The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities and inequities of food systems. These vulnerabilities are not limited to pandemic-related crises, and when considering such issues through a climate justice lens, it is apparent that communities and societies also will experience the increasingly severe effects of climate change unevenly. Partnering with the community of Revelstoke, British Columbia, the Reimagining Food Systems for a Sustainable and Equitable Future project uses an equity lens to develop and apply interactive visualizations as planning tools for supporting progress toward sustainable, equitable local food futures. The project employs a novel interdisciplinary approach, combining concepts/methods from food justice, planning, and visualizations studies, and it responds to two research challenges revealed by COVID-19:
- First, the pandemic has highlighted how food systems impacts affect different groups unequally; accordingly, this research will develop and use an equity framework for guiding food systems planning processes, outcomes, and tool development.
- Second, the project experiments with interactive visualizations that support digital and remote engagement, thereby offering new opportunities for planning research and practice during times when circumstances call for online engagement (e.g., physically-distancing during the pandemic).
This research is part of a larger project that also works with the communities of Prince Rupert and Prince George in their efforts to develop local food systems in ways that support social justice objectives.
Download Food Systems Planning and Climate Justice Report
The research consists of three phases:
- Phase 1 involves developing and applying a food systems equity framework to a scenario planning exercise. This work builds upon the work of Vanessa Andreotti, who developed the HEADS UP framework for critically examining issues and inquiry processes using a social justice lens.
- Phase 2 centres on building a visualization tool for exploring food systems scenarios. Using methods developed by Newell and colleagues, the visualization tool development involves creating a realistic, immersive virtual environments that depicts food systems strategies in local neighbourhoods, allowing users to virtually ‘walk through’ these places and toggle different scenarios.
- Phase 3 consists of a final workshop with local government, community groups, and community members to explore the food systems scenarios and assess the visualization, as a tool for supporting local food systems planning and progress toward food justice.
The Revelstoke Food Futures Visualization Tool presents a series of scenarios that represent different conditions and configurations of food systems in the community of Revelstoke in the year 2100. The visualization centres on a neighbourhood that surrounds an old railway site, and users can 'walk through' and navigate the scenarios from the first-person perspective. Three scenarios were developed through a community workshop, and they capture the potential outcomes of local food systems development being guided by considerations around, and transformations of, (1) food supply, (2) food affordability, and (3) food governance. The scenarios and the scenario development process are detailed in this report:
Download Revelstoke Food Scenarios Report
How do I use the visualization? Click on the visualization window to start using the tool, and then follow the button prompts to enter the different scenarios. The visualization features four scenarios: the current conditions (i.e., baseline scenario), and the three food futures scenarios (i.e., food supply, food affordability, and food governance). When in the visualization, use the WASD or arrow keys to (respectively) walk forward, left, down, and right. Use the Q and E keys to turn left and turn right, and use the mouse to look around. When in a scenario, step in the blue circles to learn more about the scenario. Below the visualization window are options to open the tool in a different window and download the desktop application (after downloading, unzip the package, enter the RevelstokeVis_v1.1 folder, and double-click the RevelstokeVis application).
Open Visualization in a New Window Download Desktop Version
This research is part of a larger project developing planning tools and training supports with the communities of Revelstoke, Prince Rupert, and Prince George in their efforts to develop local food systems in ways that support social justice objectives. Descriptions of the tools and a button for accessing (and downloading user guides for) the tools can be found below:
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The equity and food planning tool supports early-stage development of plans and policies and informs decision-making and issue-identification. The tool addresses three problems in food planning: (1) harmful patterns of how food issues and social groups are represented and portrayed; (2) engagement and consultation processes that maintain unequal power dynamics; and 3) Food interventions that fail to address underlying root causes of social, economic, and environmental inequality. The tool works to support food sovereignty, that is self-determination and control over sustainable food systems that integrate justice and equality for all. The just food system evaluation framework supports food actors to assess and review progress towards food justice in their work. The framework uses Western liberal justice theories, decolonial theories, and food system case studies and scholarship to create three components (distributive, procedural, recognitional) of just food systems. Actors and organizations can benefit from the tool in: (1) assessing food interventions; (2) identifying program gaps; and (3) conducting community-wide shared indicators. |
Access the Food Systems Planning and Evaluation Tools
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We are grateful to Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for providing funding provided to support this project through their New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) - 2021 Innovative Approaches to Research in the Pandemic Context initiative.