THE CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT is currently–and quietly–working on a food policy that could leave many grassroots food security advocates in the dirt. Last fall, agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced that his department would start developing a National Food and Farm Strategy (NFSS), part of the 2011 Conservative campaign platform. While the government is currently consulting stakeholders, advocates worry the industry-power imbalance could actually increase four of the most controversial elements in Canada’s food system: biotechnology, genetically-engineered seeds, exports, and biofuel.
Such a strategy is likely to disappoint the food movement and most Canadians, including farmers. Anyone who has been to a farmer’s market, marveled at the taste of a local, ripe tomato, or has school-age children knows, deep down, why a national food policy matters. It’s the only way to reach across policy silos like health, environment and agriculture, and connect what’s inside: food.
Food Secure Canada’s proposal, the People’s Food Policy Project, is the most optimistic stakeholder proposal to date. The non-profit’s position is that food needs to be grown, processed and eaten closer to home. If the country is to address coming energy crises and food shortages, climate change, obesity and poverty, it adds, government departments must start talking to each other. “Food is the elephant in the room,” says Rod MacRae, who teaches food policy at York University, “but food runs through everything.”
This spring, the group appeared at the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture
and Forestry. At that time, Amanda Sheedy, who coordinated the People’s Food proposal, warned that a Conservative food policy “absolutely” would mirror the proposal of the government-created think tank, the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI), which highlighted exports, ethanol and a Canadian food “brand” as solutions. After all, this is the government that dismantled the wheat board, and is advocating for allowing low-level GE presence in exports, more ethanol, and more agroscience.
“All we can do is try,” Sheedy says. “We can make sure people are aware and have some analysis and hopefully apply public pressure so we can get the key pieces we want”–such as a national school meal program. For now, though, it seems a grassroots food policy will remain a field of dreams.
8,695
The number of grocery stores in Canada
800
The number of food banks in Canada in 2012
900,000
How many people food banks assisted each month in Canada in 2011
93,085
The number of people who used food banks for the first time in 2011
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FOOD SALES IN CANADA DOMESTIC 30% IMPORTED 70%
