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We are what we eat, the familiar phrase, garners a new perspective when we pause to think about our food systems: We eat what we subsidize. My research shows how agricultural subsidies end up either on our plates here in Canada, or elsewhere through our exports, and identifies the extent to which Canada’s agricultural production policies are not always consistent with our health and environmental goals.

Once thriving, farming is now a graying occupation in Canada. Without the government supports and subsidies they receive (to the tune of CAD 7 billion annually), many farming operations would simply go out of business. Due to the flawed market structures and policies, our food system creates precarious livelihoods for tens of thousands of small- and medium-scale farmers, yet supports many large-scale operators, who are already financially well-off. My research shows that Canada’s agricultural policies heavily subsidize commodities that Canadians don’t necessarily need to consume. These subsidies contribute to an ever-increasing energy- and input-intensive agro-industrial system that is implicated in freshwater scarcity and pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation, and bio-diversity loss.

The implications of the current government supported agro-industrial system for the economic viability of small- and medium-scale farmers, their communities, and the nutritious, fresh foods we expect to eat are striking.  My ongoing research, supported by a grant from the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance, develops tools and policies that can reorient our agricultural production support policies toward food sovereignty and increase access to nutritious, locally sourced diets that not-only feed us, but also restore our land and revitalize our communities.