This paper is a critical review exploring the utility of combining two frameworks for characterizing complex systems perspectives within an ecological framework. This review offers guidance for developing appropriate instruments for policy makers to overcome lock-ins that perpetuate industrial food systems.

This presentation offers an outline for new metrics to characterize the food-water-energy nexus that is not currently captured where success is measured primarily through yield per acre.

Dr. Vandana Shiva draws attention to the artificial conflict between “economic growth” and “environmental sustainability” that dominates commodity-based economies. Wealth generated by destroying the carrying capacity of the planet is in fact impoverishment:

“We  are living in a global economy of genocide, and it is rooted in these decisions because of the destruction of democracy… One of the costs that this genocidal economics has had is that it has robbed us of our very humanity. It has killed our humanity both by making us so scared all the time of the...

Overview:

Ongoing colonialism and lack of self-determination for Indigenous peoples in the land known as Canada pose serious obstacles to confronting ecosystem disruption and extractivism, and to moving towards more sustainable paths for future generations, and improved relationships with all beings. With attention to Indigenist perspectives, and in the context of land use -- timber extraction in particular --  I critically analyze a) the literature at the nexus of Indigenous worldviews and western science-based settler epistemologies; and b) the literature on food...