“It’s Good, Canada” will share personal stories of Canadians working across the food supply chain and provide information about farming, transportation, processing, retail and production on its website.

“It’s natural for Canadians to have an interest and questions about food, which touches our lives every day and has been foremost in the minds of Canadians recently,” CCFI board chair Kim McConnell said in a statement.

“’It’s Good, Canada’ captures the spirit of the agriculture-food industry and delivers on the mandate of the CCFI to earn the trust of Canadians by providing credible, fact-based information and research.”

Campaign organizers hope it will begin a conversation with Canadians about food, while helping them understand the value chain. The campaign will also look to bring together people working within the food system, from farmers to forklift drivers.

“This campaign will initiate a substantial conversation regarding the Canadian food system, we will discuss topics such as jobs, food pricing, science and technology, climate change, exports — topics that are of interest to Canadians,” CCFI CEO John Jamieson said in a statement.

“Consumers may be surprised to learn just how many moving parts are involved in the production, processing, packaging, and delivery of food. At a time when consumers want to understand how they can ensure food is available to them, now presents an opportunity to have a conversation with Canadians.”

‘Vulnerabilities’

Another national campaign, “Growing Stronger,” is being launched by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI) and the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute.

Regarding the sector’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the campaign is meant to ask stakeholders, “Could we have done better?”

Organizers plan to connect players within Canada’s food system through an online portal and virtual consultations over the summer and into the fall.

Policy proposals will emerge from that effort and conclusions will be presented at the 2020 Arrell Food Summit before being brought to the CAPI Big Solutions Forum in 2021.

“In the post-COVID-19 world, seeking answers to the key question of ‘how to build a resilient Canadian agri-food system?’ will become more urgent than ever, as this crisis brings to light both where we successfully adapted as well as revealing hidden vulnerabilities in the Canadian agri-food system,” Arrell Food Institute director Evan Fraser said in a statement.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

The post Two national campaigns launched for food supply chains appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

After all, who can survive without food?

Nevertheless, the guidance document issued by Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair recently sent an important signal, one that the industry was desperately waiting to hear — and one that consumers needed to hear.

“We are all going through a period of great uncertainty right now and, as minister of agriculture and agri-food, I assure you that our government is taking all the necessary measures to ensure that Canadians always have access to quality food at affordable prices,” Marie-Claude Bibeau said in an accompanying statement.

Analysts are following the fascinating shift in consumption patterns as shoppers stock up on pantry items and food-service providers rapidly transition from dining room service to takeout and delivery.

“It is hard not to miss the lack of flour in the grocery aisles lately as consumers stock up on the ‘essentials,’” said Bruce Burnett, analyst with Glacier FarmMedia’s MarketsFarm in a research note. “A number of stores are just rolling out the pallets of flour into the store… “

The U.S.-based agricultural lender CoBank has tracked what it calls a “monumental shift” in recent weeks to consumers purchasing nearly 90 per cent of their food at supermarkets, up from 48 per cent.

This has created unforeseen pressures on the supply chains and some have found it hard to quickly adjust.

So far, dairy farmers have borne the brunt of that reality as they dump millions of litres of milk due to sudden changes in market demand from the food-service sector. At the same time, the “stocking up” phenomenon has resulted in temporary shortages in some grocery stores.

While some have used this to condemn supply management in Canada, it’s notable that dairy farmers in the U.S. and Europe are in the same boat. It’s about a supply chain issue, not the marketing system.

It’s still important to note that basic access to food is not in jeopardy.

“There is surely a need to reassure the public of our food security,” three leading agricultural economists say in a research paper released in late March.

“Nothing fundamental has changed with regard to productive capacity in the agri-food system — no livestock or plant disease, or a natural disaster (flood, drought, pests, destruction of property) has occurred that destroys food output,” wrote Al Mussell, Doug Hedley and Ted Bilyea with Agri-Food Economic Systems. “Movement of agri-food product from farms through to consumers has been resilient… “

That said, they highlight the fact that efforts to streamline supply chains, which in agriculture are often lengthy and involving several intermediaries, might backfire in times like these.

