grant that started in 2015. Itโs a two-and-a-half million dollar grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [SSHRC],โ Palmer said.
When asked why it is important to work on sustainability in food systems, Palmer responded without hesitation:
โBecause we have 800 million people in the world who donโt have enough food.โ
Palmer also noted that some of the impetus to improve sustainability in food systems is driven by the threats associated with climate change.
โSo if you think about [hurricanes] Irma and Harvey, for example, 40% of our greenhouse gas emissions are related to how we produce food in the industrial food system, Palmer said.
โSo if we did things more sustainably, we wouldnโt have to be โ in the long run, I mean thatโs a long term goal โ we wouldnโt have to be dealing with those issues in such an urgent and pressing way as we are now.โ
โSo weโre all here to share the research that weโre doing and find ways that we can progress on thinking about and acting on things that will help us have more sustainable food systems everywhere.โ
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