Lever Points For Change

Advancing the integrated health and agri-food strategy will require identifying a number of initial domains for action as “lever points for change.” Several seem to be potential candidates for change: Scaling up Traceability: With some notable exceptions, traceability is under-developed in Canada. “Whole chain traceability” can enhance food safety, increase efficiency, and ensure consumer confidence in the labelling of other attributes, such as “hormone-free,” “grown local” or “fair trade” characteristics. Support for traceability research, technology, and process developments are options for enhancing traceability.

A “Whole-of-Society” System Approach to Increase Supply and Demand of Fruit and Vegetables: This lever point calls for a whole-of-society effort to encourage the consumption of sufficient fruits and vegetables in order to support better health and reduce health care costs.⁴¹ Since the relative price of fruits and vegetables has increased in the last two decades,⁴² addressing price barriers would be a starting point.

In order to influence consumer demand, an integrated strategy must target production initiatives in the horticultural sector. This sector faces several significant challenges. These include rising input costs, increased competition, a highly regulated marketplace (in food safety, environmental standards, tax policy, etc.), difficulties in storage and transportation, small-scale operations, a fragmented sector, a weak operating value chain, and limited product advertising.

Improving the Nutrient and Caloric Profile of the Supply and Demand for Processed Food: Even small changes in the nutrient and/or caloric profile can have a significant impact on chronic diseases. A recent simulation has shown that the United States’ health care system could reap considerable savings through reductions in calories, salt, and fats. Reducing caloric intake by 100 calories/day could save a whopping $58 billion. Reducing salt by 400 mg/day could save $2.3 billion, while reducing fat by five g/day could save $2 billion.⁴³ Canadians could derive considerable health benefits by reducing calories, reducing trans fats and sugars, finding healthier oils, and increasing the fibre in their food supply.

Improving Nutrition and Streamlining Regulation in Functional, Nutraceuticals and Natural Health Foods: Many conventional foods are natural sources of functional ingredients that confer health benefits. These functional ingredients can be added to other foods to enhance their nutrient profile (i.e., omega-3 DHA and EPA which aid proper brain and eye development in babies and children⁴⁴). Canada is well positioned to be a world leader in functional ingredients. A recent study indicated that the functional foods and nutraceuticals sector had the potential to double market revenues from the current $3 billion to $6 billion by 2010⁴⁵ and could contribute up to $12 billion annually.⁴⁶ However, the sector is impeded by the lack of a modern and responsive regulatory environment in Canada,⁴⁷ particularly around the issue of health claims.

Fostering the Consumption of Canadian Foods by Developing and Promoting a Canadian Diet: An integrated strategy could promote a ‘Canadian Diet’ that achieves the same prominence as other regional diets, such as the Mediterranean Diet. The Canadian Diet could contribute to positive economic, health-related, and socio-cultural outcomes from a uniquely Canadian perspective. Public awareness of the health benefits of Canadian foods is generally low. The integrated strategy would need to support research that substantiates the health benefits and health claims of nutritious Canadian foods. The strategy would propose educating consumers about the foods and advantages of the Canadian Diet.

Promoting Technology, Business and Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Better Links between Small Agricultural Producers and Local Food Businesses and Communities: The number and poor financial viability⁴⁸ of small agricultural producers is a major challenge for the agriculture sector. Supporting small agricultural producers is a balance between agricultural and rural social policy. “Local food” initiatives may promote the economic prosperity of the local agri-food sector, and could be a boon to small agricultural producers. For example, 75% of fruit and vegetable farm incomes in 2006 came from agricultural producers with annual sales of less than $100,000. By contrast, only 10% of Canada’s dairy farm income came from producers with annual sales of less than $100,000.⁴⁹ A first step would be a systematic review of existing local foods to determine their health and economic outcomes, and examining the transferability and scalability of these programs.

Innovation and Access to Bottom-of-Pyramid Markets for Safe, Low-Carbon Footprint and Affordable Agricultural and Processed Foods: Much interest exists in integrating food affordability, food safety and nutritional quality with low-carbon footprint food (through trade, through food aid, and in agricultural development goals for developing countries). The 5 billion people at the bottom of the pyramid present new market opportunities. But they also require different value chain structures, additional intermediaries, new innovations and capacity building.⁵⁰ Some successes can already be identified. For example, Canada supplies nearly 50% of India’s pulse imports, the world’s largest pulse market.

Supporting Healthy Consumer Choices by Streamlining Nutrition and Health Information at Points of Purchase and Consumption: Retailers and food companies could simplify and streamline health information for consumers by using front-of-package (FOP) labelling, shelf-level regimes, and “better for you” programs. Programs like the U.K. traffic light system, which applies to a food package a green, yellow, or red light for its content of fat, saturates, sugar and salt, help consumers make healthier food choices. In Canada, a good starting point would be to initiate a consensus-building process among organizations which have developed nutrition and health information systems. The proliferation of labelling systems could confuse consumers and reduce their effectiveness. Could a standardized front-of-package scheme be adopted at the national level to generate significant health outcomes? Approaches to enhancing nutrition information in restaurants is also worthy of consideration.

Fostering Nutrition in Education at Home, School and in Health Care Settings: The home, school and health care settings all provide opportunities to convey information about food and nutrition, and to influence mindsets and social norms. The most vulnerable segments of the population, in particular, can benefit greatly from education on the benefits of nutrition. Devoting more health resources to education and communication can also have a major impact on the overall health of the population. Fostering Nutrition in Social and Commercial Marketing: Significant health benefits could arise from various mandatory and non-mandatory policy tools related to advertising. Such tools could also be used to support innovative social marketing (i.e. the use of carefully targeted persuasion practices that define marketing for public service purposes).

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