Canada’s food safety standards are respected around the world, but is Canada in danger of falling behind? And can an examination of international standards, consumer assurances and values benefit Canadian producers trying to sell at home and abroad? Ellen Crane, who grew up on a cow-calf farm in Lorne Valley, Prince Edward Island, found this topic particularly interesting in the face of impending trade agreements such as the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement and the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement. As part of her Nuffield Canada scholarship, Crane travelled around the world to compare labelling and transparency practices to see what producers back home could learn. Crane delivered a presentation on her findings to the 2019 Agricultural Excellence Conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
“If there’s going to be a potential opportunity for Canadian beef to be sold in these countries, what are our opportunities and what are these consumers looking for when they purchase a Canadian beef product?” said Crane. “There’s a little bit of psychology that goes into it, because when you’re selling to consumers, you have to think about what is that consumer thinking about, what are their values, how do we attract that consumer to purchasing our product in another market.”
Crane’s travels took her to the Netherlands, Scotland, England, Denmark, Ireland, France, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, the United States and to other areas of Canada. The most commonly valued attribute in all countries is food safety. Crane says that the importance of food safety standards didn’t fully hit home until she found herself at a wet market in Hong Kong, with meat hanging on hooks in the open in 40 degree Celsius heat, with cats wandering around.
“In that wet market, I also found a premium shop that contained products from other countries. These products were all wrapped in disposable packaging, they were frozen, labelled with the country of origin and more expensive than the other products in the market. We could see the value right in front of us in that market.”
Farmers Crane spoke with in the European Union are very proud of their advanced traceability system, which includes double ear tagging (in case one is lost), and a passport system which follows the animal and indicates where they have travelled. An electronic system called BreedPlan is used to track data including births, movements and medical records. While the system costs the equivalent of $1449 CDN per year, producers will not receive subsidies if the system is even a few days out of date. European consumers are also going to expect that protein is free of growth-promoting hormones, as they were banned in the EU in 1989.
“If you’re going to sell products into Europe, we have different programs that you need to follow for that,” said Crane. “But, as a commodity, I think we need to do a better job of tracking those animals that will receive growth hormones to prevent the possibility of an animal with growth hormones slipping into the system.”
In Denmark, veterinarians play a huge role in protein production. Duties that are taken for granted in Canada, such as castration and dehorning, must be carried out by a veterinarian. “That would be a bit of a shock to the system here,” admitted Crane. “But we were shocked when we had to get the vet to sign off on antibiotics too.”
Another key factor that Crane examined was assurance schemes, which seek to reconnect consumers to producers through packaging and advertising. Learning about a country’s assurance schemes should be required study for anyone looking to sell to that market. While many share common values, sustainability for example, there are some country-specific standards. Italy’s La Granda, promotes the slow food movement, for example.
Overall, Crane’s recommendations include that beef producers improve on-farm records and implement full traceability, enhanced producer education and enhanced product labelling to ensure consumers are aware of sustainably raised products. Crane later commented on how important a role smaller producers can play.
“For the smaller operations, depending on what their target market is, there is an opportunity to improve the practices that warrant a label such as high quality, traceable or sustainably raised,” says Crane. “If the small producer is selling locally through customer orders, farm gate sales, farmers markets, etc. there is an opportunity to have conversations with the customer about what their values and concerns are.”
Crane also noted that smaller producers may have an advantage with having a smaller number of animals to keep track of compared to many larger operations. She also emphasizes that record keeping needn’t be an expensive endeavour, that it can be as simple as a daily farm journal to track activities such as movement, health treatments and expenses.
— Matt Jones