Charles Z Levkoe
Biographic Data
| ID | 168808 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Charles Z Levkoe |
| GIVEN NAMES | Charles Z |
| FAMILY NAME | Levkoe |
| SIGNATURE | LEVKOE C Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lakehead University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4950-2186 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 216 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Motivations driving settler food movement organizations in Canada to engage with Indigenous peoples
Food systems, in terms of the processes, structures, and relationships that bring food to our plates, are deeply embedded in historical and ongoing processes of colonialism. In settler colonial countries, this reality is contributing to growing attention to and engagement with Indigenous peoples and communities in food systems scholarship and practice. This paper asks: what motivates settler-led food movement organizations to engage in relationsh…
Understanding Our Food Systems: Building Indigenous food sovereignty in Northwestern Ontario
Exploring the inter-connections between Alternative Agrifood and Seafood Networks for building food systems resilience
In the context of intensifying threats to food systems and a growing need for resilience, Alternative Agrifood Networks (AANs) and Alternative Seafood Networks (ASNs) have emerged as notable bright spots across North America. Collectively, AANs and ASNs comprise Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) - the micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises which are important, but often overlooked, actors in food systems. However, a critical limitation for foo…
News from Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation
Over the course of 2025, the Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation (CFS/RCÉA) Management Team has been working on two important projects: a new podcast, Digesting Food Studies / Concentré d’études sur l’alimentation (DFS/CÉSA), that draws on journal articles and issues, and a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy aimed at addressing the effects of this transformational technology and offering guidance on its …
Strengthening democratic governance in times of crisis: Lessons from the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council
Democracy, including processes that govern food systems, are under threat of erosion. Contextualizing and articulating governance challenges is an essential first step. However, it is valuable to look to practices that provide more meaningful ways of engaging non-state actors in government processes. In this commentary, we look at the establishment and activities of the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council (the Council) which has been “learning-…
Community Food Systems Report Cards as Tools for Advancing Food Sovereignty in City-Regions
Developing pragmatic possibilities for advancing food sovereignty to address challenges of justice and sustainability within food systems is an essential project for human survival. A practical starting point is to identify existing challenges along with comprehensive strategies that avoid isolated fixes. Community food systems report cards are a tool to inform and influence city-region food system governance by providing a connected and comprehe…
Exploring the Experiences of Indigenous Patients Accessing Naturopathic Medicine in Thunder Bay, Ontario
Health inequities for Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island have been well documented, but the role of naturopathic doctors in contributing to Indigenous-led healthcare initiatives remains understudied. Very little research exists documenting the experiences of Indigenous individuals with naturopathic medicine. This qualitative research study contributes to addressing this gap by exploring the experiences of twelve Indigenous people who have ac…
Reflecting on a decade of Canadian food studies
In this editorial, the Management Team of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l’alimentation (CFS/RCÉA) looks back across the history of the journal and towards its future. They collectively reflect on the journal’s ethos, its range of publications, and what the future might hold in an effort to promote rigorous scholarship done differently
The contributions of community seed saving to health and wellbeing: A qualitative study in Thunder Bay, Canada
Community seed saving positively contributes to health and wellbeing • Community seed saving expanded health benefits beyond those in community gardening • Benefits included more physical movement and myriad positive emotions • Benefits included improved engagement with ecosystems, communities, and individuals • Community seed saving should be considered as a health promotion intervention This paper positions community seed saving (CSS) as collec…
Exploring settler-Indigenous engagement in food systems governance
Within food systems governance spaces, civil society organizations (CSOs) play important roles in addressing power structures and shaping decisions. In Canada, CSO food systems actors increasingly understand the importance of building relationships among settler and Indigenous peoples in their work. Efforts to make food systems more sustainable and just necessarily mean confronting the realities that most of what is known as Canada is unceded Ind…
