The Conference Board of Canada, a high-profile private research organization, is expected to announce soon the launch of a three-year, $2 million project to develop a national food policy.
The Centre for Food in Canada will be unveiled as a project financed by some of the biggest agribusiness players in the country, conference board president Anne Golden said Aug. 25.
“Unlike many other countries, we don’t have an integrated food policy that addresses safety, security and sustainability in the food sector,” she said. “It is timely to launch this project now because as the population ages, people develop more of a preoccupation with food safety and health benefits of food.”
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The concept has attracted interest from about 20 business and government officials and more will likely be part of the group when the project is unveiled, said Golden.
The first three research projects will set the foundation for later work by reporting on the economic contribution the food industry makes to the Canadian economy, the laws, regulations and policies that affect the industry and the viability of the industry in comparison to conditions in competitor countries.
“It is a huge and important industry that not many people recognize,” Golden said. “One of the people at our first consultation said the food industry is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Canadian economy. We get no respect.”
The search for a national food policy is becoming something of a crowded field. Along with the conference board project, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture has launched a consultation to develop a food policy proposal by next year and the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, housed at Agriculture Canada and funded in part by government, also is commissioning research and holding conferences to help develop a policy.
Golden said she does not think the conference board project duplicates other efforts and said that conference board officials have been involved in conference calls with CFA during its project.
“I don’t see overlap with the other projects,” she said. “The CFA comes at it from a farmer point of view and that is an important component. But we are looking at a broader perspective. I think we have an agriculture policy in Canada but we don’t have a food policy and that is our goal.”
She said the budget for the research, consultations and analysis will be $1.5 million to $2 million.
The audience for conference board work is primarily businesses and governments, she said.
The goal is to propose a national framework to support a food industry that provides safe and healthy food, provides Canadians with security of supply and is financially and environmentally sustainable in the future.
