The Third Annual Healthy Cities Conference

Session One

Advancing Sustainable Agriculture: Integrating Nutrition and Climate-smart Practices into Rural and Urban Food Systems
11:00am – 12:00pm
Join us for an engaging session at the intersection of nutrition, climate-smart farming, and sustainable trade systems within both rural and urban landscapes. As we navigate the complex challenges posed by climate change and the growing need for nutritious food, this session delves into innovative approaches that foster resilience and promote economic vitality.

Speaker

Bruce Hardy 

President – Myera Group

In 1996 Bruce founded Function Four Ltd and has since grown the firm into an innovation, research, community based assessments and e-health software development company. Function Four is an active collaborator in provincial and international applied research in partnership with university based academic projects while delivering e-healthy solutions in over 64 First Nations and Metis communities. . In 2012 he founded Myera Nu-Agri-Nomics Group Ltd. Since 2012 Myera Group has been working on its vision to map community and individual health outcomes to a dynamic Indegenious food production system. With the support of Protein Innovation Supercluster Program, NFRFI, NSERC and MITACs Myera has been using Machine Learning and AI to promote Indigenous approaches to food as medicine and medicine as food. Myera seeks to accelerate the development of an “Agri-health” functional foods and nutraceuticals platform based on the integration of aquaculture, wildrice rice (field crops) and preservation and promotion of traditional medicine.

Panellists

Justine Dainard

Smart Cities Manager

Justine managed Wellington County’s participation in the four-year, federally-funded Our Food Future project (foodfuture.ca), working with the City of Guelph to create a circular economy of food. She works within the County’s Economic Development department and is focused on regional resiliency, with a portfolio which includes circular economy, agriculture, food access, and digital equity.

Mike Von Massow

Mike is interested in how people think about food with recent work focusing on labeling, novel food products, animal welfare and antibiotic use.  He is also active in the interdisciplinary Guelph Food Waste Research Project with Dr Kate Parizeau.  Mike’s research also considers the structure and performance of food value chains as they evolve in response to changing consumer preferences and other factors.

Mike joined FARE in the summer of 2016 after a period in the College of Business and Economics.  He joined the University of Guelph in 2010 upon completing his PhD.  He worked in a variety of operations and marketing roles in the agri-food industry before going back into academic life and beginning his Doctoral studies in pricing strategy.  He also spent time working as a management consultant and policy researcher.  His industry experience informs both his teaching and his research program.

Mike speaks frequently about food waste, animal welfare and other research projects.  He has written for the Globe and Mail and other publications and is often quoted on radio and in the media.   As a frequent blogger with a strong presence on broadcast, print and social media, Mike helps contribute to the Department’s on-going efforts to mobilize research in a manner that helps to inform public policy and private strategy.  Mike has also introduced his FoodFocus Podcast to discuss issues of interest in the food space.

Matthew Orava

Dr. Matt Orava is a family physician practicing comprehensive family medicine out of the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre and teaching at the University of Toronto Department of Family and Community Medicine.  He is currently the Tristan Lawson Distinguished Fellow in Child Nutrition and Community Engagement supported by the Joannah and Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition at the University of Toronto.  As a physician lead of the Healthy Barrie initiative, he is working with municipal government, primary care, academia and public health to map and describe neighbourhood characteristics, health outcomes, health behaviours, social determinants of health, and service utilization across Barrie.  Informed by these data he is leading a social prescribing initiative to increase access to food and leading a community engagement campaign to increase physical activity and improve childhood nutrition.

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