On Feb. 4, Prime Minister Harper and U.S. President Obama created a U.S.-Canada Regulatory Co-operation Council (RCC) with a mandate to reduce regulatory red tape at the border. The leaders pledged to remove barriers to the trade of goods between the two countries, with specific reference to food. Food and agricultural products were highlighted because
Will The New Recipe Work?
The Ambassador’s Cheerios
David Jacobson, U.S. ambassador to Canada, gave this year’s Fulbright Lecture at McGill University on Canada-U. S. relations. He used the occasion to argue that the two countries should sit down together and negotiate greater regulatory harmonization, especially in areas such as food standards. He illustrated his point by making fun of the “unnecessary” differences
Food Fortification: Still Looking For The Sweet Spot
Canada has one of the most restrictive discretionary food fortification laws in the western world. Health Canada officials spent the last 15 years trying to develop a comprehensive new policy to allow food companies greater scope for adding vitamins and minerals to their food products. But last year the health minister stopped the proposed new
Government Can’t Do Much More Against Scary Stories
Every time we get a recall of imported food we have another round of huffing and puffing that we’re not doing enough to protect Canadians; the media spend a day or two pushing scary stories about the awful dangers of imported food. The most recent alarm originated from the release of an internal Canadian Food
Why Don’t The Chinese Eat Canadian Food?
A big question in the news these days has been whether the Chinese will buy part or all of Saskatchewan’s PotashCorp. Underlying this is the recognition that China has a huge problem coming at it: how to feed itself. With little arable land and a growing middle class – estimated by some to be 700
Buy Local — But Ignore The “Locavores” Nonsense
You can’t open the food section of your newspaper these days without another sermon on the virtues of eating local. The eulogy takes as self-evident the moral superiority of the gospel of locavorism: relocalizing the food supply promotes sustainability because it reduces the fossil fuel needed to deliver the food. Buying local makes a good
Products Of Ottawa, 2009-10 Edition – for Sep. 2, 2010
The third session of the 40th Parliament is adjourned until Sept. 20. What are the changes to federal food law since last summer? Here is a brief selection: CFIA MINISTERIAL ADVISORY BOARD Following up on the recommendation of its listeria investigator, on March 31, 2010, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz finally announced he intends to proceed
Caution: Reforms Packaged Under Pressure
The new “Product of Canada” guidelines came into effect on Dec. 31, 2008 and have been published as the new paragraph 4.19 in the Guide to Food Labelling: “a food product may claim ‘Product of Canada’ when all or virtually all major ingredients, processing and labour used to make the food product are Canadian.” The
CFIA’s Powers Have A Long Reach
ACanadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) inspector stopped at a farm and talked with the old farmer: “I’m here to inspect your farm.” The old farmer replied, “You better not go in that field.” The CFIA inspector replied in a solemn tone, “You don’t seem to understand. I have the authority of the federal government with
Science Loses In Raw Milk Debate
While most healthy people will recover in a week or so from small exposure to the pathogens that can be present in raw milk, for people with weakened immune systems such as the elderly, children and people with cancer, organ transplants or HIV/AIDS, exposure is dangerous, even fatal. There is a broad scientific consensus that
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
