October 16 marked World Food Day in recognition of global efforts to improve food security and agricultural sustainability. The 2025 theme, “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future,” highlights the importance of partnership between growers, buyers, policymakers, and academic leaders in shaping resilient and equitable food systems.
At the University of Toronto, researchers across all three campuses are working with community and industry partners to strengthen food systems that are secure, sustainable, and responsive to cultural and environmental needs. Multidisciplinary climate research explores the deep connections between food systems, human and planetary health, and cultural traditions.
In recognition of World Food Day, we highlight six U of T initiatives advancing research and innovation in food and agriculture:
1. Urban Food Production Features Prominently at Trinity’s new Lawson Centre for Sustainability
Trinity College is launching a new chapter in campus food systems through the extraordinary new landmark building, the Lawson Centre for Sustainability, opening in 2026. At its heart is the George and Martha Butterfield Rooftop Farm—Trinity’s own 1/4-acre urban agriculture operation focused on hyper-local food production and designed to support research partnerships across the University of Toronto and beyond, as part of Trinity College’s Integrated Sustainability Initiative. Paired with a state-of-the-art teaching and community kitchen, these spaces will serve as platforms for undergraduate experiential learning, health and wellness activities, food production and processing, and community programming, fostering collaboration and hands-on engagement with the urgent challenges of food security and sustainability in urban centres. For more information, contact trinity.sustainability@utoronto.ca.
2. Sustainable Food and Farming Futures (SF3) Cluster
Cutting-edge research is essential to understanding how agriculture can reduce its environmental footprint while ensuring culturally appropriate, secure food for all. The Sustainable Food and Farming Futures (SF3) Cluster, based at the University of Toronto Scarborough, brings together experts in agrobiodiversity, crop biology, geography, and food studies. The Cluster’s shared goal is to advance ecologically sustainable, socially just, and culturally relevant agroecosystems and infrastructure, guided by the principles of food sovereignty and community resilience.
3. TOsustain Project
Professor Marney Isaac (Departments of Physical and Environmental Sciences and Global Development Studies, U of T Scarborough) is leading TOsustain, short for Toward Sustainable Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture for Net-zero Food Systems. Supported by a $3.9-million grant from the NSERC- and SSHRC-funded Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative (2024), this project explores how urban agriculture can contribute to climate goals and food security.
“Urban areas have so much food-growing potential, but our knowledge about how, where and what kind of crops can be grown in and around cities is limited,” said Isaac to U of T Scarborough News. “We know even less about how well urban agriculture can capture and store carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is a major contributor to climate change.”
TOsustain addresses these questions by engaging a team of researchers and partners from both the private and public sectors, as well as local community gardens and farms.
4. Plant Science and Agricultural Innovation
Professor Keiko Yoshioka learned the role of agricultural innovation in avoiding worldwide food shortages as a young student. Today, her lab is studying plant-pathogen interactions. Initially, her lab and her department’s focus was on the molecules inside plant cells, but she gradually started applying her knowledge of what was happening within the cell to effects on crop plants in the real world. One of Yoshioka’s most meaningful projects is a collaboration regarding the devastating coconut blight disease in West-Africa. This initiative ultimately improved the lives of the farmers, primarily women, who depend on their coconut crop. The project also led to her research on the immunization of plants via beneficial soil microorganisms. She continues to teach in the Department of Cell & Systems Biology and most recently shared insights at CPE Research Day 2025. Among her former students is Adnan Sharif (BSc 2022), co-founder of Lyrata, a startup dedicated to sustainable urban farming.
5. Mitigating Food Waste and Enhancing Food Security
In 2023, Climate Positive Energy funded a cohort of undergraduate researchers working toward a just and equitable net-zero future. Under the supervision of Professor Michael Classens (School of the Environment), one of the awarded projects focused on food waste and food security – two issues deeply intertwined in the context of climate change. Food waste contributes significantly to Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, while climate change exacerbates food insecurity. The project examined ways to reduce waste generated on U of T campuses, and proposed mechanisms for redistributing surplus food to alleviate student food insecurity. By promoting responsible consumption and waste reduction, the project aimed to make U of T’s food system more sustainable and equitable.
6. Culinaria Research Centre
The Culinaria Research Centre is the hub for Food Studies at the University of Toronto that blends research excellence with community engagement and student research experience. Culinaria projects provide new insights into some of the major questions circulating in the field of Food Studies today, including the place of food in cultural identity and expression; the relationship between food, diaspora, and inter-ethnic/inter-cultural contact in Canada and beyond; commodity production and labour, from slavery to the age of empire to the present-day; and the links between food systems, health, gender, and family. Programs are offered at both the undergraduate and graduate level to help train the next generation of food and nutrition experts.
Together, these initiatives demonstrate a commitment to advancing knowledge and action for sustainable, just, and climate-resilient food systems. We look forward to exploring the connection between food and climate through continued programming offered by the Lawson Climate Institute.