It is a simple truth that the COVID-19 pandemic has been hugely disruptive to food systems. It is essential to recognize, however, that certain social groups are disproportionately experiencing heightened levels of food insecurity, and societal and livelihood challenges.1 Other groups have faced relatively minor inconveniences, primarily from disrupted food supply chains. In Toronto, Canada, with a population of approximately 3 million, disparities in food system changes are playing out along overlapping racial and class-based lines, despite the fact that the city is often celebrated for being multicultural and diverse. Due to its size and international connections, Toronto has been one of the most negatively affected areas of Canada, in terms of numbers of COVID-19 infections as well as socioeconomic consequences. It is important to analyze, however, why and how the pandemic serves to exacerbate and make visible long-standing problems and inequalities in the food system to a far...
Feeding the City, Pandemic and Beyond: A Research Brief
Bryan Dale is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto Scarborough’s Culinaria Research Centre. His research focuses on the potential expansion of food sovereignty and agroecology as a means to fight climate change. His PhD was in Human Geography, from the University of Toronto.
Jayeeta (Jo) Sharma is Associate Professor of History and Food Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research examines food, mobilities, labor, family and gender, and sustainable social ecologies across imperial and postcolonial spaces. She is Project Lead for “Feeding the City: Pandemic & Beyond.”
Bryan Dale, Jayeeta Sharma; Feeding the City, Pandemic and Beyond: A Research Brief. Gastronomica 1 February 2021; 21 (1): 86–91. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2021.21.1.86
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