Food Policy as an Election Issue

Food is back on the election agenda after decades in the back room. For good reason. More and more voters are realizing that the industrial food system that feeds us today is broken. These people are flocking to farmers' markets where sales are worth over $1 billion a year, according to a study by Farmers' Markets Canada. They are joining an increasing number of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects and are demanding more access to food that is produced sustainably by farmers in their regions. There is a saying in the local food movement that you vote with your fork. Now, the federal election offers citizens a chance to voice their opinions about food at the ballot box.

Unfortunately, the Harper-led Conservative party's stand on food and agriculture misses the mark. While the NDP, the Liberal Party and the Green Party offer (to varying degrees) their solutions to building Canadian food sovereignty and strengthening new local and sustainable food systems, the Conservatives are promising more of the status quo, more of the same structures that are responsible for the environmental, social and health problems that our food system causes today.

We need to vote for a food system that protects farmland around cities and towns with greenbelts and farmland trusts. We need to vote for farm policy that supports small sustainable farmers rather than the large agribusiness operations that are depleting our resources, producing unhealthy food and offering little to Canadian communities. We must elect politicians who will help a new generation of farmer to enter the field, by enacting policies such as an amendment to the supply management systems (not an eradication of them) so they become more flexible and allow for smaller players to enter the market. It's more important than ever before to elect politicians who are capable of stewarding us into a future where food production will be affected by climate change, where a rising population will put development pressure on the farmland that feeds us. We need strong policies to create sustainable food systems here in Canada.

The other day I was interviewing a German food expert who works for a biotech company and promotes genetically modified seeds; someone who can hardly be dismissed as a radical. He said that the choices we make between now and 2025 will be critically important for the future our society because a combination of the impacts of climate change and population growth will forever change our world in the next decade. What we decide to do today about our food will affect generations of Canadians. And the status quo must change and respond to the our changing world. To learn more about why Canada needs a food policy, and how you can support a National Food Policy in this election, visit The Food Policy Project. - SE.

( Sarah Elton, guest blogging for The Writ, is author of Locavore. For more info on food related issues visit her blog)