Conference Board of Canada’s Food Strategy and 3rd Food Summit
Posted: March 31, 2014
Categories: Food in the News / Research
Click to go to the 3rd Canadian Food Summit post-event page.
The Conference Board of Canada (CBoC) hosted their third annual Food Summit at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on March 18-19, 2014. This year’s summit theme, “From Strategy to Action,” refers to the unveiling of the CBoC’s Canadian Food Strategy. The report’s five key elements are industry prosperity, healthy food, food safety, household food security, and environmental sustainability. These elements linked to eight high-level goals:
- Goal 1: The food sector is viable and prosperous.
- Goal 2: The food sector is innovative, competitive, and growing.
- Goal 3: Up-to-date policies, laws, and regulations address food industry and household interests.
- Goal 4: Canadians eat healthier and have balanced diets.
- Goal 5: Canadians have low rates of diet-related chronic diseases.
- Goal 6: Canada is the world leader in food safety.
- Goal 7: All Canadians have access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food.
- Goal 8: The food sector is an excellent environmental performer that increases food production sustainably.
The report was prepared for the CBoC’s Centre for Food in Canada (CFIC), with funding provided by CFIC investors. You can access a copy of the report by creating a free e-library account on the CBoC website. The full Summit agenda and speakers’ presentations are available online.
In the report overview, the authors state that, “The breadth and scope of these elements make [the CBoC strategy] more comprehensive than most of the world’s national food strategies, which tend to be more industry-focused… it reflects that widely held view of Canadians that our food system is bigger than our food industries; and it includes multiple economic, social and environmental dimensions.” True to the report’s claim, the desired outcomes have a wide and varied scope: international trade liberalization, supply management reform, a national traceability system for foods and ingredients, the protection of biodiversity, the decline of obesity rates, and access to safe and nutritious affordable food for disadvantaged, low-income and at-risk Canadians.
Nevertheless, the report’s attention and complexity is concentrated on industry prosperity, with 25 of the 62 desired outcomes connected to that first key element. Industry success is positioned as the foundation that will enable the success of other outcome areas: “Industry is an engine that can help fuel our progress on the other elements [beyond food supply] that are vital to Canada’s interests and Canadians’ well-being and quality of life” (Bloom, 2).
The CBoC intends to establish a Canadian Food Observatory to monitor the food system’s progress in achieving this Strategy’s goals. As their Observatory develops assessment metrics, it will be important to see that more substantial attention is given to representative indicators of all Canadians’ quality of life and the sustainability of a healthy and ecological food system. If a strategy positions industry success as key to the realization of social and ecological goals, then the development of indicators should concentrate on the complexity of these issues.
The CBoC strategy is the third national food strategy created and developed by non-government stakeholders. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture released its National Food Strategy in 2011, the same year that Food Secure Canada released the first edition of its national strategy, A People’s Food Policy for Canada. As of the release of the CBoC report, the federal government has yet to endorse any of these goals or strategies. Sustain Ontario looks forward to public endorsement and support of a national food strategy by the Canadian government.
References
Michael Bloom. From Opportunity to Achievement: Canadian Food Strategy. Ottawa: The Conference Board of Canada, 2014. Access the strategy.
Resetting The Table: A People’s Food Policy for Canada. Food Secure Canada, 2011. Access the strategy.
Towards a National Food Strategy: a framework for securing the future of food. Canadian Federation of Agriculture, 2011. Access the strategy.