Food Security and Sustainability Key Topics at the GrowCanada Conference

Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022 – Ottawa, Ontario – The annual GrowCanada Conference is returning to Ottawa this year from November 29 through December 1. Leaders from across the agriculture industry will gather for big picture discussions related to this year’s theme: Challenge. Responsibility. Opportunity. These important conversations will happen on the heels of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27), where food security and sustainable agricultural productivity were centre stage, and just prior to the start of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) taking place in Montreal. 

The United Nations estimates that approximately 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021. This number is moving in the wrong direction compounded by the continued impacts of the global pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine and inflation pressures. 

Headlining on the topic of global food security, and agriculture’s role in it, will be Ertharin Cousin, Food Systems for the Future CEO and Good Food Opportunity Fund Managing Director, who says: 

“Globally, demand for — and the cost of — food is at an all-time high. Current geo-political conflicts and climate disruptions have laid bare that our food system is extremely volatile. Feeding a growing global population will require robust improvements to the way we grow, store, and transport food. To achieve greater food security and narrow nutritional disparities, we must give priority to supporting and investing in smaller-scale farmers around the world who feed a significant portion of the population but have historically been denied access to the capital and technology necessary to sustainably and more cost-effectively scale businesses from farm to fork.” 

Following the discussion on global food security, CEO of Food Banks Canada, Kirstin Beardsley, will offer insights on the unique food security challenges facing Canadians, including the results of its Hunger Count 2022 report. 

The challenge of addressing food security goes hand-in-hand with sustainability. With the world population expected to hit 9 billion by 2050, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates we’ll need to produce 70 per cent more food to meet these needs. Given that resources like arable land and water are limited, and that farmers are under increasing pressure from climate change, growth will largely have to come from improved efficiency – growing more using less. 

Jack Bobo, Director of Global Food and Water Policy at Nature United, will speak to the need for sustainable productivity growth. He’ll address the interconnected challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss, and his vision for how we can meet the growing food, feed and fuel demands of the world while also meeting our global sustainability targets. 

“If we were farming today with 1960s technology, we would need one billion additional hectares of land to produce the food we do right now. We need to do even better moving forward to address the very challenges facing people and the planet. Innovation is key to achieving advances in food production that not only produce more food on the same amount of land, but that allow us to regenerate soil, sequester carbon and adapt to a changing environment,” says Bobo.

With the challenge of needing to grow more with less comes opportunity – and responsibility – for Canada. As a global leader in the production of safe, nutritious and sustainable food, Canada can play a greater role in supplying food and feed to the world while in turn driving economic growth domestically. To explore the topic of how Canada can maximize its agriculture potential, Shaun Haney from Real Agriculture will be moderating a discussion with Carlo Dade from the Canada West Foundation and Dave Smardon from BioEnterprise. 

At the heart of every discussion on Canadian agriculture’s potential, sustainable food production and food security are farmers, who will be well represented at the GrowCanada conference.

“Canadian farmers sit at the intersection of food security and sustainability. With increased geopolitical threats and the impacts of climate-change compounding existing food security concerns, as a sector, we need to align the imminent need for increased food production with our long-term goals of increasing on-farm sustainability. Through our work on the ‘Road to 2050’ where we are mapping out a plan to net-zero emissions, the Grain Growers of Canada are engaging with industry, academia, farm organizations and government to reconcile our sustainability goals with the unique needs and opportunities of the sector,” says Grain Growers of Canada chair and Alberta farmer, Andre Harpe. Grain Growers of Canada is a member of the GrowCanada partnership.

The full conference agenda is available here.