FLOW Partnership

10/08/2026

Join the UNESCO Chair on Food, Biodiversity and Sustainability Studies and FLOW Partnership on October 29 for a webinar on traditional and Indigenous foodways.

📅 Date: Thursday, October 29, 2026
⏰ Time: 4:00–5:30 pm MT
🔗 Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/KcvY06TDSq-vqZMRIGHYDg

As we continue to reflect on last week's National Day for and the ongoing work of revitalization, we are grateful to have the chance to learn from an international panel of Knowledge Keepers, researchers, and food practitioners. While these experts' practices are entangled with lands and waters on either side of the globe, they will share overlapping wisdom for navigating food systems in crisis.

10/06/2026

The UK Right to Food Commission makes a compelling humanitarian and economic case for making the Right to Food a law in the UK. The case is clear: NOT dealing with the consequences of hunger for children costs £298 billion every year while annual programming to address hunger would only cost less than £8 billion. For more details, see the Right to Food UK Commission Final Report and the condensed Right to Food Briefing.

report: https://www.ianbyrne.org/right-to-food-commission-uk-report
briefing:https://flowpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/UK-Right-to-Food-Briefing.pdf

09/03/2026

Food Futures call for Ottawa to join the Milan Pact
https://youtu.be/SVGKvt2tec4

Youth advocates from Food Futures have called on the city of Ottawa to join the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, “an international agreement among cities from all over the world, committed to developing sustainable food systems that are inclusive, resilient, safe, and diverse. Its main goal is to establish a permanent platform for knowledge exchange of best practices and capacity building activities among signatory cities.” (From milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org.)

In the video, three Food Futures Youth Council Members—Madelyn Koff, Malick Sylla, and Kristen Lupsor—make their case, invoking the complexities of food security, grocery prices, food banks, and the underlying food systems thinking that holistically brings food issues together. (Video by bluedotstudio.)

Food Futures is a team of dynamic, passionate change makers who represent Algonquin/Ottawa’s youth voice for food and farming issues. As a council, they advocate for a food future in Ottawa that centers social justice, equitable access, sustainable practices, and community engagement.

justfood.ca/food-futures-youth-council

What is Food Futures? Food Futures is a team of dynamic, passionate changemakers representing Algonquin/Ottawa’s youth voice for food and farming issues. Together we develop and apply our skills and gifts to build a vibrant food future we can be proud of- one that centers social justice, equitable...

07/24/2026

The latest issue of the FLOW Newsletter is out!
read and subscribe at: https://flowpartnership.org/news/newsletter/

Featuring a report on the FLOW Agroecology meeting at Rongo University in Migori County, Kenya, as well as news from Southern Brazil, Montreal (QC) Canada, Sri Lanka, and Veracruz State, Mexico.

PLUS recent research publications and a student-written poem (in Spanish and English) about using traditional, non-chemical farming methods to combat "The Yellow Dragon."

06/30/2026

UNESCO Youth for Peace Programme – Applications Open!
https://www.unesco.org/en/call-applications-2026?hub=181405
Applications for the second edition of the Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme are open until 19 July 2026 at 23:59 CEST (Paris time).
https://www.unesco.org/en/interculturaldialogue/youthforpeace
The Youth for Peace Programme supports emerging leaders who use intercultural dialogue to foster peace, social cohesion, and inclusive community action. The second edition focuses on the theme "Human Connection and Dialogue in the Age of AI."
Full details and the application form are available on the UNESCO site at https://www.unesco.org/en/call-applications-2026?hub=181405. Please note that English is the official working language of the programme, and applications must therefore be submitted in English.
Over the course of the programme, 50 selected participants will:
• strengthen their capacity as intercultural leaders through a series of high-level online master classes and peer-to-peer exchanges (Oct to Dec 2026)
• design and lead a dialogue-based community initiative aligned with the programme’s annual theme, supported by seed funding of US$10,000 (Jan to Jul 2027)
• receive ongoing mentorship and leadership development opportunities from an international network of experts and practitioners
• contribute to international conversations on peace, inclusion, and intercultural dialogue through participation in the UNESCO Global Youth Dialogue for Peace in China (Q3 to Q4 2027)
• join a global community of emerging intercultural leaders and become part of UNESCO’s Global Youth Alumni Network

06/01/2026

🌱Want to learn more about the realities faced by women farmers within traditional agricultural systems, including daily challenges, struggles for recognition and space within rural communities, and the importance of collective organization and solidarity?

