Farmers concerned with proposed pandemic preparedness bill

Dec 17, 2024

By Mark Reusser, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

It’s been almost five years since the first reports of a mysterious new illness affecting humans began circulating in the media. Those were the early days of COVID-19 and although the pandemic is now over, its impacts on everything from the economy to physical and mental health continue to be felt.

Collectively, the world learned some important lessons about pandemics and the importance of being prepared. The crisis illustrated, for example, the need to strengthen Canada’s ability to produce its own vaccines and personal protective equipment, and how vitally important strong domestic supply chains are to ensuring Canadians have a steady flow of essential goods.

There is a federal bill that is currently at second reading in the Senate that focuses on pandemic preparedness. Bill C-293: An Act respecting pandemic prevention and preparedness was first introduced as a private member’s bill in June 2022 by Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, and it is causing deep concern in the farming community because of its potential impacts on livestock agriculture should it become law without amendment.

I’m a farmer in Waterloo Region and in addition to being a director with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), I’m also the OFA’s representative on the board of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA).

While the OFA has been following this legislation since it was first introduced, it’s the CFA that has been leading the response of the farming community to this bill, including meeting with Members of Parliament and Senators to outline our concerns.

Let me be clear: farmers are not opposed to pandemic preparedness. In fact, farmers are always on alert for diseases in our herds, flocks and crops. We take disease prevention seriously in all segments of our sector, from poultry and pigs to field and horticulture crops, through very specific practices we follow called biosecurity.

The concern with the bill stems from some of the sections proposing to regulate animal agriculture and phase out so-called high risk species, as well as promoting alternative proteins and suggesting antimicrobial resistance is solely a problem caused by livestock farming.

A section of the bill, for example, includes language promoting the production and use of alternative proteins, the regulation of “industrial” animal agriculture and the phasing out of high risk species, and the reduction of risks posed by antimicrobial resistance.

First of all, there are no definitions attached to such broad and generalized terms, which could easily be interpreted or used to lead to over-regulation or elimination of livestock farming. It also suggests that livestock farming in Canada has been the cause of pandemics, which is not the case.

Animal-based proteins like meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy are recognized as high quality protein sources that provide essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals in the human diet, and there is no evidence that they cause pandemics – nor that promoting proteins from alternative sources would reduce pandemic risk.

Antimicrobial resistance is a global concern for human and animal health, and we should be taking the One Health approach to addressing it. One Health recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and our shared environment and that effective solutions will focus on all three areas.

Antimicrobials play an important role in animal and human health, and overuse and misuse are a problem in both people and animals. For the livestock industry, antimicrobial stewardship has become a priority and we’ve taken significant steps in the past decade to dramatically lower use and ensure that when we do have to use these products, we do it in a more targeted and effective way.

To avoid unintended consequences for livestock farmers, we’ve been asking for removal of the section that promotes the production and use of alternative proteins, the regulation of animal agriculture, and the phase-out of high-risk species.

Click here to see more...

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”