Just Food Systems

A just food system centres universal access to healthy, sustainable, and culturally appropriate food as a basic human right. Just food systems engage with all actors along the supply chain and prioritize the rights of all people, future generations, non-humans, and the environment. They ensure that people can determine what kind of food they eat, where that food is grown, and how it is processed and distributed. They include democratic processes that see the right to food as the guiding tenet.

The UNESCO Chair on Food, Biodiversity and Sustainability Studies works with researchers and community partners in the Global North and South to examine multi-scale structural solutions to address food system inequity. Building on existing cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary networks, the Chair creates opportunities for collaborations that overcome existing barriers to just and sustainable food systems.

Through strategic public education and communications, the Chair helps bring language around food sovereignty, the right to food, and agroecological production methods into everyday discourse. By sharing knowledge through farmer-to-farmer and community-to-community learning, public education, and formal learning opportunities, the Chair supports communities as they build the capacity to transition to more just, ecologically regenerative, economically localized, and robust food systems.