Advancing food systems governance: Perspectives of Canadian civil society organizations
Advancing basic income as a policy tool for food systems sustainability
Advancing Radical Food Geographies Praxis through Participatory Film: Reflections from an Indigenous-Settler Food Sovereignty Collaboration
The academic field of geography is deeply embedded within capitalist and settler colonial logics and has played a major role in suppressing and concealing Indigenous histories along with rights claims, cultures, and practices. While geography’s origins are deeply problematic, over the past decades, many scholars and practitioners have offered counter theoretical and practical perspectives and approaches. Radical food geographies praxis is one suc…
Exploring the ecotone of critical food studies in Community Psychology
The acquisition and consumption of food plays a major role in human well-being. It shapes culturally significant symbols, social ties and practices, and relationships with natural environments. The dominant food system is global, and capitalist in nature, and has led to many challenges in respect to equity and sustainability. In this chapter, we introduce the interdisciplinary and emerging field of food studies and put it into conversation with C…
Introspecting food movements in Canada: Unpacking tensions towards justice and sustainability
Over the past decades there has been a notable growth in community-based food systems projects and successes. Despite these advancements, food insecurity, precarious food work, ecological degradation, and corporate conglomeration in the food sector all continue to increase, compounded by the ongoing impacts of white supremacy, patriarchy, settler colonialism. Recognizing these growing inequities, critical scholars have noted that too many food sy…
Mobilizing Networks and Relationships Through Indigenous Food Sovereignty: The Indigenous Food Circle’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Northwestern Ontario
This paper explores the Indigenous Food Circle’s (IFC) response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. Established in 2016, the IFC is an informal collaborative network of Indigenous-led and Indigenous-serving organizations that aims to support and develop the capacity of Indigenous Peoples to collaboratively address challenges and opportunities facing food systems and to ensure that food-related programming and policy meets th…
Wayne Roberts: Food systems thinker, public intellectual, “actionist”
Wayne Roberts (1944–2021) was a food systems thinker, public intellectual, and “actionist.” This text was developed from a series of oral history interviews conducted between December 2020 and January 2021. It touches upon several of the key themes Wayne addressed during the interviews: adopting a food systems approach; employing the power of ideas; identifying solutions and being propositional; acknowledging progress for political credit; enhanc…
Mapping Food Policy Groups: Understanding Cross-Sectoral Network Building through Social Network Analysis
Over the past decades, there has been a rapid expansion in the number of Food Policy Groups (FPG) (including food policy councils, strategies, networks, and informal alliances) operating at municipal and regional levels across North America. FPGs are typically established with the intent of bringing together food systems stakeholders across private (e.g., small businesses, industry associations), public (e.g., government, public health, postsecon…
Modularity in Intersectoral Research/Action Collaborations for Food Systems Transformation: Lessons from the FLEdGE Community-Engaged Network
How can academics and community practitioners better collaborate to overcome the existing barriers? What role can intersectoral research collaboratives play in supporting, enhancing, and sustaining the impact of community-engaged research? In response to these broad questions, this paper shares insights from the Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged (FLEdGE) community-engaged research network, a collaborative, interdisciplinary group of schola…
Looking back on food studies in 2020-2021 in so-called Canada
In this collectively drafted Commentary, we offer some reflections on the past year for CAFS (Canadian Association for Food Stuides), and the state of food studies in general. Note: this is a modified version of the 2021 CAFS Presidential Address, given at the joint CAFS/ASFS/AFHVS/SAFN Conference Just Food: Because it never it just Food on June 10th, 20201
Working for Justice in Food Systems on Stolen Land? Interrogating Food Movements Confronting Settler Colonialism
The evolving practice and scholarship surrounding food movements aim to address social, political, economic and ecological crises in food systems. However, limited interrogation of settler colonialism remains a crucial gap. Settler colonialism is the ongoing process of invasion that works to systematically erase and replace Indigenous Peoples with settler populations and identities. While many progressive and well-intentioned food movements engag…
Scholars as allies in the struggle for food systems transformation
“Its smoke must make it blind”: Fire and a commitment to regeneration
