The Green Party of Canada says it would use a parliamentary presence to promote smaller farms, food self-sufficiency, environmental practices and mandatory GMO labelling.
The party also supports expansion of organic farming to make it the “dominant model of production” across the country. 
In an attempt to promote smaller-scale production, the Green party said it would exempt “smaller and family farms” from dairy, poultry and egg supply management regulation if they produce for local markets.
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As well, the Greens would “develop area-specific food safety regulations meeting national standards without placing undue financial burdens on local farmers and food processors.”
The proposals were part of the Sept. 17 release of the Green party platform for the Oct. 14 election. For the first time, the Greens are making a concerted national bid for parliamentary seats with candidates in most constituencies.
The core of the Green platform is a $50-per-tonne tax on carbon and “toxic chemicals” with the billions of dollars in revenues to be used to lower taxes, subsidize the greening of the economy and work toward a guaranteed annual income for low-income Canadians.
Farm leaders and economists have said a carbon tax would heavily penalize farmers and the rural economy. The Green tax proposal is higher than the Liberal proposal and does not come with the farm offsets and rebates Liberals added to their plan after farmer protests.
However, the Green party said its emphasis in farm policy will be to encourage growth of lower-intensity farming that is not as dependent on chemicals and long-distance transportation.
“The health of Canada’s population today and in the future depends on the environmentally sustainable production of wholesome food,” said a platform background analysis.
“We must restructure our agricultural markets to sustain farming and provide farm families with a fair share of the consumer food dollar. We want to expand local small-scale agriculture and support a rapid transition to organic agriculture rather than subsidizing costly agro-chemicals, industrial food production and genetically modified crops.”
Other Green agricultural policy proposals include:
- Supporting the Canadian Wheat Board.
- Shifting government-supported research to organic issues.
- Basing farm support programs on the existence of a farm and not the size of its production “to encourage more farms and more farmers.”
- Changing farm support programs to emphasize protection from the impacts of climate change.
- Limiting the ability of companies to develop and test genetically modified varieties and end the ability of private companies to hold the patent on GM products that have been developed with Agriculture Canada support.
- Establishing a national school lunch program featuring local products.
- Ensuring that farm workers earn “a living wage” and have safe working conditions.
The party complained that past government policy has supported agri-business and factory farming.
“This shift has given multinational corporations control over our food supply,” said the Green party policy analysis document.
“Meanwhile, farmers increasingly rely on off-farm income to survive.”
