Civil society organizations are among the most vociferous critics of the modern food system. Yet even after decades of campaigns, governments have failed to address health and sustainability issues in a systematic way. New approaches are in order, and this volume showcases the research of experts from various disciplines who argue that solutions lie not just in lobbying elected officials but rather in initiatives at the subparliamentary level. Case studies on a range of topics, from breastfeeding and sustainable pest management promotion to programs such as Canada’s Action Plan on Food Security, tell a story of misguided campaigns and missed opportunities. Real change, this inspiring volume suggests, is possible. It will come when advocacy groups develop innovative strategies of influencing decision makers more resistant to public pressure: business lobbies well connected to government agencies, middle managers, and ministries unused to collaborating across departmental mandates.

Policy-related challenges to building community-based agriculture and food systems that are ecologically sustainable and socially just are also highlighted.

In recent decades, Canada's agricultural industry, one of the world's largest, has had to adjust to global trade developments such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization. Internationalization and Canadian Agriculture examines the patterns of continuity and change in Canadian agricultural policy making in important areas like farm income support programs, prairie grain marketing, supply management, animal and food product safety, and the regulation of genetically modified crops and foods. Arguing that the effects of internationalization have been mediated by Canada's political institutional framework, Grace Skogstad demonstrates how the goals and strategies of authoritative political actors in Canada's federal and parliamentary systems have been decisive to policy developments. Skogstad details the interaction between agriculture and the political economy of Canada, shows how international and domestic trade shape Canadian agricultural policies, and argues that while agricultural programs have changed, the post-war state assistance agricultural paradigm has persisted. A thorough political analysis and history of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century Canadian agricultural policy and policy-making, Internationalization of Canadian Agriculture is an important contribution to political economy and public policy.

The Canadian Farming Community is facing numerous ongoing challenges, including rapidly changing technologies, the gradual erosion of the rural lifestyle, growing consumer concerns about the healthiness of food, and growing environmental concerns (including climate change). This book begins with an historic overview of agriculture in Canada, followed by a statistical profile of the contemporary Canadian farm/ranch, supporting agri-industrial complex, and the innumerable farm organizations in Canada. The vital role of international trade and government support in the evolution of Canadian agriculture is also highlighted. Resource management issues and related “hot button” issues (e.g. climate change, GMO’s) are also addressed in considerable detail. In addition, Dr. Anderson identifies the likely trends in Canadian agriculture in the immediate years ahead. Emphasizing the diversity, complexity, strength and vitality of the agricultural sector, Canadian Agriculture in the 21st Century ultimately highlights how it effectively molds and remains integral to the socioeconomic fabric of both rural and urban Canada. An underlying theme is the importance of having Canadian agriculture become increasingly ecofriendly in the challenging years ahead, particularly the need to gradually adopt more sustainable, regenerative (organic) technologies and the need to more pro-actively serve as a vital CO2 sink in climate change mitigation. Dr. Anderson also suggests that the public should financially compensate farmers/ ranchers for protecting environmental amenities that accrue to everyone. A complimentary theme is the need for Canadian agriculture to become increasingly sensitive to consumer concerns, particularly with respect to rigorous health standards, animal welfare, and sustainable resource management.

Power and Resistance debunks the dominant neoliberal, hyper-individualist approach to society’s problems that sees poverty as a result of laziness, environmental crises as a result of market demands for products that pollute, and Indigenous Peoples’ struggles as a result of not assimilating. We argue that it is social inequality and oppression that are the underlying causes of social problems. In a society like ours, powerful groups make choices that benefit them and force those choices onto others, creating life problems for others and society as a whole. The powerful also have influence over what is and is not called a “social problem.” Solving social problems requires changing the structures of inequality and oppression. For example, industrial corporate agriculture has created huge profits for a few gigantic food corporations but left much of the world hungry. But farmers and their allies are pushing back through agroecology — an agriculture based on local, small-scale, ecologically sustainable farming that brings eaters and growers closer to one another. The seventh edition of Power and Resistance includes new chapters on anti-Black racism in schools, Indigenous people and mental health, food security and sovereignty, and work in the gig economy.

Over the course of a century, the Canadian Prairies went from being the breadbasket of the world to but one of many grain-growing regions in a vast global agri-food system. Magnan traces the causes and consequences of this evolution, from the first transatlantic shipments of wheat to the controversial dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board. When Wheat Was King reveals how farmers, governments, and consumers, over successive periods, responded to industrialization, international trade rules set by the US, the liberalization of global markets, and the consolidation of corporate power. The result is a fascinating look at how regional, national, and international politics have influenced agriculture and food industries in Canada, the UK, and around the world.