When agriculture is viewed solely through an economic lens, redundancy is a bad thing. If however, it is seen as an essential requirement, a little redundancy in the system makes sense.

If, for example, a major meat-processing plant is taken off-line due to a high rate of employee absenteeism or a COVID-19-related isolation order, it quickly spreads back to the farm level. We’ve seen evidence of that already as Olymel has started backing out of delivery contracts.

It’s worrisome for livestock production systems that depend on delivering a steady flow of animals to market, and which quickly run out of space in barns.

The availability of labour, which was already a critical concern for the sector, could become acute on two fronts. While the federal government has made provisions to allow temporary foreign workers into Canada during the pandemic crisis, the logistics of getting them here at a time when airline operators are drastically reducing their flights schedules are sketchy.

As well, housing, sanitation, and working conditions to reduce the risk of an outbreak will be under extra scrutiny. Similar concerns apply to U.S. and Mexican operations that supply many of the fresh fruits and vegetables available to the Canadian market.

Farming in Canada operates within tight windows for seeding and harvest, so even a short-term loss of workers can have a major impact on production.

The one bright spot, at least for grain farmers, is that the downturn in the oil and gas sector has likely increased the availability of workers capable of handing industrial-scale equipment. But there appears to be little by way of infrastructure to connect those workers with the farmers who need seasonal help.

A federal designation of food and its supporting industries as essential doesn’t mean any of these issues evaporate, only that they won’t be relegated to the political back burner.

The post Editorial: COVID-19 is changing the conversation around food appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

But small-scale farmers and farmers’ markets are an important source of innovation in the food system because they are a source of direct consumer feedback, Gialuca Brunori, a professor with the department of agrarian, agri-food and agroecology science at the University of Pisa, Italy said.

Brunori said small-scale farmers who direct market to consumers are constantly trying new products and approaches, some of which are later embraced by industrial food makers.

“In general, consumers like to go to farmers’ markets in Italy and Europe because they look for local food, fresh food, seasonal food and mostly they like to talk to farmers,” he said in an interview. “They want to have a social connection with farmers and from this interaction, innovation can come.”

Foods such as sourdough artesian breads illustrate that consumer appetite for diverse food products is high, which gives larger businesses the assurances they need before making an investment.

He said the private sector offers huge potential for reshaping the food system to offer more nutritious options but key to success will be ensuring the results are real and not contrived.

“There is a market demand for healthy products, but how does the industry address this? In some cases it is addressing it well, in other cases it is not addressing it well,” he said, noting labelling practices can sometimes create confusion and misunderstanding.

Policy support for local food networks is also important to driving change, again because it fosters interaction and dialogue.

Angela Tagtow, executive director for the center for Nutritional Policy and Promotion with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said supporting local food systems is one of four pillars of U.S. government strategy. Since 2001, the USDA has invested $1 billion supporting 40,000 local and regional food businesses.

Since 2009, the number of farmers’ markets in the U.S. has doubled to 8,200, and 42 per cent of schools in the U.S. now source directly from farmers.

Other speakers noted that while trade deals that increase the flow of agricultural goods internationally can improve the seasonal supply of nutritional foods, governments can’t rely on trade policy alone to fix the looming nutritional crisis.

And while speakers representing food industry said the effectiveness of regulatory controls such as sugar taxes or marketing bans are unproven, others said governments must step in when market forces lead consumers towards bad nutritional choices.

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Luckily, Canada has natural advantages that could allow the people of the world to view us as their most trusted food source — if we make smart decisions.

To this point, much of the conversation about global food production has revolved around quantity: How will we produce enough for billions more people? But this is not the toughest challenge.

The bigger question isn’t whether we can produce enough food but whether we can do so sustainably, without bankrupting the planet. We need to pay more attention to natural capital: our water, soil and the biodiversity of living organisms.