As Volume 7, Number 1 of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des tudes sur l'alimentation (CFS/RCA) goes to print, the world is on fire. The COVID-19 pandemic has made visible some of the most problematic elements of modern society. People and communities that have been made most vulnerable throughout history (e.g., racialized and Indigenous people, women, seniors, and those living in poverty) are being impacted much more severally by the…
Problematic of Plenty
Empowering small-scale, community-based fisheries through a food systems framework
Learning Democracy Through Food Justice Movements
Food sovereignty in Canada: Creating Just and Sustainable Food Systems
The food movement in Canada: A Social Movement Network Perspective
In the Global North, there has been increasing analysis of the ways that alternative food initiatives (AFIs) are developing viable, place-based solutions that challenge the corporate-led industrial food system; however, there has been little study of the interrelationships among them. In an effort to better understand the possibilities for food system transformation, this paper builds on existing studies to investigate the increasing collaboratio…
People, power, change: Three Pillars of a Food Sovereignty Research Praxis
This article is situated within nascent debates on the role of academics within food sovereignty movements. Drawing on insights from a collective autoethnography, we report on our experiences conducting three food sovereignty research projects in different contexts and at different scales. We suggest that that the principles and practices of food sovereignty translate into a food sovereignty research praxis. This consists of three pillars focusin…
Will work for food: Agricultural interns, apprentices, volunteers, and the agrarian question
Understanding contemporary networks of environmental and social change: Complex assemblages within Canada's 'food movement
Emerging forms of social mobilisation are explored, using food initiatives in Canada as an example. Food networks are particularly interesting as a case study: they have holistic goals that include both environmental and social concerns, the number and scope of food initiatives have rapidly increased, and there has recently been a high level of public engagement around food issues. Networks among alternative food initiatives (AFIs) are investigat…
The power to convene: Making sense of the power of food movement organizations in governance processes in the Global North
Strategies for forging and sustaining social movement networks: A case study of provincial food networking organizations in Canada
Toward a radical food geography praxis: Integrating theory, action, and geographic analysis in pursuit of more equitable and sustainable food systems
Radical geographies scholarship has evolved over the past decades in pursuit of transforming spatial, political-economic, social, and ecological engagements within oppressive structures. Similarly, food systems scholarship demonstrates increasing interest in the scalar, sociopolitical, and ecological dynamics of food systems, often with an applied or action-oriented focus. Building on these connected, yet divergent, traditions of scholarship and …
Towards a critical service learning in geography education: Exploring challenges and possibilities through testimonio
There has been an increasing interest in exploring the transformational possibilities of experiential learning approaches like service learning, across post-secondary education, including geography. At the same time, scholars caution that such initiatives can entrench neoliberalism, white supremacy and other power structures and call for implementing a critical service learning (CSL) approach that is rooted in action against injustice. In respons…
Race, privilege and the exclusivity of farm internships: Ecological agricultural education and the implications for food movements
Internships have become a prominent way of training new ecological farmers across North America. This paper interrogates the social identities of these interns asking: Who is being trained as the next generation of ecological farmers and what are the implications for food movements more broadly? Our research reveals a series of privileges associated with the ability to work for little or no remuneration and to access rural spaces where most inter…
Scholar-activist perspectives on radical food geography: Collaborating through food justice and food sovereignty praxis
Radical geography research, teaching, and action have increasingly focused on food systems, examining the scalar, sociopolitical, and ecological dynamics of food production and harvesting, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste. While academics have contributed significantly to these debates, the success and progress of this scholarship cannot be separated from the work of practitioners and activists involved in food justice and food so…
The future of agroecology in Canada: Embracing the politics of food sovereignty
Community Service-Learning in Graduate Planning Education
