Calgary wonders where its food comes from

Many of us in the agriculture and food business at times like to amuse ourselves about the naivete of city folks who have no clue where their food actually comes from.

We chortle with merriment when they seem to assume that food magically appears every morning at the local grocery chore. As amusing as that may all seem, it turns out those assumptions about city folks being so clueless are entirely correct, if a recent decision by the Calgary city council is any indication.

In its recent budget, mystified Calgary city councillors approved the expenditure of $72,000 on a study to find out where their food comes from — that is, who and where it is produced and who distributes it to Calgary consumers.

I do believe that would confirm everyone’s suspicion that city folks are indeed clueless about where their food comes from, if a study has to be launched to get this information. I have no doubt that this intended study will come as a complete surprise to most city taxpayers, particularly as they contemplate the wise use of their precious tax dollars.

The study goes by the grandiose title of “Food System Assessment and Action Plan.” The goal appears to be to find gaps and make recommendations to create a sustainable food system in Calgary.

A further goal seems to be to ensure that all Calgarians have access to healthy, affordable food. What noble goals they are indeed — except that there is no food access problem by city folks, and there already is a sustainable food system in Calgary, in Alberta, in Canada and in North America.

Even naive city folks are aware that any number of local grocery stores are groaning with an abundance of food every day of the year. All they have to do is choose where they want to go, and how much they want to buy — the only access delay is at the checkout counter. You would have to go back almost 100 years to find a situation where access to food was a problem, and that was more a problem of variety and logistics.

When was the last time anyone actually starved to death in the city of Calgary because they had no access to food.

So, what gives with this study — well, there are a few clues as to the actual nature of this seemingly dubious endeavour at taxpayers’ expense.

In websites related to the folks involved with the study, one finds references to “healthy, affordable food,” “access to quality nutritious food,” and “local food and farmers’ markets.”

These are all coded references to organic food. They imply that the food that is abundant and easily accessed at the large grocery chains is just not what people need — further implying that it’s not nutritious and healthy.

Nothing could be further from the truth and one sees the fine duplicitous hand of green lobby groups and their allies in the organic food industry at work here.

The study itself appears to have been instigated by the Calgary Food Committee, which influenced the Calgary city office of sustainability, which is where the taxpayer money seems to be coming from.

The food committee members include folks from academia, a local organic farmer, a number of people in communications, a green group member, an organic food store representative and one lonely member from the Alberta department of agriculture.

The committee does not have a single representative from the folks who bring food to your table — the commercial farming and ranching industry, meat packers and food processors and, of course, no one from the grocery store chains.

Does this not cause one to suspect what the motives of this committee are and what the intention of the study is?

The study’s outcome would seem to be predictable; more farmers’ markets, and more local organic food production, probably more garden plots for city gardeners. No problem with that, but let the free market provide that if there is a demand.

But I suspect it will go further. It will probably suggest some subsidy mechanism to increase the availability of organic food at lower prices than regular food.

What would be best is to have this study quickly done and then quickly shelved to gather dust.

The real outrage with this study is that Calgary municipal taxpayers will be paying for this nonsense. It just adds to ones perception of naïve city folks.

Will Verboven is the editor of Alberta Farmer.