Around the world, trust in food production is taking a beating as the depletion of natural capital continues. In many areas, water use is exceeding natural recharge rates. Algae blooms, fostered by the overuse of fertilizer and the run-off of phosphorus from towns and cities, are threatening oceans and lakes. In Europe and elsewhere, pesticide levels in groundwater are a concern. In China, people have come to distrust local food so much that there is a booming trade in online imports. People are also becoming concerned about the links between health and food production.

Although most are not aware of the science, consumers are growing increasingly uneasy about how the food they eat is produced. This concern peeks through in popular movements about GMO foods, organic produce, “buy local” and so forth. But these are only ‘stalking horses’ for the more serious problems.

Must demonstrate progress

Winning trust goes well beyond trying to reassure consumers about how we grow food. Agriculture needs to show how it lives within the world’s limited natural capital and actually enhance it. For instance, the global agriculture sector can shift from just improving its own carbon emissions to soaking up fossil fuel greenhouse gases. Evidence suggests that as the price of carbon rises, properly managed soils might make this eventually possible. Canada needs to be bold in advancing such innovative thinking.

Many countries are going to struggle with rising costs of food production as their environmental burdens increase. Countries that seriously deplete their aquifers are facing water deficits. Others have cleared vast tracts of tropical forests for agriculture. They have been facing consumer boycotts and sanctions as they become substantial GHG emitters and destroyers of ecosystems.

Supply chains are responding. For example, Canada is taking a leading role in sustainable beef production. Our retailers are part of a global effort to source seafood sustainably. Many producers here and abroad are managing pesticides and fertilizer use better. Many food companies are improving energy and water use.

Canada’s ‘big possibility’

Our strategic opportunity is recognizing that many countries will find it challenging to preserve, let alone enhance, natural capital. Canada, on the other hand, possesses an abundance of renewable freshwater and arable land relative to its population. Even our winters provide an advantage, acting as a natural pesticide.

Canada can define a powerful food brand as more and more consumers seek out trusted and more responsible suppliers. This is what the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute calls Canada’s “big possibility.” Canada can position itself as a preferred food source and derive economic benefits from doing so.

But are we doing enough to truly leverage Canada’s potential? We lack a common goal. We can aim to produce more food, to do so sustainably and to improve its nutritional quality — all at the same time. This would place Canada even further at the leading edge of global food innovation. This effort will require strong collaboration across the food system, including agricultural suppliers, food producers, processors and retailers. It also extends to scientists, technology providers, financial institutions, the health community and others.

There would obviously be an important role for government. Tackling the big issues confronting the sector (such as climate change) also requires a more co-ordinated Canadian science agenda. Carbon pricing will change behaviour, drive innovation and allow markets to properly allocate resources. National data and measures can track our progress. These steps will help deepen trust.

But we must be smart about how we impose new regulations. We want to lead without giving our competitors a significant cost advantage. With its natural capital assets, Canada has a chance to improve its competitiveness if it can encourage consumers here and abroad to increasingly value natural capital and better reflect food’s real ecological cost.

The expectations of consumers, our customers and even investors are constantly raising the bar. By coming together as a nation, we can build Canadian agriculture and food into an even greater economic powerhouse.

The post Developing a Canadian food advantage appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The 327-year-old insurance firm says it wouldn’t take much — just three catastrophic weather events hitting major production areas around the globe — to send world food security into a tailspin. And where the food system goes, the world’s political and economic security soon follows.

“Food security has another dimension that has so far been ignored: the vulnerability of the interconnected and overstretched global food system to sudden systemic shocks, such as catastrophic weather events or plant pandemics — many of which are exacerbated by climate change,” the Lloyd’s report Food System Shock says.

“Significant disruption to any of the world’s major food production areas would have devastating impacts on businesses and communities around the world, and yet food security remains poorly understood,” it says.

