Sustainable Food Systems in Canada: Building a Vision

This report outlines an internal exercise by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to determine how the organization can better support sustainable food systems research and policy in Canada. Through staff surveys, stakeholder interviews, and literature reviews, IISD identified a need for a holistic, multi-sectoral 'systems approach' to food policy that integrates social equity with economic and environmental goals.

• Stakeholder interviews with 17 representatives from government, academia, and civil society indicated that Canada's food system faces challenges including a lack of broad consensus on food policy, insufficient incentives for climate action in agriculture, and jurisdictional friction 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 instead address various dimensions of sustainability through a comprehensive, multi-sectoral framework.
• IISD identified five specific research themes where Canadian food systems research and policy currently lack sufficient attention: 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 intersection of land use, water, and biodiversity.
• IISD has proposed five priority areas for short-term research and policy work: advising on emissions reduction 'game plans', creating evidence-based incentives for sustainable practices like regenerative agriculture, tracking sustainable food systems data, evaluating fiscal barriers to resiliency (including 'just transition' and farm income), 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} }