The Case for A National Food Policy Council

As the Government develops A Food Policy for Canada to provide an integrated approach to food-systems, governance has emerged as a critical issue. This report was compiled at the request of an informal network of organizations from the food business, farming, civil society, philanthropic and academic sectors interested in national food policy, convened by the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Food Secure Canada, Maple Leaf Foods, and the McConnell Foundation (see contributors in Appendix I). The report builds on multi-stakeholder discussions that took place in March at the University of Guelph, in June at the Canadian Federation for 1 Agriculture,2 at the Ottawa Food Summit convened by Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, and at a September meeting in Ottawa at which an initial draft of this paper was discussed. The following recommendations are based on food-system governance research from domestic and international jurisdictions. We propose a governance structure that will make adaptive changes to policies, programs and regulations at different levels, over time, and that recognizes the need for a process that goes beyond the initial launch of A Food Policy for Canada. Our recommendations, after analysis and discussion with stakeholders, are: (1) the creation of a National Food Policy Council as soon as possible; (2) implementation of four short-term recommendations for improving food policy governance in Canada; and (3) consideration of certain longer-term options for institutional support of food policy governance.