The Canadian agri-food sector needs to know where it's going in order to figure out how to get there. A new report released by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI), called Canada's Agri-Food Destination, lays out a vision and some clear goals for the country's agri-food future.  

"This is the first report on agri-food that really considers where we want to be in 15 years," says Peter Hannam, a consultant with Synthesis Agri-Food Network and a board member of CAPI. "We need to decide where we want to end up first and then start doing things to get there."  

The CAPI destination report's vision is for Canada to have the most successful good food systems on the planet by 2025, which will result in a profitable and competitive agri-food sector, a healthier population and healthier ecosystems. The report is built on the theme of "75 by 25" and lays out three big targets that can be catalysts for significant change:

• Double Canada's dollar value of agri-food exports from the current $38.8 billion to $75 billion annually; 
• Produce and supply 75 per cent of the country's own food, a level that is currently only at 68 per cent;
• Have over 75 per cent of the agri-food sector look to bioproducts and biomaterials to develop new revenue streams or reduce expenses.

Now, the question is: what can be done to move the sector towards achieving those goals? The key here, says Hannam, is a system-wide approach that goes beyond the traditional value chain of input suppliers, primary producers, processors, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, food service and consumers.   

"There is a lot of benefit in food and nutrition and in adding value to our agri-food products, so we need a whole food-systems approach," he says. "We should be bringing in the transportation, health, environment and finance communities, for example, to be part of the larger view of our sector so they can become familiarized with the opportunities that exist."  

This won't be an easy task, Hannam admits, pointing to past practice as a big barrier to moving this new agri-food plan forward, but everyone in the sector can play a role in moving towards achieving the three key goals in the report. At the farm or individual business level, everyone should take a broader view and look for opportunities beyond the farm gate for adding value to their operations and their products.  

"We can't just leave this to government to take action. For example, everyone is concerned about health. If we can produce more nutritious food and get a premium for it, that would benefit our whole health care system," he says. "This brings a new thinking to how we deal with food policy development."  

A first draft of the CAPI report was released for comment this past winter. The report's findings will be presented at the next meeting of federal, provincial and territorial ministers of agriculture in July 2011. More information on the report can be found at http://capi-icpa.ca/.

Insights 

Involve new sectors and partners. A longer term, comprehensive agri-food strategy means reaching out beyond the traditional value chain to include other, affiliated sectors, partners and service providers. The agri-food sector must move beyond the traditional silo approach to a more integrated policy.

Focus on value-adding. To double Canada's dollar value of agri-food exports, the sector should look to exporting higher value products. This can be achieved by encouraging further processing, for example. As well, we can reduce waste by putting those waste and by-products into other uses that can create additional value. Not only can this help lower costs, it can potentially open up new revenue streams.

Increase food self-sufficiency. We must pay attention to our consumers here at home and not concentrate solely on export markets. Boosting domestic consumption of Canadian-produced food lessens economic reliance on international markets and bolsters our economy.