Is our food system a disaster? Widespread food shortages on grocery store shelves make some think so. In the early days of COVID-19, when I saw empty shelves for some dairy products, flour and toilet paper I got pretty spooked about food security. When I heard about packing plants becoming rife with virus, hundreds of […] Read more
Tag Archives food
Is North America’s food supply system a disaster or a success story?
Under the stress of COVID-19 both the flaws and resiliency of the Canadian and U.S. food systems have become popular topics
Will the wild changes in the grocery, food and farming systems survive the pandemic?
What will create lasting changes and what is transitory?
The food, farming and grocery sectors have been shocked by the coronavirus crisis. Packing plants have been temporarily shuttered, creating crises on hog farms and cattle feedlots that can’t move animals they have no space for. Food products that everybody has taken for granted for decades, such as flour and yeast, have become suddenly scarce, […] Read more
Are crops and meat Canada’s best soft power tools?
An agricultural think tank thinks they could be
Are you hoarding toilet paper? How about white flour? Cheese? From trips to my local supermarket and posts on my social media accounts, it seems like lots of people are. If you were planning to spend this month baking bread and using a lot of toilet paper and haven’t already stocked up, forget about it. […] Read more
Supply? Demand? What are we dealing with?
Economists and analysts are wrestling with enormous uncertainty
Most of what goes into creating the price of crops and livestock comes from supply and demand. More supply and less demand? Probably lower prices. More demand and less supply? Probably higher prices. It’s a little bit more complex than that, but those are some of the basics. But how do you project future prices […] Read more
Chill days of spring
Thinks about neighbours, friends, everybody you deal with in this fraught spring
Recent days on the eastern Prairies have been surreal, as beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the teens have melted snow and allowed the self-isolated masses to get outside into backyards, front steps and balconies, despite the overwhelming gloom emanating from every news broadcast and new story people can see and read. Today, as ice […] Read more
Consumers’ views a factor for protein sector
Consider the hot dog. Is it a sandwich? How the hot dog seems to consumers says a lot to plant protein food product developer and entrepreneur James Battershill about how the plant protein marketplace needs to be approached. “The reality is that consumers don’t think of a hot dog as a sandwich,” said Battershill, who […] Read more
Verification systems necessary for best practices
The word sustainability means something different to everyone, and this is somewhat problematic. If I were to ask an entire room of farmers if their farm is sustainable, likely every one of them would raise their hands. It seems odd, considering that no two farms are the same. Current sustainability dialogue for grain crops is […] Read more
Food fundamentalism: is food the new religion?
Science becomes a less effective way to defend agricultural practices as food beliefs begin to border on ideology
It’s Thanksgiving, the time of year when Canadian farmers gather with family to celebrate the bounty of the harvest and then argue with urban relatives who believe that modern agriculture, with its genetically modified food and factory farms, is the embodiment of evil. The debates over food production can go on for hours as rural […] Read more
Scary news can come from sketchy sources
Food reporting can be tough. The safety of food is very important in our society, and that can be exploited. In all but a small number of communities across North America, tap water is safe to drink. Even so, we bought $2.49 billion in bottled water last year in Canada, nearly all of that in […] Read more
Recalled flour products focus of lawsuit
An Alberta law firm has launched a class action lawsuit against Smucker Foods of Canada Corp. following the nationwide food safety recall that involved Robin Hood all-purpose flour milled in Saskatoon. James H. Brown and Associates of Edmonton filed a statement of claim on March 31 against Smucker Foods of Canada Corp. Claimants are seeking […] Read more
