Trudeau’s Ukraine visit sets stage for Canada as global food leader

As the old saying goes, the world needs more Canada, but with a global food security crisis unfolding, what the world really needs is more food. During his recent visit to Ukraine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made food a central topic, showing how the government can deliver more Canada and more food. Now Canada should take the next steps and prioritize leadership on agriculture and food in foreign and domestic policy. During his trip in early May, Trudeau committed to help Ukraine find options to export its wheat and corn to ease global food security concerns. He also announced an additional $25-million commitment to the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP). Now that he is back, the government needs to follow those commitments with serious action. Before the PM’s trip to Ukraine, Ted Bilyea, a food expert and a distinguished fellow at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, and John Gruetzner, a foreign affairs expert, called for the UN to create a humanitarian food security shipping corridor to get food out of Ukraine. Now that the prime minister has taken up the call, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and Canada's ambassador to the UN Bob Rae need to continue to prioritize it. Tyler McCann is the managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. Photograph courtesy CAPI As its fifth largest donor, Canada should lead efforts to increase funding to the World Food Programme. In 2021, donations to the WFP fell $5.2-billion short of its requirements. In 2022, those requirements will be far greater. Next to getting food out of the war zone, increasing funding to the WFP is likely the single most significant step governments can take to alleviate an immediate food security crisis. Canada should also embrace agriculture and food in its foreign policy in the long term. Food supplies were tightening, and food prices were increasing long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Canada should embrace its position as one of a shrinking number of countries with significant surplus capacity and use agriculture and food to punch above its weight on the global stage. Before the invasion began shutting down supply chains, many Asian countries were already struggling with food security. In China, India, Sri Lanka, and across the region, governments are struggling to deal with food security, local food supplies, and the fallout from poorly executed policies. Canada’s agriculture and food may be our greatest strategic assets in the region. Agriculture and food should be deployed more effectively and be a driving force behind the government’s new Indo-Pacific Strategy. Canada recently joined the U.S.-led Sustainable Productivity Growth Coalition, working alongside countries to find ways to increase production while using fewer inputs and less land. Canada should commit the political and financial capital needed to be a leader in this coalition. Later this year, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau will co-chair an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development agriculture ministers meeting. Between now and then, and afterwards, Canada should look at what steps it can take to be an agriculture food leader, writes Tyler McCann. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Food waste impacts food security and sustainability around the world. Canada can use its experience with harvesting, storing, and shipping food to help countries ensure more of the food produced gets to consumers that need it, a form of development assistance that will improve local economies, reduce emissions, and improve food security. For Canada to be a leader internationally, it must also walk the talk at home. Research and development will drive many of the solutions the world requires. Canada should increase investments in public research and development, encourage greater private sector innovation and commercialization, and create global partnerships to get R&D results into the hands of the people who need it. Funding research and innovation are important, but Canada also needs to make it easier to take innovations off the lab bench and onto farms. A first step would be to finalize modernizing the rules for gene editing. Gene-editing will play a critical role in meeting food security and environmental needs, but Canada is falling behind. As part of its climate plan, the government announced a 30 per cent fertilizer emission reduction target. Given the critical role fertilizer plays in food production and farm profitability, the target has caused significant concern. The government must exercise extreme caution as it moves forward to avoid unintended consequences. There are efforts to increase efficiency to meet the target, but the greater challenge will likely be securing enough fertilizer in a protracted period of tight fertilizer supplies. Developing a strategy to ensure fertilizer affordability and accessibility should become a government priority. Federal, provincial, and territorial governments are in the middle of renegotiating their next five-year policy framework. The need for a balance between the environment, food security, and the economy has never been greater. Governments need to be careful to avoid putting too great an emphasis on any one of the three. The government has taken steps in the right direction. Later this year, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau will co-chair an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development agriculture ministers meeting that aims to deliver policy principles that can help increase productivity, sustainability, and resilience in agriculture and agri-food. Between now and then, and afterwards, the entire Canadian government should look at what steps it can take to be an agriculture and food leader at home and around the world. The world needs more Canada, but it really needs more Canadian food. Tyler McCann is the managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. His career in agri-food policy includes working for federal ministers, farm groups, industry associations and agri-food businesses. He also farms with his family in Western Quebec. The Hill Times