Sarah Robicheau explores how civil society organizations can work with government and exert significant influence on program development and policy changes in Health and Sustainability in the Canadian Food System: Advocacy and Opportunity for Civil Society, a research volume edited by Rod MacRae and Elisabeth Abergel. It is part of the Sustainability and the Environment series published by UBC Press.
In a chapter titled "Helping Good Things Grow: Creating Nurturing Policies and Programs for New Farmers through Civil Society-Government Collaboration," Robicheau follows a group of new farmers undergoing training in the Farmers Growing Farmers program at Everdale Farm and Organic Learning Centre and studies their experiences in navigating government funding programs under the Agricultural Policy Framework (APF1). She then considers actions taken by Everdale in cultivating a relationship with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and discusses how it has helped usher in certain changes to a second-generation funding program under Growing Forward (APF2).
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