The Rural Voice, 2001-11, Page 29News
Food security should
be on consumers'
minds, says
Wilkinson
New systems of tracing food from
farm to plate are even more
important following the terrorist
attacks of September 11, says Jack
Wilkinson, president of the Ontario
Federation of Agriculture.
Wilkinson, speaking to the annual
meeting of the Huron County
Federation of Agriculture in Seaforth
on October 11, said farmers are in
danger of being pushed off the
political agenda because of concerns
over security, but those same
concerns should make consumers
more aware of food security. If
consumers were worried about the
safety of things like pesticide use and
genetic modification of food before
September 11, they should be even
more worried about food safety now,
Wilkinson said.
Consumers should be aware of the
efforts of all farm commodities to put
Hazard Analysis Critical Control
Points (HACCP) systems in place
that will allow foods to be traced
from the grocery store, back through
processing to the farm of origin with
the procedures recorded at each step
of the way.
And if consumers are worried
about food security they should want
their food to be produced here in
Canada, he said. It wasn't only car
plants that closed down because of
delivery problems because of
holdups at the border, he said.
Imported food was also delayed and
the five major food warehouses in
Toronto have only one week's food
supply in stock.
"If people are nervous about the
border, surely we have made the
point that we need food production in
Canada," Wilkinson said.
This approach is part of a campaign
to be launched by OFA this winter to
create what Wilkinson called a
"contract with consumers" which
will persuade consumers it's worth
supporting farmers in order to get
benefits consumers want. The
If you ate today...
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Grand Champion 4-H Steer shown with owner Bradley
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NOVEMBER 2001 27