UCalgary's Agricultural Literacy program uses innovative method to explore complex topics

How do you educate the general public about a complex or controversial issue who may have strong opinions one way or another on that issue?  

As part of it’s Agricultural Literacy program, a team at UCalgary’s Simpson Centre for Food and Agricultural Policy is exploring the use of controversy mapping, an innovative research method used to simplify complex debates, or controversies, to make them more understandable to a variety of interested parties, including policy makers, researchers, and the public.

Exploring complex debates at the Calgary Stampede

“There can be many layers to a controversy, such as sub-controversies and larger meta-controversies,” explains Dr. Anne-Marieke Smid, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. “The process also takes the timeline of a controversy into account, examining when something became a controversy, what led up to it, what’s the current status, and so on. Our goal is to map the specific layers and then present them to the public in a user-friendly way.”

The team spent time at this year’s Calgary Stampede engaging with people about a controversy that hits close to home for many Albertans: water governance for agriculture in Alberta’s South Saskatchewan River Basin. This example explores complex and interconnected debates about resource management, water governance, water rights, and decision-making authority. The team delivered four presentations on the BMO Community Stage within the BMO Centre, prompting audiences to consider the significant amount of water required to grow and produce food in Alberta.

As research associate Dr. Juhi Huda, PhD, explains, “Sticking with the Stampede theme, our presentations asked the question ‘how much water does it take to make a Stampede breakfast?’ – pancakes, sausage, coffee, and so on – and we went through the different pieces that go into that. How much water does it take to grow the wheat for the flour for the pancakes? How much water does a pig need each day? How much water do we need to make a cup of coffee?”

Following the presentations, audience members could scan a QR code for a prototype website with more information, and had the opportunity to ask questions or chat further about water governance in Alberta.   

Providing information to make informed choices

Ultimately, the team aims to develop a website that serves as a resource for visitors to explore and understand controversies affecting them or their communities, and as a tool to help dispel misinformation.

“The goal is not to persuade people one way or another,” says project coordinator Roshanne Sihota, BSc’21, MA’24. “It's more so to provide a spectrum of what all the arguments are around particular controversies so they can make more informed choices as consumers.”