Those disruptions could lead to significant reductions in production of key commodities: maize (10 per cent), soybeans (11 per cent), and wheat and rice (seven per cent). That could cause wheat, maize and soybean prices to quadruple the average levels experienced during the 20 years prior to the global food price shock of 2007-08. Rice prices could increase by 500 per cent, it says.

“The scenario indicates this series of events has the potential to lead to food riots breaking out in urban areas across the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America, leading to wider political instability and having knock-on effects for a wide range of businesses.”

The impact of high food prices combined with rising political insecurity would severely impact financial markets. “Food system shock could trigger significant claims across multiple classes of insurance, which could be compounded by the potential for food system shock and its consequences to span multiple years. The insurance industry could also be affected by impacts on investment income, and the global regulatory and business environment,” it says.

The industry has a “role to play in improving the resilience of communities, businesses and governments… to ensure they have a greater awareness of the complex risks they face in a globalized world.”

A recently released report commissioned by G7 governments termed climate change “the ultimate threat multiplier,” and said it should be a top foreign policy priority for the major industrialized democracies.

The start of Syria’s crisis was preceded by a brutal five-year drought in its main northeastern food-producing region, the report says. The loss of crops and animals pushed many rural families to already overcrowded cities, increasing unemployment.

One has only to look at the far-reaching effects of the U.S. bird flu epidemic, which caused double-digit reductions in the egg supply, to get a sense of why Lloyd’s and the G7 are raising a red flag.

Or watch the evening news about the rising geopolitical and humanitarian crises caused by refugees forced from their homelands by war and economic or environmental pressures. It’s unnerving to see images of migrants in France forcibly stowing themselves away on trucks bound for the U.K. or of boat people on overcrowded boats.

Or to see the effects and the difficult choices forced on California legislators by a record drought, now into its fourth year. By the way, Environment Canada says this spring on the western Prairies has been the driest since record-keeping began 68 years ago. If widespread rains don’t come within 10 days, production will be severely crimped.

This is the backdrop against which the Manitoba government is convening consultations this summer on agricultural insurance schemes. The potential effects of climate change figure prominently in the task force’s terms of reference.

But here’s the problem. While an important tool, insurance’s ability to compensate and stabilize in the wake of a disaster relies on calculating risks based on long-term trends.

Climate change profoundly disrupts existing trends. So the natural tendency of insurers will be to limit their exposure. That means either the cost will rise or the coverage will fall — perhaps both.

We expect farm lobbyists will fight to the finish to ensure farmers have access to reasonably priced AgriStability and AgriInsurance, as they should.

But farmers’ first and best defence should be agri-resilience — risk mitigation plans that they develop for their own farms.

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While agricultural development and pesticides have been shown to produce sharp declines in many wild bee populations, the study shows these “busy bees” can remain abundant in agricultural landscapes.

The study gives a powerful economic rationale for conserving wild bees. It calculates the value of wild bee pollination to the global food system at $3,000 per hectare of insect-pollinated agricultural land, a number in the billions globally.

But the findings also offer a warning to conservation advocates hoping that economic arguments can justify the preservation of all species. Moral reasons are still needed, researchers say.

“This study shows us that wild bees provide enormous economic benefits, but reaffirms that the justification for protecting species cannot always be economic,” says Taylor Ricketts of the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute For Ecological Economics, a study co-author. “We still have to agree that protecting biodiversity is the right thing to do.”

Fifty-eight researchers worldwide conducted the three-year study, led by Prof. David Kleijn of the Netherlands’ Wageningen University.

The study advances understanding of wild bees’ crucial role in the global food system. About two-thirds of the world’s most important crops benefit from bee pollination.

Wild bees’ agricultural value is now similar to that of honeybees, the study finds. Honeybees are no longer considered wild in many regions due to their intense management.

One reason to preserve bee biodiversity is securing the future resiliency of global pollination systems, Ricketts says. Previous studies associate biodiversity with more stable pollination services over time.

The study includes 90 individual studies of nearly 1,400 crop fields across five continents (North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and South America).

