Anyone who has worked on food or studied food in the past decade has found themselves faced with the term food systems. But what are they? And why should we think about food this way? Why do we need to ‘transform’ food systems, and what does this mean?

2023 was a special year. The highlight, by far, was getting engaged to my incredible partner. It happened at our favourite winter cabin in the middle of nowhere. It was joyful and perfect. Planning our wedding has been equally wonderful, thanks to a good friend’s recommendation to read Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering.

Despite six months of winter, there are wonderful places to access local food in Manitoba. I still make the occasional trip to support Canada’s corporate grocery barons, but these options help my household eat well and support the local food system. 

2022 was a great year. My main focus was to gather with friends and family at home, something we hadn’t been able to do in a few years. We travelled to a few places in Canada and I learned how to do diagonal stride at my ski club. Here were a few of my favourite things:

This post includes my successful application to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and some tips on applying.

Originally posted by Beth Timmers on the Food System Roundtable of Waterloo Region’s blog on October 4, 2018.

Visit the Indigenous Student Centre at St. Paul’s University College at noon any given Thursday and you’ll be welcomed with a bowl of homemade soup and fry bread. You may sit next to a colleague you haven’t seen in months, your favourite Indigenous author, or your local political official. But be on time; arrive late, and you may not get a seat.

Originally posted on the University of Manitoba’s Food System Student Symposium blog on May 8, 2018.

In the spring of 2017, NPR covered Puerto Rico’s burgeoning local food movement. The amount of land cultivated to grow food had risen by 50% in four years after a 60-year decline. People were starting to grow a wide range of food on small farms. Restauranteurs were buying it, creating a sophisticated, creative farm-to-table food scene. Puerto Rico, like many other Caribbean countries, imports between 80-85% of its food, but this movement gave hope for a more sustainable food system. Then, on September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria touched down in Puerto Rico, destroying around 80% of the country’s crop value.

Originally posted on the University of Waterloo’s GRADVenture blog on March 7, 2018.

A great way to get leadership experience as a grad student is to join a board of directors. In this post, I’ll share my experience as a director with the University of Waterloo’s Graduate Student Association (GSA).

Originally posted on the University of Waterloo’s GRADVenture blog on April 27, 2017.

When I started my PhD, I’ll admit I was afraid of becoming an armchair academic – pulled out of the field for four years, rapidly losing the skills I learned working as an applied researcher. Then, I won a fieldwork grant. It was an unexpected opportunity to build program management skills during my studies.

Originally posted on the Food System Roundtable of Waterloo Region’s blog in May, 2016.

In 2013, the New York Times described Jamaica’s annual USD 1 BN food import bill as ‘budget-busting’ and a looming threat to food security[1].  Any Canadian snowbird travelling to Jamaica can see evidence of imported food on the buffet table at their all-inclusive resort. But Jamaica’s food system is much more complex, rooted in a long history of colonialism, slavery and global trade.