Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members.
I'm speaking to you on behalf of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, representing approximately 190,000 farm families across Canada from coast to coast to coast. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak on global food insecurity.
Earlier this week I attended a presentation by David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Programme. He emphasized that a lack of fertilizer and production issues in major agricultural regions will result in a dramatic increase in the number of people globally impacted by acute food insecurity, already at 345 million people worldwide. The gravity of this situation is only heightened by the link between food insecurity and civil unrest, with his remarks noting the urgent need to maximize global food production and enhance resilience in agri-food systems.
Canada is blessed with an enviable endowment of natural resources and highly efficient agricultural producers, yet we're not immune to the global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate change. In this era of increasingly connected crises, an overreliance on either international trade or domestic production leaves nations vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, with potentially devastating effects.
For example, farmers across eastern Canada continue to experience uncertain access to fertilizer and recognize that scarcity of this essential input is potentially a reality for years to come. Policies like the tariff on Russian fertilizer only contribute to higher prices for essential inputs, as producers already contend with historically high operating costs. There remains an acute need for relief from this financial hardship.
Global food insecurity requires a multi-faceted whole-of-government approach, supporting resilient food supply chains and maximizing food production. In my comments today, I'll touch on a few areas of critical importance in this regard.
First, on trade, at the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit, UN members agreed that the attainment of the SDGs will depend on fostering stable local food systems, supported by fair and rules-based trade. No international policy should create impediments to countries building their own agricultural infrastructure. The world needs strong rules-based trade that enables policy measures promoting stability of supply, such as safety nets, orderly marketing and supply management.
Canada's response to climate change is also a clear example of policies that have the potential to affect resilience and our capacity to produce food. Producers need policies that incent climate-resilient practices without constraining productivity. This requires collaboration between farmers and governments to leverage farm-level expertise. CFA continues to call for a working group of farmers, officials and technical experts to identify pragmatic climate change incentives that support continued productivity growth.
On infrastructure, physical and natural infrastructure is also central to our resilience in the face of climate change. Continued investment in the national trade corridors fund is essential to diversifying and strengthening our channels to market. CFA also supports the continued development of ecosystem services programming, such as the reverse auction program announced in budget 2021 for wetlands conservation and restoration. Recognizing farmers for their contributions to flood plain management and other public environmental goods is critical to the sector's long-term resilience.
On disaster responses and recovery, resilience also requires a coordinated approach to disaster response and the identification of measures that could mitigate and prevent future risks from occurring. CFA continues to call for collaborative post-disaster reviews as part of the AgriRecovery framework, bringing together key stakeholders after the initial disaster response to assess and identify best practices and needed changes, and to help design off-the-shelf programming responses for similar situations in the future.
Finally, with regard to labour and preservation of farm assets, maximizing Canadian food production requires access to labour and policies that preserve strategic agricultural assets. CFA is working closely with CAHRC and Food and Beverage Canada on an industry-led national workforce strategic plan to address the acute and systematic labour shortages that constrain our productivity. While industry-led, we look forward to engaging you in the coming months on the collective actions needed to tackle this chronic issue.
We must also work to ensure food security isn't sacrificed to conflicting interests. A prime example is a plot of Crown-owned farmland in Surrey, B.C., being put out for sale despite housing one of the most productive and climate-resilient horticultural operations serving the B.C. market. This may seem minor in the face of this global issue, but the loss of that land would be a permanent blow to food security in that region, demonstrating how policies across government can unknowingly add to existing food insecurity concerns.
In conclusion, global food insecurity is complex, with dramatic implications for political and economic stability around the world. We welcome this committee's commitment to explore Canada's role in responding to mounting global food insecurity. As you deliberate further on this topic, I would leave you with these four key areas where Canadian policies can have a direct and positive impact.
First is a strong international presence supporting rules-based trade that supports nations in promoting the stability of infrastructure and supply.
Second is a working group with farmers to ensure environmental policies support enhanced resilience and productivity.
Third is collaborative AgriRecovery reviews to mitigate and prevent future climate risks.
Last is a holistic approach to labour and the preservation of strategic productive assets in Canada.
I thank you for your time and welcome any questions you might have.