Grant: Operating Grant: Programmatic Grants to tackle health and health equity

This program of research addresses the health effects of the global food system through five interconnected projects in Ecuador and Canada. It ranges from the effects of pesticide exposure on banana workers in Ecuador and grape pickers in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, through healthy eating in schools in Vancouver and Quito, to changing livelihoods among indigenous communities in the Andes and in rural Canada. It is based on enabling people without a voice in how food is produced, marketed and consumed, in making decisions that will allow safer working conditions, healthier eating practices, and preservation of cultural practices based on environmental resources. By combining the results of existing knowledge on food systems and health with new knowledge generated in Ecuador and Canada, this program will move from knowledge to action using information and communication technologies like photography, teleconferencing and web-based meetings to connect the people who grow and eat food with each other, and with decision-makers in government and non-governmental organizations. Ultimately, this will result in policies and programs that will protect health in a coherent way that makes sense in both the North, and the South.