Project Leads: Talan Iscan and Kathleen Kevany
Project: Aligning Canada's agriculture production incentives to encourage transition to healthier and more sustainable diets
Building healthier, climate-resilient food systems
Current estimates indicate that a transition to more sustainable agricultural practices will be necessary to both combat the harmful effects of climate change and disruptive levels of diet-related illnesses, and to support global food security. However, despite the environmental and health benefits, we are not seeing financial incentives and subsidies that support more production of plant-based foods.
The project will analyze how agricultural subsidies align with the nutrition recommendations outlined in Canada’s Food Guide. Currently, the guide recommends eating a primarily plant-based diet to “promote overall nutritional well-being". But preliminary research suggests that agricultural support programs fall short of the production of plant-based foods at the scale needed to provide Canadians with healthy and affordable food choices.
Click here to read the briefing note outlining the main findings from a June 2024 expert policy roundtable.
Photo Source: Canada's Dietary Guidelines
Designing informed agricultural policy
The outcomes of this research will help to develop policy recommendations intended to reduce the sector’s climate impact and to encourage healthy diets, while ensuring an economically sustainable transition for agriculture producers.
Project Leads
Dr. Kathleen Kevany
Professor
Department of Business & Social Sciences
Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University