Regular monitoring found nearly 74,000 individual bees from nearly 785 wild bees species on crops. Of 20,000 known bee species, roughly two per cent pollinated 80 per cent of crops.

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“While illnesses were contained in the recalls we examined, I am not confident that the system will always yield similar results,” Auditor General Michael Ferguson said in his fall report to Parliament. Even with the experience of two massive food safety incidents and numerous smaller ones, he said the agency has too many shortcomings in its food safety management system.

Ferguson said the agency does a good job of reacting to food safety issues and removing tainted product from the marketplace, “the weaknesses we found in decision-making and followup stand in the way of the continuous improvement of a system intended to deal with food safety incidents in Canada.”

He also said CFIA inadequately verifies “that inspectors were conducting investigations and recalls according to its policies. We found that the CFIA did not conduct all of the quality assessments it had planned in 2010, 2011 and 2012.”

Ferguson’s findings bring added attention to CFIA as it works its way through a massive rejigging and operational streamlining to fulfil the terms of C52, the Safe Food for Canadians Act, passed earlier this year by Parliament. Food processors have expressed frustration with some of the consultations the agency is conducting.

Last year’s massive recall of beef products from XL Foods in Alberta and the deadly listeria outbreak in 2008 highlighted CFIA’s problems in collecting data from processors which are vital to ensuring all contaminated product is removed from the market. Ferguson said stronger measures are needed to make clear what information processors must provide. “For registered establishments, inspectors should regularly validate that the information maintained by the establishment is complete and accessible.”

The CFIA doesn’t have a clear process for ensuring all recalled product is properly disposed of rather than finding its way back into the food system, Ferguson noted.

CFIA also falls short of following up to verify that recalling firms had corrected the underlying cause of the recall on a timely basis.

Meat processors should be required to correct problems within 60 days, Ferguson said. At the same time, CFIA needs to continue monitoring companies involved in a recall to make sure the corrective actions are fully completed.

CFIA’s implementation of emergency response plans to deal with major recalls has created confusion among staff at headquarters and in the regions, the report said. “Important food safety decisions were not communicated to key stakeholders, including many food safety experts within the agency,” Ferguson said.

Both the food industry and CFIA staff are not familiar with a draft plan for managing food safety incidents.

Ferguson was also critical of reviews conducted by the agency in the aftermath of a major recall. Three reviews conducted during 2012 didn’t meet the CFIA’s own requirements for completeness. “These reviews should include the perspectives of key stakeholders and should examine the strengths and weaknesses of the investigation, the recall process and the emergency management process.”

He said the CFIA needs to do a better job of keeping the paperwork up to date during a food safety investigation and recall, and it must ensure it’s getting the information it needs to monitor the progress. “Incomplete record-keeping limited the agency’s ability to track investigation… We found many examples of incomplete documentation.”

As well, a lack of information “limits the agency’s ability to develop a national picture of how well it is delivering its recall activities and areas for improvement,” Ferguson said.

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The conference and trade show had participants from across the states, Central and South America and myself as the lone Canadian. Des Moines is a mere 10-hour drive to the edge of our Lake Winnipeg watershed, reminding me of our shared neighbourly ecological and economic interests.

In Fargo, I met up with Holly Mawby, a culinary herb farmer as well as the director at the Entrepreneurial Center for Horticulture at Dakota College in North Dakota.

Between the two of us we had a truckload of experiences to share, so the last seven hours of driving passed quickly.

With no less than seven consecutive workshops at any given time, numerous tours and inspiring keynote addresses, the three-day conference was packed with information and insight.

The first workshop I attended was on tractor repair and maintenance. For myself, learning the basics enough to manage a 120-acre hay crop, a windrow-composting yard, bale stacking, feed delivery and yard work has been a painful and expensive learning curve. Surely, this one factor can make or break a beginner who has not grown up in farming.

