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AD: We need to invest in the innovation that’s happening with entrepreneurs in the food and health sectors – taking pulse grains and turning them into high-protein or high-fiber products that could be consumed, for example – because those things are so intricately linked now. Food is medicine, right?
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You’re seeing this in the announcement the prime minister just made to invest back in manufacturing, processing and packing. Making sure we have the ability to actually create these products here at home seems to be coming back as a strong thesis, which is exciting for me. And then helping with export and trade agreements to make sure we can actually get the exported goods into other nations.
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I’m thrilled to see a national agri-food and agriculture strategy, with effort and dollars being put behind it. It’s being stood up as a strategic pillar, whereas before it was treated like a forgotten child.
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FP:The trade war, U.S. tariffs and geopolitical conflicts have brought sovereignty to the forefront. Why should food sovereignty be a national priority?
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AD: You are not a sovereign nation if you don’t control your food supply. That, I think, is just a simple truth. With all the trips I’ve taken around the world lately, you’re starting to see how important it is with what’s going on in the geopolitical realm, with food security and food supply, and as we see the wars and this stoppage of fertilizer or fuel and the supply chain getting disrupted.
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I can tell you that for every nation I have spoken to, food security is almost always top two in their list of priorities. If it’s a top priority for most, if not all nations, then why are we not investing our attention and (building) infrastructure to support it?
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FP:Last year, you wrote about the “solo, self-funded trade mission” you took to Japan, Thailand and Singapore. What stood out on your travels that could be applied back home?
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AD: We need to be louder and prouder about our brand and what we can provide the world and make sure that everything that leaves this country is branded as Canadian. It’s easy to say, “I’ve got canola,” but it needs to be “Canadian canola” made into these products. It needs to be elevated from a brand perspective.
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I think we also need to make sure that we’re supporting the Canadian brand here at home in a different way than we have been. There’s a lot of confusion about what’s Canadian and what’s not. There have been a lot of challenges at the retail level to make sure things are identified properly, and then there’s the need for manufacturing to support them. What I’ve learned in other countries is that they pay attention to it, they invest in it and they are not sitting back and waiting for another catastrophe to happen.
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FP:A big issue for many Canadians right now is food inflation and the price of groceries, which are influenced by several different factors. But in terms of what we can control, what do you think Canada can do to fight food inflation and rising costs?
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AD: You did hear the prime minister talk about some of the things (the government is) doing to help ease costs, and one of them is (investing in) greenhouses and infrastructure to ensure our production is closer to home so we’re not importing as much — which, with today’s technology, will hopefully reduce costs. It’s also just being less dependent on the U.S. markets and managing our supply chain better because we’re very much subject to what’s happening in the world.
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Lots of people suggest policies that could make a big difference. I’m not an economist and I don’t know enough about what will or won’t move the needle that way, but I would suggest that it’s homegrown production and supporting the manufacturing and processing of food that will help with pricing. There’s only so much we can control, but we need to control what we can.
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