A Food Policy for Canada: Toward a Balanced Dialogue

The Government of Canada launched a process of public dialogue and consultation on a Food Policy for Canada in the spring of 2017.1 This initiative has as its stated objectives to improve access to affordable food, to improve food safety, to conserve soil, water, and air, and to produce more high-quality foods. It is consistent with initiatives undertaken elsewhere, such as in the UK,2 and aims to improve the performance of the Canadian food system, broadly defined. As such, it presents the prospect that a wide range of groups with an interest can come forward and work together in broad areas of common interest in ways that they commonly do not. The purpose and objectives are tangible (and some perhaps obvious), and beneficial to all. It presents the prospect of improving the alignment of the agri-food system with the values of Canadians.