You can’t eat money. Yet, it seems that more and more money is needed to eat. This is not just an issue for the developing world, or for families on social assistance. The rising cost of food – basic staples such as bread and milk – is becoming an issue for an increasing majority of Canadians and New Brunswickers. It is also an issue that policy makers in our province and in our country have been content, so far, to ignore.
Perhaps one of the reasons why decision-makers have been so complacent on this front is due to our agricultural heritage. After all, Canada enjoys a reputation as the bread basket to the world and our food products, grains, meat, dairy, fish and seafood, are in high demand around the world. But there are several reasons why we should not be taking our plentiful, if increasingly expensive, domestic food supply for granted.
Canada is a trading nation. In fact, we draw far more of our economic prosperity from international trade than any other G8 nation. And, in this nation of traders, New Brunswick is the most trade dependant of any province – more than Ontario with its auto sector, Alberta with its oil, or British Columbia with its access to the Pacific Rim. New Brunswickers have a vested interest in fair, well-regulated global markets.
However, we also need to maintain domestic food security – the ability to feed ourselves based on the food that we produce within our borders. This policy is being challenged by many of our trading partners, who want free access to our domestic markets for their food products. While they have harsh criticism for our “protectionist” policies, such as supply management or food safety regulations, many of these countries, like the United States or the member countries of the European Union, provide lavish subsidies to their agricultural sectors. As much as they like to talk about liberalized trade on food and food products, these countries are not ready to level the playing field.
In addition to protecting our domestic market from unfair (or, at least, unequal) trade policies and practices, domestic food security is also an important attribute of our national sovereignty. Just as we need to protect the integrity of our borders and our territory, which we do with our collective security arrangements with NATO, NORAD and the United Nations, we need to ensure the health and well-being of our population. How sovereign is a country that cannot feed itself?
Dramatic increases in food prices pose as much danger to social stability and well-being as drought and famine. As much as some like to credit social media for the overthrow of repressive governments in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, public discontent in those countries – and in many others – has much more to do with the rising cost of basic foods. It wasn’t Facebook that prompted a broad coalition of people to take to the streets and public squares demanding change; it was the price of rice.
Neither Canada nor New Brunswick is immune from the upward pressure on the cost of basic foods. Ask anyone who has been doing the family shopping.
The solution is not to open our markets to cheaper food products from other countries. Not only would our domestic food producers be swamped by unfair competition, we would lose control of how the food we eat is produced. We pride ourselves in maintaining high standards for food safety and for animal welfare as part of our food supply. Would we be ready to sacrifice our standards for a cheaper litre of milk?
That is the challenge we are facing. We want to maintain our high standards and we want our food prices to be affordable. We want to be able to feed ourselves and to trade our surplus with other countries to get those foods we cannot grow ourselves.
Instead of complacency in the agri-food sector, we need action from our policy makers. Frankly, given our history and our capacity, we should be looking to grow more food. Not only would this be a boon for New Brunswick’s rural economy, it would build on our strengths as food processors and exporters. There is an opportunity to be seized.
Our supply management system should be part of this solution. As much as we want to hold the line on food prices in our supermarkets, we must ensure that farmers can get a fair price for their products and that processors have a steady supply.
Supply management is the best tool that we can use to ensure that consumers, producers and processors benefit from a revitalized agri-food sector. Like any tool, supply management needs to be maintained and improved over time. However, this policy area suffers from the same lassitude among policy-makers that blights the agricultural sector as a whole.
The food crisis is already upon us. Rather than acting as helpless bystanders, we need to seize the opportunity that is presented to us.
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Chris Baker is president of Continuum Research, a Fredericton-based public opinion research firm specializing in public policy and public affairs. His cousins still operate dairy farms in south-western Manitoba.
This article was originally published in the February 11, 2013 edition of The Telegraph-Journal.
