Charles Z. Levkoe

Engaging the tensions of ecological internships: Considerations for agroecology and sustainable food systems movements

ABSTRACT This paper examines ecological farm internships and the implications for agroecology and food systems’ sustainability. Drawing on over 60 interviews with farmers and interns in Ontario, Canada, I show that internships offer hands-on learning opportunities to prospective farmers and food systems advocates unavailable through formal institutions. At the same time, many farmers rely on interns as non-waged workers to meet seasonal and labor-intensive production needs. This creates a dynamic tension where internships can simultaneously be innovative models of experiential education and unjust forms of exploitative labor. Engaging these tensions remains a fundamental challenge for the future of agroecology and sustainable food systems movements.

Towards a critical service learning in geography education: exploring challenges and possibilities through testimonio

Abstract There has been an increasing interest in exploring the transformational possibilities of experiential learning approaches like service learning, across post-secondary education, including geography. At the same time, scholars caution that such initiatives can entrench neoliberalism, white supremacy and other power structures and call for implementing a critical service learning (CSL) approach that is rooted in action against injustice. In response, this paper uses testimonio methodology to explore the experiences of a student and instructor engaging in a graduate geography course that implements CSL. We demonstrate how CSL is a complex process that is mired in the very power structures and institutional barriers it attempts to disrupt. Nonetheless, CSL creates opportunities for social change in the classroom and community, which make it a promising pedagogical strategy for geographers aiming to create alternative teaching approaches in their classrooms.

Learning, Food, and Sustainability in Community-Campus Engagement: Teaching and Research Partnerships That Strengthen the Food Sovereignty Movement

In this chapter, we consider how movements for food sovereignty and community-campus engagement (CCE) can work together, both in theory and practice. We argue that CCE can, and in many cases already does, strengthen the food sovereignty movement, especially when CCE challenges traditional assumptions about the role of academics. This is particularly important given that academic institutions have a history of exploitative research relationships and often reinforce hierarchical assumptions about whose knowledge “counts” and how knowledge is produced.

Broadening the Knowledge Base of Small-Scale Fisheries through a Food Systems Framework: A Case Study of the Lake Superior Region

Lake Superior is the largest and northernmost of the Great Lakes of North America. It supports a diversity of wildlife and fish species, along with commercial, recreational, and Indigenous fisheries that make vital contributions to nutrition, livelihoods, cultures, and food systems. However, this diversity of social and cultural values is not fully reflected in management practices that tend towards a ‘resourcist’ approach. This chapter seeks to ‘broaden the scope’, proposing a food systems framework as a way of grappling with the wicked problem of Lake Superior fisheries governance. Using a food systems framework, we look at the different values associated with fisheries, including the objective, subjective, and relational contributions they make to Lake Superior food systems. We explore these food-related values attached to fisheries by presenting three illustrative examples: The fisheries of Batchewana First Nation; Eat the Fish, a small business marketing local fish through alternative food networks in Northwestern Ontario; and Bodin’s Fisheries in Wisconsin, a regional fish processor and retail outlet. We conclude by identifying ways of strengthening fisheries contributions to regional food systems and offer a set of transdisciplinary questions on fishery-food system linkages that may assist others in ‘broadening the scope’ of fisheries governance.

People, power, change: three pillars of a food sovereignty research praxis

ABSTRACT This article is situated within nascent debates on the role of academics within food sovereignty movements. Drawing on insights from a collective autoethnography, we report on our experiences conducting three food sovereignty research projects in different contexts and at different scales. We suggest that that the principles and practices of food sovereignty translate into a food sovereignty research praxis. This consists of three pillars focusing on people (humanizing research relationships), power (equalizing power relations) and change (pursuing transformative orientations). This article discusses these pillars and analyzes the extent to which we were able to embody them within our projects.

Seeding agroecology through new farmer training in Canada: knowledge, practice, and relational identities

ABSTRACT As a concept, agroecology emphasises the interweaving of scientific and traditional ecological knowledge and is evolving in conjunction with farmer-led social movements from around the world addressing the health, equity and ecological sustainability of food systems. In Canada, many new agroecological farmers come from non-farming backgrounds and are finding limited training opportunities and support structures. While there is a growing literature on the evolution of agroecology, there is limited research on the existence and impact of training programmes on the subject-formation of new farmers. In this paper, we consider the subject-formation of new agroecological farmers through a case study of the Everdale Community Learning Centre, one of Canada’s only agroecological farm schools. In particular, we explore how the knowledge, practice, and relational identities of participating graduates are informed by and build on the science, practice, and movement of agroecology. Drawing on a survey and interviews with past participants, we found that Everdale’s education programme contributes to an agroecological subject-formation by promoting the co-creation of place-based agricultural knowledge; teaching the complexities of agroecology practice through both experiential and theoretical training; and, building a supportive community of peers. We conclude with reflections on ways to encourage a greater diversity of new farmer entrants and opportunities to support training programme graduates in establishing successful farms. These findings provide insight into developing new agroecological farmers and supporting the growing agroecological movement in Canada.

Community Service-Learning in Graduate Planning Education:

Community service-learning (CSL) has gained popularity over the past decades in universities across North America. Although planning programs tend to involve more graduate-level community-engaged learning than other professional disciplines, learning outcomes have not been sufficiently examined. Based on a review of existing literature and analysis from four years of a CSL course at the University of Toronto’s Department of Geography and Planning, this article describes the implications of CSL for graduate planning education. We argue that CSL in graduate planning programs has a series of unique characteristics and thus requires distinctive pedagogical approaches.

Communities of Food Practice: Regional Networks as Strategic Tools for Food Systems Transformation

A diversity of alternative food initiatives (AFIs) have emerged amidst concerns about the corporate-led industrial food system. While there have been significant successes, critics suggest that many AFIs are an inadequate response to the complex problems within the food system. Specifically, studies point to the way that many AFIs have adopted localized self-provisioning models that promote neoliberal ideals and facilitate retrenchment of the state, ignore the interconnected nature of problems within the food system, and idealize the local scale as having inherently positive characteristics. While critical research has identified important challenges, it also tends to consider place-based AFIs as operating independently or in isolated sectors of the food system. Despite circumstantial evidence, there has been little documentation or analysis situating AFIs within broader communities of food practice . In this chapter, I describe the ways AFIs in Canada have been involved in provincial food networks engaging in actual-existing collaborations that are making a broader impact within the food system. I draw on the theoretical framework of a transformative food politics to analyze the networks’ activities. While recognizing the important challenges, I point to specific examples that highlight where transformative work is already happening and identify the opportunities and areas for improvement within these collaborations. I argue that robust collaborative networks can act as communities of food practice, providing strategic opportunity for AFIs to mobilize and develop transformative orientations, but that these efforts have some significant limitations that must be addressed.