I attended workshops on urban agriculture and seed saving — good reminders to build more gardens and to do my part in protecting heirloom varieties. As my own farm is on the edge of Winnipeg, I am often called on to support city folks wanting to grow their own food.

While at the conference, I received an email from Food Matters Manitoba asking for input on the idea of building a rentable commercial kitchen for producers to increase value-added products. My travelling companion Holly told me of a government-owned and -managed mobile commercial kitchen that has been operating successfully in North Dakota for several years. Imagine — a kitchen gets dropped off at your farm and all you have to do is plug it in and hook up with a food-grade water hose. A small cash crop of salsa, pesto or raspberry jam could make a great extra revenue stream.

A workshop called “Profitable Niches,” led by Lynn Byczynski, editor of Growing for Market listed her pick of top cash crops. As a good Canadian, I got excited when she mentioned hops for the microbrewery market. We could make a small U-pick with great sex appeal for the home brewing market. So look out for an Aurora Farm Home-Brew U-pick Hops Festival. You heard it here first.

The workshop I gave called “Ideas in Action” invited participants to create an action plan for their farming passions. I based my talk on my own experience over the past nine years building Aurora Farm. My own creative and ethical drive has been tempered with many hard knocks.

I often think about the pioneering farming and homesteading spirit of my grandparents. I think they must be looking down bemusedly at my herd of dairy goats and goat-milk soap business, my alpaca herd and crafty alpaca products, my heritage chickens, my daughter’s horse boarding and coaching business, my gardens, my composting yard, my rainwater collection, my activism. I am living my dream, and it is action packed!

An unexpected bonus for me was sharing a hotel room with Leigh Adcock, the executive director of Women Food and Ag Network. To see the dedication that she and so many other women demonstrated advocating for sustainable farming was truly inspiring. It is something that we simply do not have with such abundance here in Manitoba. It felt great to be surrounded by that energy. I look forward to crossing paths again with Leigh and the other women I met.

I came away from the conference empowered and excited by the new vision for growth. But mostly, my focus is on the next generation and how to provide younger women the mentorship to fulfil their visions. Community building must be at the heart of farming.

Yes, there is a special role that women can and do play in transforming our food systems towards eco-system health and social equality — putting an end to profit through exploitation. I am excited to have a part.

The post Common-sense strategies drive sustainable agriculture appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The current one is 25 years old, said Alison Delf-Timmerman, a board member of the Manitoba Association of Home Economists, which has been asking the province to freshen up the curriculum.

“It definitely needs updating,” she said.“We’re very pleased to have been heard by the Department of Education and look forward to being actively involved with the revision.”

Much has changed over the past three decades, she said.

Increasingly, home economics teachers see ‘deskilled’ students who don’t even know the basics in food preparation, said Delf-Timmerman, a home economics teacher in Treherne, who teaches Grade 9 to 12 students about foods and nutrition, clothing, housing, design and family studies.

The Internet wasn’t around 25 years ago, but students are now highly influenced by whatever they see on it, she said.

“They’re totally reliant on it, and they don’t have the skills to be critical of it,” she said.

Teachers also see students struggling to make sense of issues that weren’t around a quarter-century ago, from online relationships to the sophisticated marketing of food and drink makers.

“They don’t know why we’re concerned that they’re gulping all these energy drinks,” said Delf-Timmerman.

Experienced home economics teachers have been tweaking their lessons, but other teachers are more reliant on the outdated curriculum, she said.

“If that’s not their background, they may not be receiving professional development in current information, and therefore relying on those documents and not adjusting or adapting them to reflect what’s current,” Delf-Timmerman said.

An updated curricula could help students think more critically about food and nutrition, said Joyce Slater, a University of Manitoba human nutritional sciences professor who has studied the state of home economics education in Manitoba.

Teachers told her that the curriculum not only needs to reflect more current nutritional knowledge, but be appropriate to the increasingly diverse student population, she said.

