I hope they got my good side.
I'll go back to the previous point.
From our perspective, the pursuit of affordable food should not be allowed to impede the production of sufficient food. In the absence of adequate food, affordability would be a moot point.
In terms of improving health and food safety, food safety is without exception the number one priority of the Canadian meat industry. New sanitation, processing, packaging, refrigeration, and laboratory testing technologies all contribute to continuous progress in food safety.
The meat industry, as you would imagine and as you would hope, is the most intensively regulated and inspected component of the food industry. International confidence in Canada's food safety system permits us to export to over 100 countries, including the United States, the EU, and Japan.
With respect to nutrition and health, most Canadians consume an abundance of foods, but many do not obtain the nutrients they require for good health. Overfed but undernourished is a rapidly expanding paradox that we live with.
Meat has been a part of the human diet since time immemorial and is recognized by the WHO as an important component of a balanced diet. A compact source of good nutrition, meat contains numerous wholesome and essential nutrients that are critical for good health and life. These would include protein, minerals, all the B vitamins, and vitamin D that we need. Unlike plants, meat contains all the essential amino acids that the human body requires and is a natural source of vitamin B12.
Canadians, on average, consume red meat at levels consistent with Canada's food guide. However, protein and nutritional requirements vary widely based on age, gender, and other factors. It is for this reason that generic statements such as “Eat less meat” are not only overly simplistic, but also in fact can be deleterious to the health of individuals.
For example, while iron deficiency anemia is the most common nutritional deficiency in Canada, iron in meat is more easily absorbed and utilized by the human body than iron found in grains or vegetables. As per capita meat consumption has been falling, obesity has become an increasing concern. Meat supplies significantly fewer calories and more nutrients than many plant proteins.
Many Canadians would obviously benefit from eating more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, and this can be accomplished by choosing empty-calorie foods less often. While fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are underconsumed, discretionary sugars and fats are overconsumed. In short, there is no need for the average Canadian to change the amount of meat they enjoy, but everyone should be mindful of balancing their diets.
Not only does food production contribute to climate change, changing climate also makes food production that much more difficult. The challenge for humanity will be to satisfy the increase in global food demand while decreasing the environmental footprint per unit of food production. Reducing greenhouse emissions and improving environmental performance are already priorities for the livestock and meat sector. The greenhouse gas footprint of Canadian livestock and meat production is among the lowest in the world, and the value chain is committed to continuous and further improvement.
It would be counterproductive should livestock and meat production become subject to policies that impede Canadian producers and processors to a greater extent than those incurred by foreign competitors. The perverse outcome of this scenario would be reduced meat production in this country in favour of increased meat production in countries with a higher environmental footprint.
Speaking now to the growing more high-quality food component, two characteristics of Canadian society are a relentless reduction in the number of farms and ever-increasing urbanization. While the population has increased by 400% since 1921, the number of farms in Canada has decreased by 77%. In the absence of increasing productivity and scale, it would not have been, nor will it be, possible to satisfy either the increasing population or the low food price expectations of most consumers. Farm consolidation and an increased capital and technological investment will continue to be propelled not only by the retirement of current operators, for whom the average age exceeds 55 years, but also by the paramount necessity of ever-increasing productivity.
The production of more high-quality food must be pursued not through the increased use of land, water, or energy, but primarily by intensified research and incentives leading to increased productivity, efficiencies, and scale by all links in the value chain. Its achievement will require the adoption of underutilized existing, as well as still to be discovered, technologies.
Any policy, program, or decision that reduces competitiveness or constrains the development or the adoption of new technologies will have negative implications for consumers as well as for the world's food security, the environment, and global stability.
International competitiveness is an absolute necessity for the sustainability and growth of the Canadian livestock and meat sector. The Canadian market is already quota- and tariff-free for pork imports, and increasingly so for beef and veal. Should Canadian meat production and prices fail to remain globally competitive, this country would lose not only its exports markets, but production for the domestic market would quickly be at risk as well.