Annual General Meeting of the Coalition and Exciting Conferences

On February 8, the Ag & Food Exception Coalition held its Annual General Meeting. During this event, it reported on its latest activities for 2021, including the provincial launch of the Feeding Humanity Sustainably Movement.

It also announced it was changing its name to the Coalition for Feeding Humanity Sustainably; the main reason for this change was to effectively represent the Quebec branch of the Feeding Humanity Sustainably Movement, which it inaugurated.

Almost a hundred people attended our virtual event, The Environment’s Place in a Sustainable Global Food System, organized by the Coalition as part of the work undertaken for the Feeding Humanity Sustainably Movement. There were two parts to this event:

• A talk by the executive director of Ouranos, Alain Bourque, to provide some scientific context. Bourque’s talk was titled Le rapport du GIEC et la COP26 : quelle place pour l’agriculture et l’alimentation? (The IPCC report and COP26: where do agriculture and food fit in?) He emphasized the impact of climate change on temperatures, the water cycle, and inevitably, agricultural activities.
• A panel discussion with distinguished speakers. Among the topics they addressed were the interdependent relationship between agriculture and the environment, the ideal of aligning agricultural policy with scientific expertise, the challenge of achieving climate neutrality, and the support that is vitally important to the people who feed us.

Left to right: Sophie-Andrée Blondin, radio host (Les Années lumière on Radio-Canada); Jérôme Dupras, professor in the Département des sciences naturelles at the Université du Québec en Outaouais and Canada Research Chair in Ecological Economics; Marcel Groleau, co-president of the Coalition; Martial Bernoux, senior natural resources officer at the FAO’s Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment; Arnold Puech D’Alissac, vice president of the World Farmers’ Organisation and board member for the Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles (FNSEA); Nathanael Buka Mupungu, president of the Plateforme régionale des organisations paysannes d’Afrique Centrale; and Alain Bourque, executive director of Ouranos.