The Co-Designing Future Food Systems: A Digital Tool for Sustainability Planning research project explores future scenarios for agri-food system development in Abbotsford, British Columbia and Guelph, Ontario. The project aims to develop a digital tool for integrated food system planning, which can be used to gain insights into ways of enhancing co-benefits related to climate action, biodiversity, community health, and equity objectives. Working closely with community partners and using a climate-biodiversity-health-justice nexus framework, the research maps, imagines, and models options for developing local food systems and urban agriculture. Using participatory methods and scenario modeling, this research explores the use of both conventional urban agriculture strategies (such as urban farms) and cutting-edge food production technologies (such as vertical and cellular agriculture), modelling their climate, biodiversity, health, and equity-related outcomes.
The project builds on previous research on urban agriculture, including a study on the opportunities and challenges surrounding urban agriculture in communities on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, namely Langford and Tofino. Click the button below to download a report on the study.
Download Urban Agriculture on Vancouver Island Research Report
Using a climate-biodiversity-health-justice nexus lens, a literature review study was conducted to identify how agri-food systems planning and policy engage with local objectives and co-benefits related to climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity conservation, community health, and social justice. The outcomes of this research include an indicator framework that can be applied to local food system planning and policy. Click the button below to access the study and learn more about the indicator framework.
We are grateful to Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for providing funding provided to support this project through their Postdoctoral Fellowships program.