PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. – Many people have heard about the Mediterranean diet, but what about the Canadian climate advantage diet?
John Oliver, a former agrifood business executive who now runs a consulting firm specializing in biotechnology and government policy, says farmers have an opportunity to convince consumers to eat healthier food, particularly healthy food grown on the Prairies.
“The Canadian climate advantage diet, I believe, is as good or better than the Mediterranean diet,” he said during the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council’s annual general meeting in Portage la Prairie last week.
Read Also
Stock dogs show off herding skills at Ag in Motion
Stock dogs draw a crowd at Ag in Motion. Border collies and other herding breeds are well known for the work they do on the farm.
“And it’s based on what we can do on the Prairies with Canadian food crops.”
Kelly Fitzpatrick, a nutritionist and PhD student at the University of Manitoba’s Richardson Centre for Nutraceuticals, said the focus must be on the consumer.
“We study the food component and we try and tie it to agriculture. But we’re not really good at getting information to the consumer and then understanding how best to motivate consumers to make those behavioural changes,” she said.
“Consumers are aware of good foods versus bad foods. Whether or not they’re motivated on that day to purchase a good food versus a bad food is another question.”
Fitzpatrick wrote a report for the Manitoba government that examined the potential of the Canadian climate advantage diet. In the process, she realized the primary obstacle was persuading consumers to buy into the idea of a Canadian diet.
Fitzpatrick’s PhD thesis will follow the habits of 20,000 Canadians over the next five years to find out what consumers know about healthy prairie food such as canola oil and flaxseed and figure out how to increase consumption.
She is modelling her work after healthy food campaigns in Finland and Sweden and hopes consumers will learn the health benefits of prairie food as they understand the benefits of the Mediterranean diet.
“The reason olive oil has such a mystique to it and is so well known has a lot to do with this momentum built in the ’80s and ’90s on this Mediterranean diet,” she said. “Why can’t we do the same in Canada? We do grow healthier foods here. It’s just a matter of promoting these to the population.”
Oliver said there’s also an opportunity to brand prairie food internationally.
“I think if we go down the path of the Canadian climate advantage diet, we’re going to have people look at that like they look at Canada’s flag at the Olympics. They’re going to want to be part of it.”
