Abstract:
This panel will explore how Canada can define and pursue an agri-food mission that supports a resilient, sustainable future—economically, socially, and environmentally. A mission-driven approach aligns strategies and resources toward long-term goals, such as maximizing Canada’s food production potential to strengthen both national prosperity and global food security.

Global food security is a cornerstone of peace and equality, affecting not only developing nations but also countries like Canada and the U.S. At the same time, some climate activists seem determined to vilify the whole agriculture sector without deeply understanding what is at stake.

Canada’s agri-foods are internationally recognized for their high quality, safety, and sustainability, and the strength of this reputation reflects decades of scientific rigour along the value chain. Canada has a responsibility to contribute to global food security and to create a large economic opportunity for Canadians. Plant and animal agriculture contributes about 7% to Canada’s GDP, employing over 2.3M people, with Saskatchewan alone exporting $20B in agri-food products with 45% of Canada’s farmland.

While producing more food, Canada’s agriculture scientists and policy makers have reduced the carbon footprint of its agri-food production system, which in turn has enhanced the resilience of our production systems. Canada is sitting on an immense and yet to be fully realized economic opportunity; to realize it we need an agri-food mission for Canada.

Detailed Summary of Conversations

The discussions centered on the nation’s agri-food system, a major economic engine comparable to oil and gas, and its critical role in global food security and national prosperity. A consensus emerged that the sector stands at a crucial crossroads, possessing vast opportunity but struggling to translate scientific invention into commercial innovation. Key barriers to growth include excessive fragmentation, a sluggish and inconsistent regulatory system that deters domestic and foreign capital investment, and critical national infrastructure shortcomings, particularly in transportation reliability. Furthermore, policies must navigate the conflict between modern science and public social acceptance. To realize the sector’s full potential, a coordinated, ambition-driven national mission is essential, focusing on aligning trade, economic, science, and social policies to create a predictable and enabling business environment. This unified approach must include a renewed focus on technology extension and mobilization to reach producers.

Take Away Messages/Current Status of Challenges

• Regulatory Uncertainty and Delay: The current regulatory framework is inconsistent and slow, which is described as an “absolute killer” for investment and innovation, causing capital to flee to other jurisdictions. This is highlighted by significant time lags, such as the 17-year delay in finalizing policy on cloned animals compared to peer nations.
• Commercialization Gap: Despite the country’s world-class capability for scientific invention, a major struggle exists in the translation of those inventions into market-impacting innovation and successful commercialization.
• Systemic Fragmentation: The agri-food innovation pipeline features a “messy,” intertangled network of entities with often near-identical mandates, creating confusion for inventors, producers, and businesses seeking to develop and scale their ideas.
• Critical Infrastructure Deficiencies: The reliability of national infrastructure, especially rail and marine transport, is a key vulnerability that deters investment, as disruptions can cause significant, prolonged delays in moving products to market.
• Capital Investment Challenge: Differences in tax law compared to the US, a smaller domestic market, and high regulatory burdens make it difficult to attract and retain venture capital, leading many homegrown ventures to look south of the border for scaling.
• Science vs. Social Acceptance Conflict: A major barrier to adopting modern, scientific farming methods is the tension between these advancements and the public’s social acceptance of how agriculture should operate, which complicates the policymaking process.
• Policy Synchronization: Effective growth is constrained by the difficulty in synchronizing four major, interconnected policy pillars: international trade, domestic economic (tax/capital), science/regulatory, and social acceptance.
• Lack of a Mission Convener: The vast and fragmented nature of the sector is exacerbated by the absence of a singular, recognized national body or entity tasked with convening, coordinating, and championing a cohesive, ambition-driven national mission.

Recommendations/Next Steps

• Establish a National Mission: Adopt a unified, ambition-driven national mission approach to the agri-food system to drive coordination, understanding, and strategic focus across all governmental and private sector players.
• Reform for Enabling Regulation: Pursue comprehensive regulatory reform to create an enabling, science-based framework that is transparent, predictable, and allows for rapid, consistent decision-making, thereby attracting essential capital investment.
• Commit to Infrastructure Investment: Implement national, large-scale projects to fundamentally improve the state of critical infrastructure, particularly in the transportation sector, to ensure reliable export and domestic movement of goods.
• Re-establish Agricultural Extension: Revitalize and modernize knowledge translation efforts, often referred to as ‘Extension 4.0,’ to actively deliver and mobilize new research, innovations, and technologies directly and cleverly to producers.
• Strategically Align Policy Pillars: Intentionally work to harmonize policies across trade, domestic economics (e.g., tax structure), science, and social acceptance to create a single, cohesive business environment that supports the national mission.
• Cultivate Government Champions: Actively support and build relationships with key agricultural champions within government (e.g., senators) to help inform legislative processes, ensure enabling policies are passed, and anticipate/mitigate policy threats.
• Mandate Supply Chain Reliability: Study and address the national vulnerability of the transportation sector, including exploring the designation of services like rail and marine transport as essential, to increase reliability and confidence for investors.
• Foster Cross-Sectoral Dialogue: Utilize national venues and forums to facilitate continuous, direct communication between academia, private industry, and policy makers to address sector fragmentation and foster strategic collaboration across the ecosystem.