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The Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph is holding its Inaugural Arrell Food Summit on May 22-23 in Guelph and May 24 in Toronto. The conference includes a panel discussion on the collaboration among industry (e.g. producers and processors), civil society, academics and foundations in support of a National Food Strategy. Panellists are Rory … Read more

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food today (April 4)  released Minister MacAulay’s response to its report of December 11, 2017, “A Food Policy for Canada.” The Government response is in many ways a “what we heard” report from the Government’s own consultations on a National Food Policy held in 2017. Without exception, … Read more

The challenge for any effective National Food Policy is to address both the (a) market-based requirements for a prosperous (e.g. profitable, competitive) food system and (b) the externalities or consequence of commercial activity that affects other parties without being reflected in the cost of the goods or services.  To help meet this challenge food system stakeholders, with … Read more

A commitment to food security by the diversity of players in the agrifood economy will significantly help in the positive evolution of a national food policy. So it is promising that a symposium of influential leaders in food security matters is being held on March 28 in Toronto under the auspices of Feed Opportunity – … Read more

A window of opportunity exists for public, private and civil society stakeholders to agree on a National Food Policy and for the agreed upon NFP to guide stakeholder decsion-making now and in the longer-term. Agreement among stakeholders is dependent upon finding a balance between (a) solely “lassez-faire” or “pure market” instruments for agrifood system solutions … Read more

It should come as no surprise to those discerning what should be the appropriate depth and breadth of a NFP (or of a public-private sector NFP Council) that the large agri-food companies have much to contribute to “triple bottom line” agri-food sector outcomes. One example, within the fields of organic production and their value-added products, … Read more

The Agriculture Institute of Canada conference, April 23 and 24, should provide an opportunity to assess and discuss educational challenges and opportunities in university disciplines related to agri-food sciences.

Farm leaders underwhelmed by 2018 Federal Budget

On February 9th, Health Canada announced online consumer consultations for Front-of-Package (FOP) labelling, The intended purpose for the use of labelling regulations is to encourage Canadians to choose healthier foods, to reduce sodium, sugar and saturated fat consumption, and to incentivize companies to formulate healthier processed foods  Whether or not (a) labelling will accomplish that … Read more

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/once-at-odds-diverse-groups-seek-to-form-council-to-inform-new-national-food-policy/article37364289/