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Winter

2018

Grains

West

12

THE

FARMGATE

VOXPOPULI

AGRICULTURE SLOWLYGROWSCONSENSUS

PUBLIC TRUST IS A FUNNY THING.

You can’t touch, taste, smell, feel or see

it, but it’s there. It’s always there. With

no concrete traits, the concept of some-

thing as large as public trust can be hard

to gauge, yet it has become increasingly

important to people and companies across

all Canadian industries.

In agriculture, this communal confi-

dence often boils down to a handful of

wide-scale concerns, according to the

latest data from the Canadian Centre for

Food Integrity (CCFI). The Guelph-based

non-profit focuses on providing clear,

unbiased information to average con-

sumers related to Canada’s food system

and to provide those consumers with an

articulate understanding of Canada’s food

system, from farm to fork.

Its 2017 public trust research was

released this past September at a summit

in Calgary, and the big takeaway was that

Canada’s food system has made sizable

gains. Of the 1,300 Canadians surveyed,

43 per cent believe our system is moving

in the right direction (up from 30 per cent

in 2016), while another 43 per cent are

unsure (50 per cent in 2016) and only 14

per cent would say it’s headed down the

wrong track (21 per cent in 2016). All of

these are positive indicators if you ask

CCFI president Crystal Mackay.

“When you see a shift, it means some-

thing, because data is consistent year over

year,” she said. “There’s good support and

love for Canadian food and farming, trust

in food safety, and access to information.

Those are all pieces.”

Of those polled, six in 10 identified two

issues as front and centre: the rising cost

of food and keeping healthy food afforda-

ble. Even as demographics were broken

out into cohorts of moms, millennials and

foodies, these two concerns didn’t budge.

In fact, the answers remain unchanged

from last year, and were both ranked

higher than questions related to health

care and the economy. “I’m surprised they

maintained the top two positions,” said

Mackay. “The public has just reminded

us of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. We

sometimes forget how important it is to

feed our country.”

Among other survey results, respondents

appear to have genuine worries about many

of the same issues as farmers. Fifty-one per

cent of people said they were concerned

about the use of hormones in farm animals,

up three points from last year. And 48 per

cent of people remarked that they are con-

cerned about the use of pesticides in crop

production. Despite all these concerns, 49

per cent of Canadians still said they trust

food produced in Canada more than that

produced in other countries. That can

be a big opportunity or a colossal failure,

depending on whether you view the glass

as half full or half empty.

“This is being served up on a plate,”

said Mackay, regarding the number of

consumers searching for information.

“I’m an optimist. I think with Canadians

and earning public trust, our sector is in a

position of strength.”

She added that consumers want to en-

gage with people in Canada’s food system,

but they don’t know where to begin. It’s

about putting yourself out there, in her

estimation. “Our public is saying, ‘just

because we don’t know about farming

doesn’t mean we are idiots,’” she said. Our

public is saying, ‘we’re valuing trustwor-

thy information.’ When people Google

information, they’re not finding it.”

The report’s findings don’t raise the

eyebrows of Sylvain Charlebois, however.

The dean and professor of food distribu-

tion and policy studies at Dalhousie in

Halifax, NS, said Canada is not an equal

playing field.

“In B.C. and Quebec, the discussion

around the future of food in general, it’s a

little bit more elaborate than in other plac-

es around the country,” he said, adding

Alberta was better than average, but not

in the top tier.

Charlebois credits the CCFI for taking

charge of the conversation and docu-

menting how consumers feel regarding

Canada’s food system. As a professor of

mostly millennials, Charlebois knows that

the next generation is the one the industry

needs to watch out for.

In its annual survey of 1,300 Canadians, the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity found top consumer life concerns include the rising cost of food (62 per cent)

and keeping healthy food affordable (61 per cent). Below are a number of other central concerns.