TORONTO — The way Ontario farmer Don Mills sees it, any attempt to create a national food strategy must begin with an emphasis on food security and industry environmental sustainability.
The way Conference Board of Canada vice-president Michael Bloom describes it, industry prosperity is the first item in the board’s effort to create a strategy, from which flow other benefits of a strong sector.
The dueling food strategy visions were on display last week at the conference board’s Canadian Food Summit in Toronto, which featured a variety of industry and government speakers followed by a session on household food security at the end.
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Mills, president of Local Food Plus and a former National Farmers Union board member who farms near London, Ont., saw symbolism in the agenda.
“It is concerning that a lot of the discussion has been on prosperity and exports and then once we’ve figured that out, we’ll discuss bringing in food security and the environment,” he said.
He expressed similar sentiments while addressing an earlier meeting of Food Secure Canada, which is discussing its own food strategy proposal: “This food summit is an industry-driven process, but let’s not mistake that for one that serves us all.”
The FSC proposal imagines a “food democracy” system that emphasizes national food sovereignty, local food, food security for low income households, sustainability and a voice for non-industry communities that are dependent on and affected by the food system.
“People must have a say in how their food is produced and where it comes from and they must have an active role in realizing the principles of food sovereignty,” says the FSC plan, which comes with few details about how it would work and how farmers would be affected.
Imagining a national food strategy has become a cottage industry in Canada in recent years.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture has committed significant time and resources to develop its version of a national strategy. It is a work in progress.
The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute has had its own research-based process with emphasis on food linked to health-care policy.
As well, the conference board launched its process two years ago, which has included research papers, consultations and two national conferences. It will culminate with the unveiling of a final document next March.
All major parties supported a national food strategy during the last federal election campaign, although there has been no political movement. Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz says he is waiting to see the results of the various initiatives underway, but they remain too vague to form the basis of policy.
