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Canada and Ontario invest $7.3 million in food safety and ag innovation projects

The governments of Canada and Ontario are investing $7.3 million through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) to help support farmers and agri-food businesses. The investment will fund projects in priority areas that increase food safety, accelerate sector innovation and help farmers bring new products to market to grow their businesses.

This funding supports more than 600 cost-shared projects that strengthen Ontario’s agri-food sector by helping eligible farmers in more than 270 communities across the province to continue producing safe, high-quality food in Ontario.

“It isn’t an accident that Ontario’s farmers have built an international reputation for producing the best quality food products. It is made possible through their hard work and government investment that keep them on the cutting edge of innovation and competitiveness.” said Marie-Claude Bibeau, federal minister of agriculture and agri-food. “Through this investment, we continue to support the growth and sustainability of this bedrock sector in Ontario.”

Positive outcomes of projects funded under this intake include:

• Improvement of food safety systems on farms to meet or exceed national and international certification standards;
• Development of products that will open new sales markets for farm businesses – for example, a new organic pepper product to expand markets or developing maple butter as a new, value-added farm product;
• Planting cover crops to improve soil health and reduce soil erosion losses over winter;
• Increasing preventative measures to help reduce pest damage at greenhouse operations; and
• Upgrades to animal-handling equipment to improve animal welfare and reduce disease transmission on livestock farms.

“Supporting Ontario’s farmers and agri-food businesses by increasing their ability to innovate is key to strengthening the agri-food sector,” said Lisa Thompson, minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs. “Building resiliency within our agri-food sector will help keep our province’s food supply strong and more able to adapt to challenges in the future.”