A Food Policy for Canada

November 8, 2017

After a busy few months of gathering the opinions and ideas of thousands of Canadians, work on developing A Food Policy for Canada – a first for this country – is underway. A food policy is a way to address issues related to the production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food.

Consultations to date indicate that priorities of stakeholders include growing more high-quality food and helping the Canadian food sector expand and innovate; ensuring Canadians have access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food; increasing Canadians’ ability to make healthy and safe food choices, and the prevention of food fraud; and ensuring the sustainable production and management of natural resources, and the elimination of food waste.

Almost 45,000 people from all provinces and territories shared their opinions in an online survey. The survey was just one part of this public engagement effort, which also included a Food Summit held in Ottawa in June, and six regional, face-to-face consultation sessions that took place throughout August and September.

This government-wide effort is the start of an ongoing collaboration on food-related initiatives with partners across government, with plans to introduce A Food Policy for Canada in 2018.