Sustainability is a word you hear a lot, but it tends to go uncritically examined in application. So what can it encompass when it comes to food experiences, particularly for immigrants and newcomers to Canada? My guest this week, Isabela Bonnevera, is here to unpack this further.

Isabela is currently a doctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB and engages with participatory methods to explore how immigrants are shaping sustainable food transitions in cities. She also examines how sustainable food policies impact food justice outcomes for immigrant communities. She’s the co-founder of Feminist Food Journal, and we work together on Feminist Food Friend events as well.

This week, Isabela is here to explore the more participatory elements to her research. Using a method called photovoice, she has worked with a group of immigrant women in the Vancouver area to dig into the question of what makes food sustainable—or more accurately, what is “good food” and what does sustainable really look like when the word doesn’t always translate into diverse cultural experiences with food? We speak to how this bottom-up approach ties into the broader policy frameworks, the findings of their photovoice explorations, and its implications for filling policy gaps.

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