The left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives typically issues an “alternative budget” in the weeks leading up to the federal budget, calling for more support for working class interests.
On the farm policy side, recommendations typically call for more support for small and family farmers.
This year, the centre gave the agricultural section of its alternative budget to Food Secure Canada (FSC), which used it to call for a national food strategy emphasizing local food and healthy eating and criticizing the current policy of promoting food exports.
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“Having no national food policy is expensive, costing Canadian taxpayers billions in stopgap programs that don’t address the underlying issues,” said a statement from FSC, which bills itself as the place where “agriculture, environment, health, food and justice intersect.”
It called on the Conservatives to “put food in the federal budget” with a series of specific proposals:
- A $650 million annual program to support beginning and retiring farmers, tax incentives for sustainable agricultural practices and education.
- A local food procurement plan that would require federal institutions to set a target of using local produce for at least 25 percent of their food needs.
- A $100 million program to enhance nutritious food security in northern Canada.
The basic concept of the FSC proposals is “food sovereignty,” which reduces dependence on exports, imports and corporate control of the food system.
It notes that almost 900,000 Canadians used food banks each month in 2012, some farmers are leaving the business and Canada is one of the few industrialized countries without a student nutrition program.
“Having no national food policy is expensive,” said the food section of the alternative budget.
“We could be saving tax dollars by preventing chronic diet-related diseases, we could be stimulating local economies by encouraging consumption of local foods, we could be protecting and enhancing our environment by promoting ecological food production.”
As well, policies could help alleviate widespread hunger, it said.
“Yet we are doing none of these things.”
The document argued that while the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the Conference Board of Canada are working on national food strategies, “both of these initiatives are primarily about the prosperity of the industrial food system, now the biggest and one of the most concentrated manufacturing sectors in Canada.”
The CFA argues that its national food policy discussions are primarily aimed at making sure primary producers are part of and benefit from a national food strategy.
All political parties pledged to promote a national food strategy during the 2011 election campaign, but agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said recently his government has no deadline for it, and competing proposals remain too unfocused to prompt government action.
In April, the conference board will bring together scores of industry players at a Toronto conference to discuss continuing work on the project and to promise launch of a board national food strategy next year.
It will lean heavily on co-operation between producers, processors and retailers.
