OPINION: Canadian food self-sufficiency starts by empowering farmers

Whereas there is no such thing as a scarcity of massive points on this election, we all know that our meals sovereignty and self-sufficiency are important to the way forward for Canada, and voters are proper to count on actual solutions and clear management.

For greater than 50 years, Canada’s provide administration system has delivered one thing exceptional: a dependable provide of high-quality, nutritious meals produced by Canadian farmers for Canadian households. That’s not simply good coverage—it’s good for folks. At a time of a lot uncertainty, it’s extra vital now than ever to have the suitable programs in place to make sure Canada’s skill to feed itself at the moment and into the longer term.

On daily basis, over 1,200 Canadian egg farmers and farm households produce recent, native eggs from Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia and in every single place in between. Collectively, our business helps over 18,500 jobs throughout the nation and contributes $1.3 billion to Canada’s GDP yearly. These aren’t summary numbers—they’re households, companies, and rural communities that witness firsthand the advantages of provide administration.

What makes this meals system so distinctive is its made-in-Canada logic. Provide administration empowers egg farmers to match manufacturing with demand, which in flip offers predictability for farmers, meals processors, and shoppers. That’s the form of good, self-sufficient mannequin Canadians depend on. It’s a system that focuses on coordination, collaboration, and a deep respect for the meals we produce, the individuals who produce it, and the Canadians who get pleasure from it.

As we’ve seen lately, provide administration has helped Canada stay resilient, and it’ll proceed to make sure we’ve sturdy home meals provide chains even within the face of exterior market shocks and provide chain challenges. That’s not simply an financial benefit—it’s a nationwide safety asset. In truth, with the continuing geopolitical tensions, over 90 per cent of Canadians are satisfied of the necessity to preserve Canada’s provide administration system.

All through the marketing campaign, we’ve been listening to lots about affordability, jobs, native companies and constructing an environment friendly, inexperienced financial system. The excellent news is that provide administration already delivers on many of those priorities, and its continued success is determined by ongoing political management. Management that values sturdy home meals manufacturing in a quickly shifting world financial system and acknowledges that Canadians need home meals self-sufficiency. For this reason we’re encouraging candidates from all political stripes to face sturdy with our farmers and defend provide administration because the important pillar of Canada’s meals system it’s.

Canadians wish to know that after they go to the grocery retailer, the eggs they purchase are recent, native and produced with care. They need insurance policies that help the farmers who reside of their communities and contribute to their economies. They need the made-in-Canada meals they belief.

Provide administration isn’t only a mannequin for agriculture—it’s a mannequin for the form of Canada we wish to reside in. Canada’s egg farmers wish to our leaders to indicate their sturdy help for this elementary system that delivers stability and self-sufficiency to our meals system.

— Roger Pelissero is a third-generation egg farmer and Chair of Egg Farmers of Canada

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