Community service-learning (CSL) has gained popularity over the past decades in universities across North America. Although planning programs tend to involve more graduate-level community-engaged learning than other professional disciplines, learning outcomes have not been sufficiently examined. Based on a review of existing literature and analysis from four years of a CSL course at the University of Toronto’s Department of Geography and Planning…
Exploring settler-Indigenous engagement in food systems governance
Within food systems governance spaces, civil society organizations (CSOs) play important roles in addressing power structures and shaping decisions. In Canada, CSO food systems actors increasingly understand the importance of building relationships among settler and Indigenous peoples in their work. Efforts to make food systems more sustainable and just necessarily mean confronting the realities that most of what is known as Canada is unceded Ind…
Scholars as allies in the struggle for food systems transformation
Learning Democracy Through Food Justice Movements
Towards a transformative food politics
Alternative food initiatives (AFIs) aim to challenge the corporate-led, industrial food system by attempting to develop viable localised solutions. However, critics have highlighted the way unreflexive and uncritical actions by AFIs have resulted in their cooptation and the reproduction of economic exploitation and political oppression. In this paper, I argue that changing the current food system demands a transformative orientation, which in tur…
Food sovereignty in Canada: Creating Just and Sustainable Food Systems
Lauren E. Baker: Corn meets maize—food movements and markets in Mexico
Strategies for forging and sustaining social movement networks: A case study of provincial food networking organizations in Canada
Understanding contemporary networks of environmental and social change: Complex assemblages within Canada's 'food movement
Emerging forms of social mobilisation are explored, using food initiatives in Canada as an example. Food networks are particularly interesting as a case study: they have holistic goals that include both environmental and social concerns, the number and scope of food initiatives have rapidly increased, and there has recently been a high level of public engagement around food issues. Networks among alternative food initiatives (AFIs) are investigat…
The food movement in Canada: A Social Movement Network Perspective
In the Global North, there has been increasing analysis of the ways that alternative food initiatives (AFIs) are developing viable, place-based solutions that challenge the corporate-led industrial food system; however, there has been little study of the interrelationships among them. In an effort to better understand the possibilities for food system transformation, this paper builds on existing studies to investigate the increasing collaboratio…
Will work for food: Agricultural interns, apprentices, volunteers, and the agrarian question
Towards a critical service learning in geography education: Exploring challenges and possibilities through testimonio
There has been an increasing interest in exploring the transformational possibilities of experiential learning approaches like service learning, across post-secondary education, including geography. At the same time, scholars caution that such initiatives can entrench neoliberalism, white supremacy and other power structures and call for implementing a critical service learning (CSL) approach that is rooted in action against injustice. In respons…
Community Service-Learning in Graduate Planning Education
Community service-learning (CSL) has gained popularity over the past decades in universities across North America. Although planning programs tend to involve more graduate-level community-engaged learning than other professional disciplines, learning outcomes have not been sufficiently examined. Based on a review of existing literature and analysis from four years of a CSL course at the University of Toronto’s Department of Geography and Planning…
Envisioning New Horizons for the Political Economy of Sustainable Food Systems
This article considers how political economy can expand to contribute to the contemporary study of sustainable food systems, raising new questions for researchers, practitioners, and social movement actors engaged in collaborative efforts to transform dominant foodscapes. Our discussion and analysis draw on the outcomes of a workshop of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) and the Institute of Development Stu…
People, power, change: Three Pillars of a Food Sovereignty Research Praxis
This article is situated within nascent debates on the role of academics within food sovereignty movements. Drawing on insights from a collective autoethnography, we report on our experiences conducting three food sovereignty research projects in different contexts and at different scales. We suggest that that the principles and practices of food sovereignty translate into a food sovereignty research praxis. This consists of three pillars focusin…
“Its smoke must make it blind”: Fire and a commitment to regeneration
As Volume 7, Number 1 of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des tudes sur l'alimentation (CFS/RCA) goes to print, the world is on fire. The COVID-19 pandemic has made visible some of the most problematic elements of modern society. People and communities that have been made most vulnerable throughout history (e.g., racialized and Indigenous people, women, seniors, and those living in poverty) are being impacted much more severally by the…
