Attendees at the Ottawa Food Policy Summit. ©Food Secure Canada
As part of its process for developing a National Food Policy for Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) convened a Food Policy Summit in Ottawa on June 22-23. The two-day event brought together over 300 diverse stakeholders from across the country to brainstorm, discuss and workshop key principles and priorities for a national food policy. Food Secure Canada was in attendance along with many of our members and allies from across the country. FSC organized a meeting of NGO and academic attendees the day prior to the official summit to brief our members on the federal government’s current food-policy initiatives.
The Summit’s agenda was ambitious. Over the course of the two days, participants heard from Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food Lawrence MacAulay, as well as senior officials within AAFC and Health Canada, and Parliamentary Secretaries Jean-Claude Poissant (Agriculture and Agri-Food), Yvonne Jones (Indigenous and Northern Affairs) and Adam Vaughan (Families, Children and Social Development). Food Secure Canada has long insisted that an effective national food policy must have an integrated and whole-of-government approach, so we were encouraged to see representatives from so many departments.
Many CFICE members attended this food summit. To read more about how the event went, please view the full article on Food Secure Canada’s website.