Common Ground Canada Network: Building relationships for just and sustainable agriculture and food systems transitions

Introduction The Common Ground Canada Network[1] (CGCN) is a national partnership of social science and humanities (SSH) researchers, community organi­zations, Indigenous leaders, farmers, policymakers, and civil society groups working together to trans­form Canada’s agriculture and food systems in pur­suit of a sustainable, net-zero future. CGCN recog­nizes that climate change is not just a technical problem requiring the expertise of natural scientists and engineering; it is also a problem of relationships between people and the land, between rural and urban communities, between Canada and the world, and between people within/and food sys­tems. An initial team of 49 academics at 13 institu­tions and 22 nonprofit/nongovernmental organiza­tions responded to a joint opportunity from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) to form a Social Science Research Network on Sustainable Agriculture in a Net-Zero Economy, and Common Ground, with its focus on relations and relationships, was the winning pro­posal.