Executive Summary

The agriculture and agri-food sector is one of the key drivers of the Canadian economy. The health care system is one of the largest sources of government spending. Maintaining both a strong health care system and a strong, vital agriculture and agri-food sector are deeply entrenched Canadian values.

The health system, and the agriculture and agri-food system, are both confronted with significant economic challenges. These challenges have intensified with the recent financial crisis and economic downturn, which is occurring at the same time that the health care system is faced with dramatically rising rates of obesity and overweight people, and continuous increases in diet-related chronic diseases.

Currently, government policymakers, business strategists and civil society leaders in health, agriculture and agri-food systems in Canada and abroad face an extremely challenging situation. Moreover, they must prepare for a future beset by uncertainty regarding the collective resources they have available to achieve their respective primary functions, while contributing to the health and wealth of individuals, organizations, and nations.

As each of these sectors charts its path for the future, a present opportunity exists to ensure that health considerations are incorporated into future agriculture and agri-food policies and initiatives. As well, the food industry has an opportunity to capitalize on accruing economic value from innovative approaches that help address current and future health challenges.

This discussion paper – Building Convergence: Toward an Integrated Health and Agri-Food Strategy for Canada – was prepared to stimulate a dialogue among scientists, policymakers, professionals and managers from the health, agriculture and agri-food systems. Together, these parties will develop an integrated strategy. For this discussion paper, the authors examined the key issues and challenges facing the health care sector and the agriculture and agri-food sector. The discussion paper concludes that without significant intervention, the number of Canadians with obesity and diet-related chronic diseases will continue to rise, placing increasing pressure on the health care system in direct costs and to society as a whole in indirect costs. At the same time, rapid changes have occurred in the pace of globalization and in the structure of the agriculture and agri-food sector. The sector requires significant adjustments, including substantial and ongoing government support.

Both the health and agriculture and agri-food sectors have recognized the need for multi-sector collaboration. Recent policies and frameworks provide examples of areas in which integration and synergy are being pursued. This discussion paper suggests that a “Whole-of-Society” approach – one that engages the whole of the agri-food value chain – is required, in terms of media, culture, social sectors, transportation, and so on. However, this whole-of-society solution needs to place the consumer at the center, and must consider the conditions and dynamics of local and global markets from a systems perspective. This paper notes that using new and innovative approaches, such as taxes and subsidies, may achieve healthier patterns of eating. While little evidence exists to date to support this hypothesis, it is too early to dismiss these new approaches.

From this analysis, the discussion paper presents a vision of “improving the well-being of Canadians by providing safe, nutritious and accessible food that supports healthy eating, contains health care costs, and is promoted by innovative and sustainable agricultural, food and health sectors.” Developing an integrated health and agri-food strategy to implement this vision will require galvanizing action across sectors, across systems, and across levels of policy development and decision at the local, national and global levels. This discussion paper, therefore, introduces a set of “levers for change” that will translate the proposed vision into a set of concrete initiatives. These initiatives must be suitably robust to contribute to improving the health and economic well-being of Canadians. Moreover, the discussion paper proposes a novel approach to building convergence and action around these levers.

The levers for change will include steps to assist Canadians in making healthier choices through:

• enhancing nutrition and health information at points of purchase and consumption;
• fostering policy and practice innovation in approaches to education in the home, school, and health professional settings; and,
• fostering innovative policies and practices in social and commercial marketing.

The levers for change will include ways to provide Canadians with more healthy food choices by:

• improving the nutritional quality of processed foods by reducing trans fat, salt, sugar and increasing fiber;
• using a Whole-of-Society approach to drive demand by consumers – and supply in the horticultural sector – to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables; and,
• promoting the consumption of nutritious foods grown in Canada through the development of a Canadian Diet similar to the Mediterranean Diet.

The levers for change will demonstrate that opportunities exist to develop new markets both in Canada and globally by: extending traceability from a food safety focus to its use in assuring consumers that “value-added” food products have been produced with the desired attributes, such as fair trade; promoting access to and sustainability of the functional food, nutraceutical and natural health product sector; better promotion of technology, business and social innovation and entrepreneurship, to improve the links between small producers and local food businesses and consumers; and, recognizing that Canadian agriculture and agri-food products can contribute to meeting global food needs by providing an innovative, low-carbon footprint and affordable agricultural and processed food products to the poorest of the world who are at the “bottom of the pyramid.”

This Discussion Paper will ideally provide “food for thought” for representatives of the whole-of-society approach, who will engage in the next steps of developing an Integrated Health and Agri-food Strategy for Canada that meets health and economic needs both nationally and globally.

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