Tapping into Canada’s value-added food sector

Jul 15, 2019

Only about 50 per cent of the food grown in Canada is processed here, a Senate report found

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Canada’s value-added food industry is full of potential, the Senate committee on agriculture and forestry found.

The committee spent about one year visiting facilities and speaking with stakeholders in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia to learn about growth opportunities in the sector and barriers preventing such prospects.

The committee’s findings are published in its report: Growing Canada’s Value-Added Food Sector.

One of the sector’s main hurdles is a lack of processing facilities.

Canada only processes about half of the food the country’s farmers produce, the committee found.

“I certainly found that to be surprising and I had hoped it might be more,” Sen. Diane Griffin, chair of the Senate ag committee, told Farms.com. “When you consider the huge acreages that we have of some products like wheat, canola, lentils and soybeans, it’s not possible for us to eat everything we have in Canada. And right now, we don’t have enough facilities to process” these crops.

The report contains nine recommendations for the feds to consider in reaching an improved national value-added agri-food sector.

The first proposal addresses a national labour shortage.

The ag industry needs an additional 59,000 workers, Griffin said. She hopes the federal government’s newly announced Agri-Food Immigration Pilot will help address those concerns.

“I’m hoping it’s going to be a very useful tool,” she said. “It would be a huge first step and would send the right signals. I hope it works well and, within a relatively short period, we see it nationwide.”

Another item the federal government should address is transportation.

Especially for the landlocked Prairie provinces, being able to transport products to their secondary locations in a manageable amount of time is important, Griffin said.

“Transportation is a huge factor for them,” she said. “There’s places where there are bottlenecks either on highways or on the railway. Transportation is very important if you’re going to move agricultural – especially fresh agricultural – products.”

Other recommendations in the committee’s report include supporting supply management, innovation and increasing trade.

The federal government has 150 days to respond to the report.

Planning for some significant changes would be long-term because the feds likely need provincial cooperation, but Ottawa can make some updates on its own, Griffin said.

Senator Diane Griffin

Video: From Conventional to Regenerative: Will Groeneveld’s Journey Back to the Land

"You realize you've got a pretty finite number of years to do this. If you ever want to try something new, you better do it."

That mindset helped Will Groeneveld take a bold turn on his Alberta grain farm. A lifelong farmer, Will had never heard of regenerative agriculture until 2018, when he attended a seminar by Kevin Elmy that shifted his worldview. What began as curiosity quickly turned into a deep exploration of how biology—not just chemistry—shapes the health of our soils, crops and ecosystems.

In this video, Will candidly reflects on his family’s farming history, how the operation evolved from a traditional mixed farm to grain-only, and how the desire to improve the land pushed him to invite livestock back into the rotation—without owning a single cow.

Today, through creative partnerships and a commitment to the five principles of regenerative agriculture, Will is reintroducing diversity, building soil health and extending living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible. Whether it’s through intercropping, zero tillage (which he’s practiced since the 1980s) or managing forage for visiting cattle, Will’s approach is a testament to continuous learning and a willingness to challenge old norms.

Will is a participant in the Regenerative Agriculture Lab (RAL), a social innovation process bringing together producers, researchers, retailers and others to co-create a resilient regenerative agriculture system in Alberta. His story highlights both the potential and humility required to farm with nature, not against it.