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Food security, protection a tough chew for feds

In the wake of NAFTA renegotiations, social media has been inundated with calls to “Buy Canadian” to protect our home-front industries, the impetus coming from a fear of the low-quality, hormone-enriched milk that could now flood our food aisles in o

In the wake of NAFTA renegotiations, social media has been inundated with calls to “Buy Canadian” to protect our home-front industries, the impetus coming from a fear of the low-quality, hormone-enriched milk that could now flood our food aisles in our grocery stores. Such nationalist sentiments play into the notion that we have a higher quality of life, supported by the idea of superior foods, here in Canada.

But how true is this? The number of foods that we now import from our NAFTA partners has risen exponentially, and we also import foods processed in other countries, which limits our abilities to control food quality. This has been evidenced through food recalls for E. coli, salmonella, and Listeria. And the latest news has been the awareness of Glyphosate (Roundup) found in our foods.

At the heart of all of this should be the question of food security and the lack of protection that exists for Canadian consumers. The globalization of the world’s economies has affected us, as it has our American cousins, causing hardships for many Canadian families. This leaves little choice for Canadian consumers when it comes to the staples needed to survive. The prices of food have risen drastically over the past few years at a much higher rate than our incomes, and this leaves many to fall behind, which means that they will choose the lower-quality food that helps stretch their limited budgets.

It is not part of our political culture to have a government that has control of our economy, but we also have to be aware that there is still a role for government to play in shielding Canadians from unscrupulous businesses that do benefit from these situations. But is the government doing enough to protect Canadians, or do corporate and foreign government interests influence them more? The recent NAFTA (USMCA) talks seem to suggest that consumers were more of a second thought (or even a tertiary one), as the dairy sector was compromised and then promised economic support by the Canadian government. What about some efforts to protect the Canadian consumer? Though the market-based economy suggests consumers vote with their dollars, this only occurs if we have a true choice.

It is difficult at this time to truly assess the impact of this new agreement, though on paper it looks like much will remain the same. Is there, however, a better means of securing affordable, quality food for Canadians? Is this an impossible request, or is it time for our government to honour its relationship with Canadian citizens?

John Kennair is an international consultant and doctor of laws who lives in St. Albert.

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