Our Challenge

Treaty Four Territory, set in the southern Canadian Prairie Provinces, is home to approximately 500,000 people, of which around 15% are Indigenous Peoples. Thirty-five First Nation reserves are located in Treaty Four Territory. While the population was historically rural, a steady increase in farm size and mechanization has meant that many villages have disappeared.

In the 1870s, to efficiently produce and export grain for the global market, Canada’s colonial authorities remade the prairies in Treaty Four Territory to reflect an industrial mode of production. Despite entering into treaties with the Indigenous nations who occupied the lands, the Canadian government pursued policies to eliminate Indigenous Peoples and their cultures. The ripple effects on both the land and the community are still felt to this day.

The climate also poses a challenge: severe winters reach below -40 degrees Celsius and the frost-free growing season is limited to 120 days. With annual precipitation ranging between 14-21 inches, the landscape is prone to both drought and flooding.

We are proud to be one of The Rockefeller Foundation's Top 10 Finalists for the Food System Vision Prize. The Finalists were selected from a pool of more than 1,300 applicants from 119 countries, all seeking to develop a Vision of the regenerative and nourishing food system that they aspire to create by the year 2050.

Our Story Video - The Prairie Food System

THE VISION

FOR THE YEAR 2050

To transform the food system in Canada’s Treaty Four Territory from an extractive agricultural model to a system of proven regenerative methods in rural and urban settings through public discourse and social innovation.

Our Solution

To transform the agriculture system across rural and urban settings in the Prairies, we identified actions and commitments for a successful future in which this Vision becomes a reality:

  • We will establish a social innovation laboratory dedicated to supporting a 30-year transformative agricultural process covering six key areas: economy, environment, diet, policy, technology, and culture.

  • To raise awareness and inspire engagement, we will continue to develop and hone purposeful and intentional communication strategies and to amplify the solutions of others that move us towards a sustainable, equitable, and unified society in the prairies and beyond.

  • In the development of the social innovation laboratory and through our ongoing storytelling, we will collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders – including farmers, Indigenous communities, the energy sector, and governments – in order to encourage ongoing discourse on food systems and societal change from diverse viewpoints.

  • We will provide education, encouragement and support to individual, community and institutional stakeholders to align them with our Vision and to move the whole community forward together in one powerful, harmonious effort.

  • We will infuse all strategies with the need to transform our society in the spirit of kwayēskastasowin wâhkôhtowin, which means making things right by recognizing the interconnectivity of all things.

Our Themes

    • Farms are “Internally Optimized”

    • Producer at Centre, Not The Supplier

    • We are all Treaty People

    • Decolonization Opens New Possibilities

    • Local, Diverse, Community Centred

    • Revitalizing Rural Areas

    • Food Sovereignty

    • Treaty Land Sharing

    • Supporting High Functioning Ecosystems

    • Restoring Grasslands, Parklands & Wetlands

The Prairie Food System Vision is to create a new narrative for Prairie Food Systems - to develop resilient, prosperous, people-centred food systems that will heal the land through the restoration of traditional systems. By focusing on decolonizing ourselves and our food systems, we will reconcile our relationships with each other and the land.

DEDICATED TO CHANGE

THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION FOOD SYSTEM VISION PRIZE

2050 TOP VISIONARY - We are proud to be one of The Rockefeller Foundation's Top 10 Finalists for the Food System Vision Prize. The Finalists were selected from a pool of more than 1,300 applicants from 119 countries, all seeking to develop a Vision of the regenerative and nourishing food system that they aspire to create by the year 2050.