Inaugural Abell-Hodgson Open Lecture on Regenerative Agri-Food Systems

Why It Matters

Understanding and reshaping the economic and educational foundations of agri‑food systems is essential for mitigating climate, biodiversity, and equity crises, directly influencing future profitability and societal resilience.

Key Takeaways

• Polycrisis links climate, biodiversity loss, and social inequity.
• Top 1% income drives majority of emissions and overshoot.
• Land‑use change and intensification release carbon, worsen climate.
• Business school curricula reinforce practices fueling the polycrisis.
• Regenerative agri‑food systems proposed as counter‑intuitive solution.

Summary

The inaugural Abell‑Hodgson Open Lecture framed regenerative agri‑food systems as a response to a looming polycrisis—simultaneous climate change, biodiversity collapse, and entrenched social inequity. The speaker, an engineer‑economist with personal ties to food safety, opened by mapping the audience’s diversity and acknowledging Indigenous territories, then set out a three‑part structure: diagnosing the problem, critiquing business‑school teachings, and offering hopeful solutions. Data highlighted accelerating global warming, with recent studies showing temperature spikes unprecedented in 450 million years and a social cost of carbon now exceeding $200 per ton—projected to rise tenfold. Biodiversity surveys revealed a 69 % average decline in species populations over 50 years, translating into $10‑20 trillion annual ecosystem service losses. Inequity metrics showed the top 1 % of earners responsible for 31‑67 % of ecological overshoot while bearing the fewest adaptation costs, exemplified by Hurricane Harvey’s disproportionate impact on low‑income neighborhoods. Personal anecdotes—such as the speaker’s grandmother’s death from BSE—and references to First Nations regenerative knowledge underscored the human dimension. The lecture also featured local farmers who shared practical regenerative practices, and cited the stark contrast between high‑income consumption patterns and low pro‑social behavior, reinforcing the systemic nature of the crisis. The overarching implication is clear: traditional business education perpetuates the very mechanisms driving the polycrisis. To avert escalating climate and biodiversity costs, institutions must embed regenerative agri‑food principles, redesign supply chains, and prioritize equity‑focused policies. Stakeholders across academia, finance, government, and farming are urged to co‑create solutions that expand, rather than merely slice, the global welfare pie.

Original Description

The Centre for Building Sustainable Value at Ivey Business School and the Abell-Hodgson Chair in Regenerative Agriculture invite you to an open lecture, presented by Professor Jury Gualandris.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequity are interconnected crises—and agriculture sits at their intersection. This open lecture unpacks how traditional agri-food systems contribute to these challenges, then makes the case for collective action as a catalyst for regenerative agricultural transition. Drawing on active field research, we'll explore how regional farming communities can build more resilient, equitable, and ecologically sustainable food systems.

The Collective Action Program for Regenerative Agriculture led by Professor Jury Gualandris examines how a regional business community model among ecologically minded farmers in Middlesex County offers a meaningful response to the mounting social and ecological pressures of conventional agri-food systems. Agriculture faces a convergence of interconnected challenges—soil degradation, input volatility, climate disruption, biodiversity loss, social inequity, and market concentration—that no single actor can address alone. This lecture explores how collective action at the regional level can catalyze systemic change.

Drawing on active fieldwork, this presentation will engage scholars, students, and farming communities working across business strategy and supply chains, sociology, public policy, environmental science, and related disciplines.