A little regulatory pluralism with your counter-hegemonic advocacy? Blending analytical frames to construct joined-up food policy in Canada

Abstract

Canadian food policy is deficient in many ways. First, there is neither national joined-up food policy, nor much supporting food policy architecture at the provincial and municipal levels. Second, there is no roadmap for creating such policy changes. And third, we don’t have an analytical approach to food policy change in Canada that would help us address deficiencies one and two. This paper addresses the third theme. In our experience, a significant limitation of existing Canadian food policy work is the lack of frame blending to bring more explanatory power to both current phenomena and a more desirable process of change. Consequently, we attempt to unify disparate literatures pertinent to the food policy change process in Canada to create a more cohesive approach, using four case studies of analyses already conducted to demonstrate the frame blending process.

Keywords

• food policy
• regulation
• pluralism