Check out the sixth episode of the Vozes do Mate podcast: “Women of Erva-Mate – Work, Struggle, and Resistance”, launched by the Brazil FLOW team, highlighting the critical role of women’s leadership in preserving traditional systems, strengthening local culture, and building more sustainable and resilient futures.

🎧 Listen to the podcast here:

The Brazil FLOW team has launched their final Voicing Change podcast episode about women erva-mate producers, including their challenges and resilient responses. Listen to "Voices of Erva-Mate: Episode 6 — Women of Erva-Mate: Work, Struggle, and Resistance." (English translation is available on Yo...

05/14/2026

Recently, Rachel Carey, lead of the FLOW Partnership Melbourne team, spoke about the impacts of the Iran conflict on Australians, specifically on how global conflicts directly impact local food security and farmer livelihoods.

In her words, "As more Australians struggle to afford enough food and farmers struggle to make a living with rising fuel and fertiliser costs, initiatives to strengthen the resilience of food systems need to deliver equitable outcomes for the people who depend on them for food and livelihoods. That means building more diverse and decentralised food systems with stronger regional food supply chains."

➡️Read the full article here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-05/farmers-want-supermarkets-to-absorb-more-price-rises-conflict/106593372?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web

As the price of food and agricultural production goes up during the Iran conflict, supermarkets are being urged to absorb more of the cost.

04/13/2026

🌱 New Publication - Building Capacities in Regional Food Systems: Mapping Change Towards Transformation

We’re excited to share a new article published in Agriculture and Human Values. This paper, led by Dr. Alison Blay-Palmer and a global team of collaborators, explores why the regional scale is critical for transforming food systems. Drawing from the FLOW Partnership, the paper introduces a regional food systems capacities framework and a hybrid methodology to explore, monitor, and track enablers, barriers, and changes over time.

Read the publication and learn more here: https://flowpartnership.org/building-cap-article/

👏 A huge congratulations to everyone for this meaningful contribution:

Alison Blay-Palmer · Molly D. Anderson · Anna-Liisa Aunio · Patricia Ballamingie · Rachel Carey · Samuel Gudu · Kent Mullinix · Maureen Murphy · Chatura Pulasinghage · Andrew Spring · David Szanto · Elodie Valette · Johanna Wilkes · Elisabeth Miltenburg

Building Capacities in Regional Food Systems: Mapping change towards transformation This article, published in Agriculture and Human Values (April 2026), provides an overview of the FLOW Partnership and the concepts and methods underlying the research. See the abstract below for more details.Blay-Pa...

04/09/2026

🌱 What does food sovereignty actually look like in practice?

Across Northwestern Ontario, communities, farmers, and organizers are coming together to explore exactly that, connecting global movements with grounded, local action.

Food Sovereignty Across Scales: Global Movements, Local Action is a collaborative series hosted by the Food Action Network of Northwestern Ontario, the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario, the National Farmers Union of Ontario, Gaagige Zaagibigaa, and the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.

This series is part of ongoing efforts to strengthen food sovereignty, community leadership, and regional collaboration, creating space for learning, exchange, and collective action.

📅 April 9–12 across Thunder Bay
🔗 More information: https://lnkd.in/eSYZSWjZ

03/18/2026

🌱 Introducing: Rosa Gloria García Bautista 🌱

Rosa García works directly with orange producers and related crops, providing accompaniment services, participation in tours, workshops, awareness courses, and training in theory and practice, with the overall goal of promoting agroecological practices that contribute to the substitution of pesticides. Her work includes accompanying and training producers in the implementation of agroecological practices in their orchards, from cleaning, pruning, pest control, and disease management, to nutrition-related and special projects. Rosa promotes the exchange of knowledge in the implementation and adoption of agroecological practices in various regions, with training on bio-inputs according to crop requirements (microorganismos de montaña, magro, agua de vidrio, composta, caldo de cenizas, caldo sulfocálcico and others).
Join us in welcoming Rosa to the FLOW Partnership, where her hands-on work with producers and leadership in agroecological training supports the transition away from pesticides while strengthening resilient, knowledge-sharing food systems across regions.

Learn more about the other students and technicians on the team: https://flowpartnership.org/students-technicians/ -open-oc__1482