Food policy network report emphasizes local production

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Published: April 28, 2011

A group calling itself the People’s Food Policy Project is recommending a massive revamping of Canadian agriculture and food policy.

The proposed change in direction would de-emphasize exports and instead emphasize local production and hunger elimination.

Published in Ottawa April 18 in the middle of the election campaign, Resetting the Table, a People’s Food Policy for Canadaargues that Canada does not have a food policy that emphasizes local consumption, healthy eating and consumer involvement in setting food policy.

“Canada has never had a co-ordinated and explicit food policy, let alone one designed for the public good,” said the document, written after three years of workshops and consultations across Canada that the group says involved 3,500 people.

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“The resulting patchwork of government policies that determine our de facto food governance does not adequately prioritize the needs and wishes of the majority.”

The group said the document is “the first ever Canadian food policy to be developed by individuals and organizations within the growing food movement.”

It acknowledged that political parties are promising national food policies and that groups such as the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the Canadian Agricultural Policy Institute are working on national strategies.

However, it said the People’s Food Policy is unique because it is based on an emphasis on local production and consumption, a move away from industrial farming to small-scale ecological and organic farms, food production linked to a national antipoverty strategy and making sure the public is “actively involved in decisions that affect the food system.”

Green party leader Elizabeth May said her party supports the initiative.

“This grassroots initiative, the People’s Food Policy Project, is a perfect example of democracy in food policy, and I am pleased to support it,” she said in a news release.

The project leaders said the NDP also sent a message of support.

“New Democrats applaud the launch of the People’s Food Policy and we wholly support your efforts to bring this long-overdue discussion to the national stage.”

At its core, the strategy says food should not be treated as a commodity priced on markets.

“The root problem is that food is treated as a market commodity rather than as a necessity of life,” it said.

“The primary beneficiaries of the current system are the companies who trade in food and food-related products – global food and agribusiness – as well as the international financial speculators who gamble on food commodities.”

The solutions proposed by the People’s Food Policy Project include:

• developing a human scale food industry that moves away from large farms and large processors;

shifting Agriculture Canada spending from commodity-based,

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export-focused agriculture to a community-based sustainability model that emphasizes healthy eating for all Canadians;

• setting government-established farm net income targets, emphasizing smaller farms;

• moving food production away from heavy input and chemical use to ecological production methods;

• excluding food and agriculture from all international trade agreements to allow Canada to concentrate on domestic self-sufficiency rather than trade;

• phasing out genetically modified crops and stopping all new GMO approvals.

The study cites government statistics and National Farmers Union analysis to argue that the current large-scale agriculture and export emphasis is not benefitting farmers, leaving them dependent on credit, government payments and off-farm income.

It said there is a growing demand among Canadians for a change in national food policy.

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