Problematic of Plenty
Empowering small-scale, community-based fisheries through a food systems framework
Strengthening Sustainable Northern Food Systems: Federal Policy Constraints and Potential Opportunities
This paper explores how Canadian federal policy and frameworks can better support community-based initiatives to reduce food insecurity and build sustainable food systems in the North. Through an examination of the current state of food systems infrastructure, transportation, harvest, and production in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut, we argue in favour of a multi-sector approach that supports diversified food …
Scholar-activist perspectives on radical food geography: Collaborating through food justice and food sovereignty praxis
Radical geography research, teaching, and action have increasingly focused on food systems, examining the scalar, sociopolitical, and ecological dynamics of food production and harvesting, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste. While academics have contributed significantly to these debates, the success and progress of this scholarship cannot be separated from the work of practitioners and activists involved in food justice and food so…
Toward a radical food geography praxis: Integrating theory, action, and geographic analysis in pursuit of more equitable and sustainable food systems
Radical geographies scholarship has evolved over the past decades in pursuit of transforming spatial, political-economic, social, and ecological engagements within oppressive structures. Similarly, food systems scholarship demonstrates increasing interest in the scalar, sociopolitical, and ecological dynamics of food systems, often with an applied or action-oriented focus. Building on these connected, yet divergent, traditions of scholarship and …
Serving up food studies online: Teaching about “food from somewhere” from nowhere
Over the past decade, the popularity of food scholarship has led to an expansion of online food studies courses and programs. This push for online course offerings has been escalated due to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. To date, much of the field has focused on examining the global concentration and integration of corporate food systems, often described as a “food from nowhere” regime. In contrast, the study of civil society organizations …
The power to convene: Making sense of the power of food movement organizations in governance processes in the Global North
The future of agroecology in Canada: Embracing the politics of food sovereignty
Race, privilege and the exclusivity of farm internships: Ecological agricultural education and the implications for food movements
Internships have become a prominent way of training new ecological farmers across North America. This paper interrogates the social identities of these interns asking: Who is being trained as the next generation of ecological farmers and what are the implications for food movements more broadly? Our research reveals a series of privileges associated with the ability to work for little or no remuneration and to access rural spaces where most inter…
Mobilizing Networks and Relationships Through Indigenous Food Sovereignty: The Indigenous Food Circle’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Northwestern Ontario
This paper explores the Indigenous Food Circle’s (IFC) response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. Established in 2016, the IFC is an informal collaborative network of Indigenous-led and Indigenous-serving organizations that aims to support and develop the capacity of Indigenous Peoples to collaboratively address challenges and opportunities facing food systems and to ensure that food-related programming and policy meets th…
Wayne Roberts: Food systems thinker, public intellectual, “actionist”
Wayne Roberts (1944–2021) was a food systems thinker, public intellectual, and “actionist.” This text was developed from a series of oral history interviews conducted between December 2020 and January 2021. It touches upon several of the key themes Wayne addressed during the interviews: adopting a food systems approach; employing the power of ideas; identifying solutions and being propositional; acknowledging progress for political credit; enhanc…
Mapping Food Policy Groups: Understanding Cross-Sectoral Network Building through Social Network Analysis
Over the past decades, there has been a rapid expansion in the number of Food Policy Groups (FPG) (including food policy councils, strategies, networks, and informal alliances) operating at municipal and regional levels across North America. FPGs are typically established with the intent of bringing together food systems stakeholders across private (e.g., small businesses, industry associations), public (e.g., government, public health, postsecon…
Political science (33 works) · Sociology (29 works) · Organic Food and Agriculture (25 works) · Food security (23 works) · Food systems (22 works) · Geography (18 works) · Law (18 works) · Urban Agriculture and Sustainability (18 works) · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development (17 works) · Economics (17 works)