Issues in Contemporary Agriculture: Food

Commentary

Food Safety and the Use of the Agri-Resource Base

by Myles Frosst, CEO

We are and always will be an agrarian society, dependent upon the agriculture resource base to sustain us. Six billion people are increasingly turning to that resource to provide safe and nutritious food as well as, for example, renewable fuels, materials and pharmaceuticals, and carbon sequestration.

Canada, rich with agricultural resources, is especially responsible to ensure that we use the resource base wisely: to sustainably and profitably maximize the societal and commercial benefits that can be derived from that resource, including the production of safe food.

Does the recent listeriosis tragedy suggest that we are using the resource base wisely? Yes. The Canadian food safety system is about as good as it gets given current science, technology, the state of public policy and administration expertise, business management skills, and media scrutiny of the system.

The example of Maple Leaf Foods underscores the fundamental strength of the food safety system including the extraordinary due diligence of scientists and other professionals in government, business and the media. Their effort has ensured a very large but successful recall, a good understanding of the root cause of the problem, agreement on corrective actions to ensure the highest possible level of product safety going forward, and public discussion on the food safety system.

In that discussion, perspective on the challenges facing the food safety system is required. Of course the food safety system needs continuous improvement. It will be tested increasingly due to our evolving ability to make the best use of the agri-resource base: increased knowledge of the types of bacteria, parasites, viruses and toxins that can cause food borne illness; increased scientific and technical ability to detect pathogens; increased volume, diversity and speed of trade; increased interconnectivity of companies, nations and individuals; increased consumption of food away from home; increased consumer interest in food attributes such as nutraceuticals, whole foods, slow foods, organic production methods, and increased visibility around different levels of food safety.

System improvements highlight the importance of agriculture and food related sciences if Canada's agricultural resource is to be used to its potential. It follows that investment in the sciences which can contribute to food safety is essential. Our ability to use the agri-resource base wisely is strengthened by scientists in government, business, and academe working together, and applying their related and diverse expertise in:

• biochemistry,
• molecular and cellular biology,
• toxicology,
• genetics,
• veterinary science,
• food chemistry,
• systems engineering,
• animal, plant and soil science,
• water resource management, and
• epidemiology (to name but a few relevant disciplines).

These scientists go to work daily all along the supply chain, in farms, universities, government research labs, processing plants, cold storage facilities, retail outlets, etc. They must be able to collaborate if they are to pull from the best knowledge and practices, home grown or from elsewhere, to ensure that the food available to Canadians is produced, transported, stored, sold and consumed in a way that minimizes food safety risks.

But such collaboration will not be possible if the there is not a continuous understanding among policy makers and those who allocate research budgets that the agriculture and food related sciences must receive strong financial support.

In view of the on-going journey of scientists and other professionals to put safe food on our tables it is in no one's best interest to try to raise hysteria over the recent listeriosis tragedy. Will we ever get to 100% certainty that the food we buy is 100% free of harmful strains of listeriosis or other pathogens? No. But we will get much closer to an ideal state of food safety if sound science is coupled with business acumen, and robust public administration. That must be our guiding light. That light must not be obscured by the fog cast by those who would deny the fundamental health of the Canadian food safety system.

Moreover, we must remember that food safety is only part of the challenge of using the sustainable agri-resource base wisely. We need to invest in constant improvements in people, technologies and processes that will provide us with safe and nutritious food plus the many other sustainable goods and services that we can harvest from the precious agri-resource base.

Posted September 25, 2008