Farmers are doing their job well, but the sector remains vulnerable because of existing systems and geopolitical factors at play, says a farm economist.
That was one of the main messages delivered by Sylvain Charlebois, a professor at Dalhousie University, during a recent appearance in Regina.
Charlebois, who leads Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab and regularly advises governments and industry on food policy, told farmers that Canada’s agricultural challenges are no longer rooted in how efficiently food is produced but in how the system around farmers functions.
Charlebois said Canada’s reliance on exporting raw commodities leaves farmers especially vulnerable to forces beyond their control, including trade disruptions, currency volatility and geopolitical disputes.
Creating value
“At the end of the day, it’s about creating value,” Charlebois said.
“You do your work as farmers, you produce commodities, but at the end of the day, they’re commodities. They’re trading on world markets. You’re still vulnerable.”
Recent trade tensions with China were a reminder of how quickly market access can be disrupted, he added, and why farmers need more insulation from external shocks.
Charlebois believes Canada needs more people willing to take risks and invest in farming, especially to bolster value-added investment across the sector, because without a stronger domestic processing capacity and scaled agri-food companies, farmers remain exposed when markets shift.
“Globalization has made Canada rich,” he said.
“It’s going to continue to make Canada rich.”
However, he said Canada is losing competitiveness at home — not just abroad.
Food prices
Charlebois pushed back against the idea that rising food prices are driven by farmers or grocery stores, arguing instead that Canada’s own policies and structural barriers are making the food system more expensive than it needs to be.
“The cost of living has gone up.”
He pointed to Canada’s failure to scale food companies as a central weakness.
“Canada is good at creating companies,” he said.
“Canada is great at launching companies. It does a poor job scaling them.”
He said interprovincial trade barriers are another self-inflicted problem that limits growth and raises costs.
“If you don’t want to scale up companies, the first thing you do is put barriers between provinces,” Charlebois said.
Policy costs layered onto food — without improving competitiveness — are also squeezing the system, he warned, including the impact of carbon pricing on farmers and processors.
“All these things are putting more pressure and stress on our ag industry,” he said.
The result, Charlebois said, is that costs move quickly through the supply chain, leaving farmers caught in the middle.
Competitiveness is the problem
“Our problem is competitiveness,” he said.
“That’s really what the problem is.”
However, despite all these challenges, he believes farmers have a strategic advantage on the global stage that they’re under-using: trust.
“When you say you’re Canadian and you’re in ag, the first thing they think about is trust and safety and quality,” he said.
“The Chinese wanted our canola. The Americans want our products as well. Why? Because it’s Canadian. It’s quality, it’s proven and it’s safe.”
In international comparisons of ag-food systems, Charlebois said Canada consistently ranks at or near the top for food safety.
“Food safety … ranks number one … our greatest strength.”
That reputation, he emphasized, has real economic value, but only if it’s actively leveraged.
“The reputation is there,” Charlebois said.
“We have to capitalize as much as possible.”
He warned that if farmers and agricultural organizations don’t tell their own story, others will do it for them, often inaccurately.
“We have a lot of confused media folks conveying confusing messages to the public,” he said, adding farmers should get out in front of this.
“Tell your story. Get your message out.”
Charlebois challenged farmers to look beyond the field gate and engage more actively in policy and public discussions about food.
“People need you,” he said.
“They need your message to get better policy.”
