Disruptive forces influencing the sustainability of Canada’s agri-food sector

Volume 3, Issue 6

November 2021

This report examines recent developments in Canada’s agri-food sector, focusing on emerging trends with the potential to disrupt existing practices and their implications for sustainability.

Over the past century, Canada has built a modern, industrialised, and internationally competitive agri-food sector that contributes substantially to the country’s employment, exports, and GDP. Yet existing agri-food systems face multiple challenges with respect to long-term economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Getting to net-zero GHG emissions in Canada by 2050 will require a major transformation of the existing fossil-fuel-dependent agri-food sector.

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About the Authors

James Meadowcroft, PhD

Transition Pathway Principal

James Meadowcroft, PhD, is professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University where he has held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Governance for Sustainable Development. He has written widely on environmental politics and policy, democratic participation and deliberative democracy, national sustainable development strategies and socio-technical transitions. Recent work focuses on energy and the transition to a low-carbon society and includes publications on carbon capture and storage (CCS), smart grids, the development of Ontario’s electricity system, the politics of socio-technical transitions and negative carbon emissions.

Cite as: Meadowcroft, J. (2021). Disruptive Forces Influencing the Sustainability of Canada’s Agri-food Sector. Transition Accelerator Reports Vol. 3, Issue 6, Pg. 1-31. ISSN 2562-6264.