Safe food? Maybe.

As a consumer of food in Canada, I had always thought of my food as safe. In Canada and many of the provinces, regulations exist to ensure that farmers do ‘the right thing’. Many agricultural marketing agencies have regulations their farmers must follow to produce this safe food.

Dairy farmers have many regulations to follow and have done so for years. Milk processors must pasteurize milk before processing. Chicken farmers have implemented a whole host of HACCP –like regulations for their barns. Fruit and vegetable growers must follow guidelines and regulations on herbicides and Pesticides on their fields. Beef from Canadian producers must be either federally or provincially inspected in our plants as ‘Grade A’. Carcasses with certain diseases or other problems cannot be sold. Egg farmers must have their eggs graded and legitimate producers must be licensed. They too, must follow regulations in their barns to ensure the quality and safety of the eggs offered for sale to the public. Inspectors from many agencies, follow up, to make sure these regulations are adhered to.

Now enter the 21st century and the new world of globalization. What does this mean for all of us consuming food in Canada?

For one thing, it means we can no longer be assured that our food dollar is benefiting Canadian farmers at all or that it is grown or processed according to Canadian and provincial food safety regulations.

Those clever big boys from multi-nationals and their government shills have ensured that food safety regulations or any laws of the land cannot be used to prevent their products from entering the country. Canadian inspectors of food shipped into this country are woefully under-funded and short staffed.

No one is empowered to do anything or appear to care, that many countries exporting food products to Canada, have no regulations imposed on them at all. Their farmers do not have to meet stringent Canadian standards of food production. For one thing, they can apply pesticides and herbicides Canadians have not used for decades.

Who knows what standards any farm from outside Canada, come under. Nobody is telling!
When Canadian farmers attempt to challenge these unfair tactics, our own Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) usually rules against them. Canadian politicians talk a lot but to date, no action has been taken to stop or enforce Canadian standards on these imported products. Many farm groups have attempted for years to stop the unfair importation of apples, cherries, garlic, strawberries, corn, milk protein powders, chicken and chicken parts and butter oil blends, to name just a few.

Of course big business wants this to continue. They ship in the product they want to use (at much lower prices ) process their products here and sell it to us, the unprotected and unsuspecting Canadian consumer.

To add insult to injury, processors are not passing on their reduced input costs to Canadians. Any cost benefits likely accrue to the few food retailers competing in Canada.

When the product hits the store shelves, consumers do not see any pricing benefit and they have no idea of the source of the ingredients. (Thanks to Health Canada and inadequate labeling regulations.)

I believe consumers would be horrified at this blatant disregard for their safety, desires and opportunity for informed choices at the grocery store……if they knew what was going on.

Someone needs to tell them.