As an important element of healthy communities, improving and maintaining access to food systems is increasingly becoming a responsibility of planners and municipal staff. This presentation addresses municipal involvement in food systems planning, with a focus on distribution and access rather than cultivation and production (which is often explored in urban agriculture research). This presentation will describe results from a thematic analysis conducted with municipal planning documents, in order to identify and connect themes with respect to a municipality’s capability and implementation strategies and tools to achieve its goals and objectives towards increasing food distribution and access. This presentation will explore one method of the case study research, and is part of a larger master’s report currently in progress entitled “Fresh Ideas: Pop-ups & Planning for Calgary’s Farm Stands”. The purpose of the report is to identify the challenges and successes of implementing a municipal food systems initiative with a focus on equity, health, and sustainability considerations.
SPEAKER: Stephanie Cantlay, Queen’s University