Future of Food Global Dialogue and Webinar Series

Future of Food Dialogue and Webinar Series

Webinar Series: Building Resilient Food Systems During COVID-19 and Beyond

Our webinar series features many of the foremost food systems experts from UBC and across BC. The series focuses on investigating the food system from all angles, creating a space to ask fundamental questions on how we can increase resiliency in the food system both during and after COVID-19.

Upcoming and recent events:

Tuesday, May 11, 2021 (4pm - 5pm PST)

Adaptation and Mitigation: Dual Objectives for Addressing Climate Change in Diversified Agroecosystems

Intentionally increasing the biological complexity of agroecosystems can enhance ecosystem function. In the context of climate change, this can mean adaptation to changing precipitation and temperature regimes and/or mitigation by sequestering and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. In this seminar, Dr. Borden will discuss how this happens ecologically in diversified agroecosystems and the nuances of assessing these processes for making management decisions. She will draw on examples from research on agroforests in Canada and Ghana. She will also look at new research from organic farming at UBC Farm.

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Wednesday, April 21, 2021 (12:30pm - 2:00 pm PST)

Take Nature as the Measure: The Search for Sustainability

Join us for a conversation between Wes Jackson, one of the founders of the sustainable agriculture movement, author Robert Jensen, as well as UBC professors Ramana and Hannah Wittman. In more than four decades as president of The Land Institute, Wes Jackson became widely known as one of the founders of the sustainable agriculture movement for his work on perennial grains and Natural Systems Agriculture. Learn about Jackson’s ideas to advance sustainable agriculture and the other dramatic changes necessary if we are to effectively address climate change and other ecological crises and create a sustainable and just society for all to thrive.

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Friday, April 9, 2021 9:00am - 9:40am PST

Generating a more holistic understanding of the risks of pandemics, with Dr. Ivette Perfecto

On Friday, April 9th at 9:00 am PST, join Dr. Ivette Perfecto as she discusses the importance of integrating ecological, social, and political factors for generating a more holistic understanding of the risks of pandemics . This will be framed in the context of the Pandemic Research for the People, a working group of the Agroecology and Rural Economics Research Corps. This working group consists of academics, farmers, activists, who collectively take action to develop a critical analysis as well as agroecological alternatives to achieve healthy landscapes for the environment and for the people.

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Thursday, February 11, 2021 (12:00pm - 1:00pm PST)

Finding Flowers: Examining Intersections of Art, Ecology and Pedagogy

Inspired by the late Mi'kmaq artist Mike MacDonald, the Finding Flowers project aims to build connections and knowledge about people, land and wildlife by bridging art and science. The loss of pollinators and native landscapes threatens the sustainability of natural ecosystems and the people connected to these natural processes. By focusing on wild pollinators and native plants, Profs Lisa Myers and Sheila Colla will discuss the project's commitment to understanding nature from diverse perspectives. Various activities of the project include the replanting of Mike MacDonald's Butterfly Gardens across Canada, pollination studies of culturally important medicinal plants, knowledge-sharing events and community science programming, coordinated by Research Associate, Dana Prieto.

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Monday, December 7, 2020 (3pm - 4pm PST)

Nature’s Weapon Against Bacterial Pathogens: Bacteriophages and Their Applications in Agri-Food

Due to rising concerns associated with antibiotic-resistant pathogens, there are rekindled interests in using bacteriophages due to benefits such as their unique self-replication ability, lack of negative sensory effects and nontoxicity to humans. In this presentation, we will discuss about the past, present and future of bacteriophages. The focus will be on our current research work on using bacteriophages to tackle various food safety and security issues in British Columbia in collaboration with stakeholders from the Agri-Food community.

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Friday, November 27 (9am - 10:30am PST)

Reclaiming Food Sovereignty in Africa post-Covid-19

In this panel, speakers will discuss the status of food sovereignty in Africa prior to and emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, as local communities seek to reclaim and rebuild their food systems following border closures and critical levels of food insecurity. Speakers will discuss topics related to valuing and strengthening Indigenous food systems, improving food and nutritional security, and seed sovereignty. Sponsored by CSFS and the Liu Institute Network for Africa.

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View our past webinars

Building Resilient Food Systems During COVID-19 and Beyond

This webinar series features many of the foremost food systems experts from UBC and across BC, brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS), the BC Food Web, the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS), and the Royal Bank of Canada.

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Explore and watch our webinars from 2020:

Photo of Will Valley and Navin Ramankutty.

What’s a food system anyway? Unpacking the Global and Local Food System

May 28, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Recording Here.

Photo of the webinar speakers.

Decolonizing the Land and Food System: Indigenous Resilience in Times of Crisis

June 11, 2020, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Recording Here.

Photo of the webinar speakers.

A Food System in Crisis: Climate Change, COVID-19, and Opportunities for Change

June 25, 2020, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Recording Here.

Photo of the webinar speakers.

The Role of Innovation in Building a Food-Secure Future

July 9, 2020, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Recording Here.

Photo of the webinar speakers.

Essential Labour, Essential Lives: Migrant Agricultural Workers and COVID-19

July 23, 2020, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Recording Here.

Photo of the webinar speakers.

Eating Close to Home: Fostering the Local Food System During COVID-19

August 6, 2020, 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Recording Here.

Photo of the webinar speakers.

Farmers: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic

August 20, 2020, 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Recording Here.

Photo of the webinar speakers.

The Right To Eat: Tackling Racism & Inequality in the Food System

September 3, 2020, 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Recording Here.

Photo of the webinar speakers.

Dismantling and Rebuilding the Food System after COVID-19: The 5Ds of Redistribution

September 18, 2020, 10:00 p.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Recording Here.

Photo of the webinar speakers.

Reclaiming Food Sovereignty in Africa post-COVID-19

November 27, 2020, 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Recording Here.

The Building Resilient Food Systems During COVID-19 and Beyond series is brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS), the BC Food Web, the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS), and the Royal Bank of Canada. This webinar series focuses on answering fundamental questions about the resiliency of our food system during and beyond COVID-19.



Sponsor logos for the BC Food Web, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, RBC Royal Bank, and the UBC Farm.

About the Future of Food Global Dialogue Series

The UBC Future of Food Global Dialogue Series is a campus-wide initiative bringing together food security and sustainability experts from across the university and the globe to regularly engage the UBC community and the public around the Global Food System.

The series uses various formats to foster discussion, such as dialogue circles, seminars, panel discussions, performances, photo exhibitions, and film screenings – with a current focus on webinars. Topics include climate change, food security, biodiversity, social justice, culture, and policy.

We invite you to consider collaborating with us or to suggest ideas for topics and speakers. If your team is planning to host speakers next year who may be a fit for our series, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Melanie Kuxdorf, Communications Coordinator with the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm. For past events, check out the Future of Food Dialogue Series catalogue.