Thursday, Jan 12, 2023
1:30pm - 3:30pm
Lecture by:
Dr. Steffanie Scott
“To paraphrase John Muir (2003), if we try to pick out anything about food, we find it hitched to everything else in the world. It represents many things in the human experience; it is both material and abstract, biological and cultural, ephemeral and ongoing, scholarly and domestic, theoretical and quotidian. It also possesses enormous possibility for reform, as seen in recent efforts to re-embed food systems in ecosystems and cultural practice.” (Caitlin Morgan)
So what is a food system and why should we care about it? In this presentation, I will explore this question in relation to personal connections to land and place, and also the community scale, sharing some propositions for a regional food strategy (or action plan) for Waterloo Region, and stories I have learned about community building through food over the past 15 years of my connections to the Food System Roundtable of Waterloo Region. I will share some actionable ideas for regenerating food systems to address the climate emergency and disconnection from the land.
Steffanie grew up on Coast Salish territory (on Vancouver Island), in a family of British settler background. One way she has cultivated a sense of belonging to this land on the Haldimand Tract, on the territory of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples, is through gardening, and foraging wild food and plant medicines, and through building relationships with the traditional peoples of these lands. Steffanie has also been a member of Fertile Ground CSA (community supported agriculture) farm for the past 15 years, as a way to get to know her food and farmer.
Steffanie Scott is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo. She is past president of the Canadian Association for Food Studies (2012-14) and co-chair (2007-11 and 2022-present) of the Food System Roundtable of Waterloo Region. Over her career, Steffanie has led research on China’s changing food system and developments in China’s ecological agriculture sector. She has also supervised graduate students doing research on a wide range of food system issues in Canada. Steffanie teaches courses on food systems and sustainability and “re-storying the land”. She is preparing a new “Learning from the Land” course to further expand nature connection and place-based learning opportunities at the University of Waterloo.
Third Age Learning Kitchener Waterloo