Sault Blog

In light of the Buy Canadian Movement, I went into my pantry and looked at the food staple labels, curious to find out where the products actually come from.

Surprisingly, I discovered that some of these food staple products had traveled a great distance to wind up in my pantry. I found two boxes of pasta, one a Catelli Smart Linguine, “made in Quebec with domestic and imported ingredients” by Barilla Canada, Markham, ON.; and a second pasta box by President’s Choice Spaghetti, “made in Turkey” Loblaws, Inc. Toronto, ON. The printing on the boxes about the product’s origin is extremely small and difficult to find. Both pasta boxes did not include a Canadian maple leaf logo or label that would have made it much easier to choose which one was a “product or made in Canada.” Canada produces the best durum wheat for pasta in the world, so why can’t we make the pasta here and protect it with a European Union DoC? A European Union (EU) declaration of conformity (DoC) is a mandatory document that a manufacturer or authorized agent needs to sign to ensure a product comes from a specific area and meets stringent quality conformity. EU countries are fanatical about protecting their national products; why can’t we do the same here in Canada?

Next, I found a large can of sliced peach halves from Greece and a loosely packed jar of sliced peach halves from Bulgaria. Ontario peaches and nectarines are the best in the world; again, why do we not just sell canned Ontario peaches in our grocery stores? Why are the best peaches in the world from Southern Ontario not protected and marketed, sold, and canned exclusively in Canada? The closure of canneries in Southern ON is a direct cause of hyper-globalization and the erosion of food security and autonomy in Canada.

I purchased a package of beef strip steaks from Metro without knowing the beef was from Mexico. Shoe leather would have been easier to eat. Anyone who has been to Mexico knows their beef is tough. I just didn’t think that Canada needed to import beef from Mexico when Canadian beef is the best in the world. Again, this is another Canadian product without EU DoC protection. Canadians do not want to eat Mexican beef; they want the best beef in the world, Canadian beef, a product of Canada.

What differentiates a “product or Canada” or “made in Canada”? A food product may use the claim “product of Canada” when all (98%) or virtually all major ingredients, processing, and labour used to make the food products are Canadian. This means that all the significant ingredients in a food product are Canadian in origin, and non-Canadian material is negligible. A food product may use the claim “made in Canada” when 51 per cent of the product is made in Canada.

Hyper-globalization allowed multinational corporations to abdicate our Canadian food security and autonomy. These corporations decide for Canadians what we can purchase in our grocery stores. Hyper-globalization allows International Corporate Food Industries to determine where our food is grown, how our food is made, where the food is produced, where it is shipped, and if it is allowed in the grocery store. Food corporations control every aspect of food.

The recent Buy Canadian Movement has uncovered not only our dependency on food security from a country like the United States but also the amount of food sovereignty, security, and autonomy that has been eroded from Canada by food multinationals through hyper-globalization.

Mark Menean, http://www.saultblog.com