Sustainable Food Systems in Canada: Building a Vision

IISD conducted a series of internal brainstorms, stakeholder interviews, and literature reviews to identify gaps in Canada's sustainable food systems policy. The findings highlight a need for a holistic 'systems approach' that integrates social equity with economic and environmental goals. IISD identifies five priority areas for future work: emissions reduction strategies, incentives for sustainable practices, data tracking, fiscal analysis for agricultural resiliency, and the promotion of equitable food policy development.

• Stakeholder interviews with 17 representatives from government, academia, and civil society indicated that Canada's food policy is currently fragmented, with a lack of broad consensus and challenges arising from jurisdictional overlaps between municipal, provincial, and federal levels.
• There is a perceived need for a 'systems approach' to food policy in Canada to move away from working in siloes and to better address the intersection of climate action, food access, equity, and justice for consumers and migrant workers.
• IISD identified five specific research themes that lack sufficient attention in Canadian policy: the tension between trade exports and sustainability, labour and market issues (including foreign worker issues and market concentration), food security and agency, climate risks to production and supply chains, and the connection between land/water use and biodiversity.
• IISD proposes a 'three-pronged' approach to food policy that integrates the social pillar of agriculture and food into existing economic and environmental frameworks.
• The document defines five short-term priority areas for IISD: advising on emissions reductions, creating evidence-based solutions to incentivize sustainable practices (like regenerative agriculture), tracking sustainable food systems data, evaluating fiscal barriers to resiliency (including 'just transition' lenses), and promoting holistic, equitable food policy development.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2021). Sustainable Food Systems in Canada: Building a Vision. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-12/sustainable-food-systems-canada.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Sustainable Food Systems in Canada: Building a Vision. 2021. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-12/sustainable-food-systems-canada.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Sustainable Food Systems in Canada: Building a Vision |date=October 2021 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-12/sustainable-food-systems-canada.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2021sustainable, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Sustainable Food Systems in Canada: Building a Vision}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2021}, month = oct, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-12/sustainable-food-systems-canada.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }