Category: News

On September 4, the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition will be launching a new report titled Building Resilient Food Systems. Dr. Tammara Soma volunteered as a member of this panel to prepare the report to assess the state of food security and nutrition globally. The launch event will take place virtually over Zoom. For more information, go to the FAO web page.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Tammara Soma has received a SSHRC Insight Grant for a new project in collaboration with Aga Khan University titled Countering Collective Forgetting: The Role of Land-based Learning in Canada and Tanzania for Intergenerational Food Literacy and Resiliency.

Land-based learning is a way of passing on knowledge and skills around food and culture that is used by many communities by immersing learners in the environment where they can acquire and practice using the knowledge and skills. The overall goal of this study is to explore both formal and informal, paid and unpaid, as well as youth and adult-based land-based learning efforts to improve food systems knowledge.

Over the next five years, we will work with two communities in Canada and two communities in Tanzania to explore the following research questions:

1. How do food-related land-based learning initiatives in Canada and Tanzania contribute to intergenerational food literacy and resiliency be it social or ecological?
   • a) What types of food-related activities are covered and how are they covered?
   • b) What does land-based learning mean/what motivates people who teach and those who take part in the learning? How do meanings/motivations differ in Canada and Tanzania?
   • c) What are the materials and tools used for land-based learning and how do they differ?
   • d) What skills, competencies and knowledges are taught via land-based learning and how do they contribute to food literacy and resiliency? What knowledges/ skills are needed to teach?
2. How do land-based learning integrate cultural and climate education?
   • a) What are examples of cultural and climate-related education and activities covered and why?
   • b) How are climate-related education and activities covered and why?
   • c) Who are represented in cultural education in land-based learning and how is culture valued?
   • d) How is climate change portrayed and what types of solutions are integrated?
   • e) What forms of culturally appropriate compensation (monetary or otherwise) sustain land-based learning educators and efforts and how are they structured?
3. What barriers and opportunities exist to scale up, scale out, and scale deep land-based learning initiatives?
   • a) How do policies (agriculture, food, trade, land use etc) impact land-based learning opportunities?
   • b) How can land-based learning opportunities be sustained and expanded?
   • c) What types of skills and knowledges can academic institutions integrate that would contribute to land-based learning?

At long last, our paper that reviews the state of food asset mapping in Canada is published in Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation. Thanks to the hard work of a team of undergraduate students, we did a cross-Canada review of 73 food asset maps. As expected, we found that these maps featured a lot of food assets in the built environment, like grocery stores and food banks. There were very few maps that represented Indigenous-focused food assets, natural, and cultural assets. We hope that through showing the gaps in food asset mapping in Canada, we can add more evidence to support the need for changing how food asset maps are created. We call for more collaborative methods that centre the people who food asset maps would benefit most.

Our photovoice project in partnership with the Kitselas First Nation is now published in the Journal of the American Planning Association. This article features six Indigenous participants from Kitselas First Nation who shared photos and stories of their everyday lived experiences with foods and the importance of traditional foods. Through the findings from this study, we demonstrate the importance of respecting and supporting Indigenous food sovereignty in planning and the need for community food assessments to include cultural food assets. We are grateful for the collaboration and support from the Kitselas First Nation throughout the entire project.

Dr. Tammara Soma’s documentary Food is my Teacher premiered on August 25 on CBC Gem. She travels with filmmaker Brandy Yanchyk across B.C. and Alberta to explore the healing power of food and its role in shaping our culture and identity. The documentary features the backyard garden of Tamara Shulman, Food Systems Lab Director of Community Partnerships. We also made a splash in the media, including:

• CBC’s The Early Edition (radio)
• CBC News
• Edmonton Journal

Dr. Tammara Soma is the expert guest in an episode of the CBC series Planet Wonder. She chats with show host Johanna Wagstaffe about food system sustainability and explores the question “How vegan do we have to be to save the planet?”. Find out her answers to this question in this video.

Our research on how planners can help scale up local procurement for school food programs is published in the latest issue of Plan Canada.

Food Systems Lab had four presentations at the Canadian Association of Food Studies conference this year. Tammara and Belinda shared findings from the Our Home, Our Food, Our Resilience project. Elina, Dina, and Hafsa presented at a panel session on the Digging into the Farm to School Movement project.

Earlier this month, Elina, Dina, and Hafsa also presented at the Farm to School BC Conference and successfully defended their theses.

Tammara Soma is the featured guest on this week’s Eat Well Travel Better Podcast. In this episode, Tammara shares and reflects on her personal and career journey as a global citizen with lived experience from Indonesia, to the United States and Canada.