February 8, 2012 - At the Canadian Food Summit yesterday, it was fascinating to hear the speakers introduce the farmers, food distributors and food processors to the topic of the two day conference: to prepare a food strategy for Canada. Galen Weston, Executive Chairman of Loblaw Companies Limited, was nearly flawless in his introduction of the topic. The idea was to get everyone together to enunciate a strategy that would help make sure that Canada has a viable, safe, and sustainable food industry.
I was interested in seeing how consumers are viewed by the industry, and also to see what place health has in the food industry’s plans for the future. I went to a break-out session that reviewed the results of telephone interviews with consumers that appeared to have been studied, dissected, interviewed, and analyzed in many different ways. It turns out that a large number of us read food labels and are interested in healthy foods, and that the industry is interested in selling them to us. The discussion also spent quite a lot of time on the level of food poisoning in the population. The most interesting fact stated was that it mostly affects the wealthier members of our society who frequent restaurants.
At one point I asked if consumers had been part of designing the questionnaire, and was told that they were not. Nor did they review the methodology and decide which variables to analyze - they were just not involved. There were also few consumer groups at the conference. Unfortunately, we as consumers of food seem to have little or no direct voice in the articulation and decisions about the Canadian Food Strategy.
At lunch, Mark Bittman of the New York Times spoke about the importance of cooking with raw materials. He said that food we cook ourselves tends to be better for us than any prepared food. His own strategy is to eat as a vegan before 6:00 PM, and to eat other foods in the evening. This approach to food was very far from the theme of the conference and acted as a refreshing wake up call for consumers in the audience. If we eat more unprocessed local foods we will all be better off and would probably contribute to a more sustainable and viable food system that could allow small farmers and distributors to survive. I am not sure that Mark realized how subversive his talk really was.
It would be interesting to start to build a food strategy for a healthier Canada with consumer participants. We of course would be happy to join such an effort with our patient members.
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