How technology can mitigate Canada’s food inflation crisis

One hundred years ago, Canadians were devoting more than one-third of their earnings to putting food on their tables. Thanks to the invention and implementation of massive food sector innovations throughout the 20th century, that figure steadily shrank to less than 20 per cent by 1970, coming all the way down to 10 per cent by 2010. Food security and overall standards of living improved for each successive generation as food continually became a smaller portion of the family budget. Until now. In the 2020s, Canada has headed in the wrong direction. By 2021, food was back up to 15.4 per cent of Canadian household spending. Now, food price inflation continues climbing at an unsustainable rate, and groceries are again gobbling up more and more of our budgets—reversing a century-long trend towards affordability and improved food security. This backward slide towards food becoming more expensive for all—and outright unaffordable for many—is negatively impacting the physical and emotional health of millions of Canadians. Dana McCauley is the CEO of the Canadian Food Innovation Network. Photograph courtesy of CFIN Food cost inflation is exacerbated by daunting logistical challenges throughout the food system. For example, Canada’s food and beverage sector is dealing with soaring input costs and labour shortages as a generation of skilled workers approaches retirement. Additionally, unfathomable quantities of food are wasted at every step of the food supply chain. A new report on food price volatility from the House Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee indicates a strong interest from the government in understanding some of these challenges. However, the problem of food inflation is complex and multi-faceted. To create effective mitigations, the discussion must expand beyond grocery store competition and labour constraints to include a deep dive into technology adoption. As highlighted in our recent whitepaper, the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) considers the concurrent escalation of grocery prices and widespread supply chain challenges as symptomatic of a food sector in desperate need of wholesale modernization. Innovation and technological adoption in the food industry is an urgent imperative if we are serious about tackling food price inflation in a holistic and sustainable way. CFIN is Canada’s fastest-growing food business community with over 5,000 members representing every link in the food value chain. We know technological adoption will help combat food inflation because every day we see incredible solutions that are helping our members to find more margin. Advanced robotics is filling labour gaps while creating safer and more efficient manufacturing processes; biotechnologies are creating sustainable food ingredients and reducing food production costs; and new packaging and processing technologies are minimizing waste and spoilage, ensuring that more food ends up on dinner plates instead of piled in landfills. The list of inspiring examples goes on. Canada has no shortage of ingenuity and technological innovations that can help us flatten the food cost inflation curve, but implementing and scaling them remains a challenge. Canada is a vast and diverse country. Industry, governments, and innovators operating in different geographies, and different parts of the food industry are often disconnected, contained in their own silos to our collective detriment. There is still enormous unmet potential for innovation within Canada’s $35-billion food manufacturing and processing sector—and fulfilling that potential represents an historic opportunity to combat food inflation and supercharge economic growth. To capitalize on this opportunity, we call on the federal government to increase research and development funding to de-risk new food technologies and accelerate their path to market. This should be paired with a reassessment of approval procedures for new food products and technologies. Regulations should reflect modern technological capabilities, and minimize bureaucratic delays to ensure we are not needlessly hindering potential solutions to food price inflation. Most critically, any federal investments in food innovation must prioritize collaboration amongst industry, academia, government, and investors. This holistic policy approach has already proven to be highly effective in other countries. In the Netherlands, network-based organizations like Food Valley NL and Food Innovation Hub Europe have accelerated the country’s transformation into a global leader in food innovation and food affordability. Without a thriving Canadian food innovation ecosystem, effective solutions to food cost inflation will be unnecessarily held back. CFIN has proven that innovation thrives when there is a density of ideas. By bringing food professionals together, ideas evolve and synergize into novel solutions that would never otherwise have come about. We have seen this network effect accelerate technological progress among the early adopters of CFIN’s community and the more than 70 projects we’ve invested in since 2021. Combating food inflation is both an economic and moral imperative—we can no longer afford to approach the problem piecemeal. By championing a policy agenda that fosters collaboration and technological innovation, policymakers will help us to build an affordable and dynamic food sector—one where the promise of technology fuels progress and continued prosperity for successive generations of Canadians. Dana McCauley is the CEO of the Canadian Food Innovation Network. The Hill Times

How technology can mitigate Canada’s food inflation crisis

The escalation of grocery prices and widespread supply chain challenges are both symptomatic of a food sector in desperate need of wholesale modernization.

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How technology can mitigate Canada’s food inflation crisis

The escalation of grocery prices and widespread supply chain challenges are both symptomatic of a food sector in desperate need of wholesale modernization.

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