It’s a different world compared to the late 1980s, particularly in the kitchen and grocery store, said Slater. Some students have never turned on a stove or cracked an egg, and food is an increasingly controversial subject. Youth are also overweight and have unhealthy diets, usually because they favour high-caloric, but nutritionally inferior foods.

A revamped home economics foods and nutrition curriculum could play an important role in tackling those problems, said Slater.

“It could equip them, not just around cooking and food preparation, but to interact with a complex food system that is much more complicated than it was 25 or 30 years ago,” she said.

Slater’s study also raised the question of whether home economics classes in foods and nutrition should be mandatory. Teachers told her their program has actually been losing ground since physical education became a mandatory subject several years ago, and was revamped to include a nutritional health component.

Currently, less than half of all Manitoba youth in middle and senior years take home economics, and school divisions don’t have to offer the program. By senior high, just seven per cent are enrolled because at that level it’s just one of many optional classes.

In Ontario, the Ontario Home Economists Association tried to make food education mandatory for all grade levels. The effort was unsuccessful, largely because of concerns that course loads are already too high, but the association plans to keep pressing the issue, a spokesperson said.

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The number of books, television programs and websites dedicated to food — not to mention diets — continue to multiply, but our understanding of food isn’t necessarily getting better, says the 46-page report.

“It is unclear whether households’ attitudes, skills and knowledge about food — their food literacy — have developed along with that interest. In reality, Canadians’ food literacy may not be as high as it could and should be.”

Being able to interpret nutrition labelling on foods is one area of concern. Canadians, especially those lacking numeracy skills, struggle with them despite efforts to raise awareness about Nutrition Facts tables, says the report, entitled a.

The low percentage of children and adolescents regularly participating in family meal preparation is another concern and may be leading to more “deskilled” generations to come.

Canadians also waste a lot of food, and the report suggests the root of the problem may be that relatively few households have and follow a food budget.

“Many households could improve their planning and purchasing habits,” it says.

Food safety is another area of concern. While individuals generally know how to store, handle and prepare food, the report says, “they do not always put that knowledge to use” and “tend to mistakenly believe that their risk of exposure to food-related hazards in the home is minimal.”

As well, immigrants and some Aboriginal peoples face additional barriers to food literacy, it says.

Lack of food skills in youth also persists into adulthood, increasing the risk of ill health for the next generation, it says.

“Many of the most common chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke), cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, and others (such as oral diseases, and bone and joint disorders) — are linked to unhealthy diets aand subsequent overweight and obesity rates,” the report notes.

The issue also spills into other areas.

“For example, whether new production and processing technologies that promise improvements to safety, yields, and/or environmental performance will be permitted for use, or are actually put into use, depends to some extent on whether households understand and have confidence in those technologies.”

There’s not a lot of data on Canadians’ food literacy, but numerous studies elsewhere have found health levels improve when people have a better understanding of nutrition and food preparation. A Health Canada review of international cooking skills literature has also concluded “that there is an association between food literacy and dietary quality, frequency of family meals and involvement in food preparation activities among adolescents and young adults.”

The report makes a series of recommendations, including making nutritional information more effective and accessible for household use; tailoring food literacy programs to high-risk populations and community needs fostering hands-on parental involvement in food literacy programming; creating guiding principles for advertising to children; and incorporating food literacy into school curricula.

The report stresses that nutrition education for children is especially important as a positive influence on children’s food-related knowledge and skills, eating and physical activity behaviour, and health status.

The latter is something Canadian home economists have long advocated. The Ontario Home Economics Association recently called for mandatory home economics education in Ontario schools. A Manitoba assessment of foods and nutrition studies in schools also concluded updating the home economics curriculum could significantly improve children and youth’s skills and understanding of their food system.

Improving food literacy has also been a key theme in other policy proposals attempting to map out a long-term national food strategy.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture says government should ensure every Canadian child by age 16 should know how to plan and prepare at least six nutritious meals. A 2009 report from the Canadian Agri-Food Policy calls for a ‘whole of society’ approach that puts an informed consumer at the centre of a healthier food system.

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