Ep. 317: Food integrity in Canada

Guest: John Jamieson, Canadian Centre for Food Integrity

There is only one biological thing you do more often than eat and that is breathe.

Food is vitally important to your well-being, your lifestyle and your ability to work. “In Canada, we are extremely fortunate,” says John Jamieson of the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity. He goes on to say, “The average Canadian grocery store has 50,000 items in it. We have tremendous choice and we know that food is safe to consume.”

Despite the robust nature of our food system, the CCFI, in its 2019 Public Trust Research survey, found that only one in three Canadian consumers believe Canada’s food system is headed in the right direction and another large segment of the population isn’t sure.

How can this be? Canada not only feeds itself, it also exports in excess of $57 billion of food annually to countries around the world. Jamieson says, “Those countries boast about Canadian food as a benchmark in quality and yet we are seeing a disconnect here at home.”

Jamieson says, “Agriculture today is based on science and technology. We are able to produce more per acre. We're able to feed more people per acre because we do a good job of what we do and we use the tools that are available to us and it's very safe. There's so many checks and balances. There are inspectors at every step along the way. Industry associations have codes of practice and processors have regulations and requirements they must follow.”

We invited John Jamieson, the CEO of the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the safety and integrity of Canada’s food supply.