Made-in-Canada Food Strategies for Today

Canadians are pushing back on our former ally to the South and its incoherent program of “economic force.” As US leaders shred old alliances, cozy up to Putin, imperil civil rights, and declare their intent to take Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal, we're determined to maintain our sovereignty and economic stability. My family, friends, and neighbours are enthusiastic about this project. They’ve cancelled trips to the US and are buying Canadian whenever they can, and I bet you and yours are too.

With trade warfare looming, it's worth revisiting the history on how the United Kingdom's government and citizens re-booted the entire British food system –  from farming to processing, from production to consumption – to make sure the population would be fed during the crisis.

Learning from World War II Britain

What can we learn from that experience to help us batten down our own food system and weather the current realignments? 

World War II Britain was in a different circumstance, to be sure. It was geographically separated from Germany and able to mobilize vast colonies for food and other resources. Food supply chains were not as globalized as they are now. Nazis were advancing with tanks and planes rather than with unjustly punitive tariffs and not-so-veiled threats from the current US administration.  

That said, the United Kingdom significantly reduced its food imports and took some actions that would attract widespread support today. For example, it: 

• Created a Ministry of Food to oversee the nation’s food security. The Minister of Food didn’t wait until invasion was upon them. His ministry started planning to strengthen national food production well before Britain engaged in the war.
• Completed a sweeping inventory of under-utilized land for food production, for example, through community gardens and food-production co-ops. It worked with regional and local governments to make those easier to establish.  
• Enabled everyone to adopt less resource-intensive, more plant-based diets. In addition to rationing, which no one enjoyed but most people strongly supported, the British government scaled back local production of meat, shifted much local pastureland into production of plant-based protein crops, and enacted price controls on many essential food stuffs. That didn’t just reduce dependence on imported foods. It also freed up resources for other necessities, like defence. 
• Encouraged cheap, creative, local replacements for imported or resource-intensive foods such as  eggs, dairy products, beef, and fish. People re-learned time-honoured tricks for making baked goods without eggs, and tasty, filling dishes with minimal or no meat, dairy, or fish and fewer imported foods.
• Re-ignited a nationwide love of gardening, at home and in allocated community plots, urban backyard livestock (like chickens) to ensure more foods were produced at home instead of arriving on ships that were getting torpedoed. “Victory gardens” reactivated Britons’ involvement in food production and boosted their sense of the value of food. 
• Supported a widespread learning of food preservation arts, like canning, drying, and pickling.
• Made it socially unacceptable to waste food. Communications campaigns and food-waste laws encouraged cooks and eaters to reduce waste.
• Prioritized maintenance of citizen morale. The British government knew well that keeping spirits high was critical. Without a strengthened food system and the sense that the war was winnable, Britons would not have pushed through. That meant involving everyone in the project of resistance. It meant a massive communications campaign to do that.

This is just scratching the surface of this major food-security project (read more here), which helped avoid hunger and maintain morale through a treacherous time. As analysts later determined, on average the nation ate healthier than it had before the war.

We need to dig in for the long haul, too

As Prime Minister Mark Carney recently put it, Canada's old relationship with the United States, "based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over", and we must "fundamentally reimagine our economy".

Though a food system tune-up isn’t all that’s required, bold food-related government actions will help us get an edge in tough times. Meanwhile, we can start with individual actions that free up economic room in our budgets to deal with a broad slate of oncoming tariffs:

• Eliminate food waste in our homes. Today, about a third of food purchased in Canada goes to waste!
• Reduce our demand for expensive and resource-intensive forms of protein – such as meat, dairy, and eggs (whose production relies heavily on fossil-fuel and imported inputs). Canada excels at producing rich sources of plant-based protein, including soybeans and lentils. It’s easy to make baked goods moist with egg substitutes like ground flax seed (which we produce in abundance). Unsweetened Canadian plant-based milks (like Earth’s Own, Natura, and Oat) taste great in coffee, on cereal, and in cooking. Bonus: They’re far lower in emissions to produce.
• Cook more at home. How many Canadians are learning how to do “meal prep” these days to help them get through the week with minimal cooking? We can also “staples-prep” for times when cheap fruit and vegetables are less abundant in Canada.

We Can Do It

Let’s go, Canada! All these food-related steps would not only put us ahead of any damage inflicted on our economy, but will also make us healthier, more connected to each other, and more climate-wise. We can do it.