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Canadian Centre for Food Integity launched

June 15, 2016 - Canada's first food and farming Public Trust summit was held in Ottawa on May 31 and June 1. A total of 230 delegates from the agriculture sector convened to launch the new Canadian Centre for Food Integrity.

The Canadian Centre for Food Integrity is the research division of Farm & Food Care Canada. It helps the food system earn public trust through strategy, coordination and research on consumer attitudes and expectations. Not an "association of associations," the new organization aims to foster a collaborative and collective approach between many partners across the country, from individual farmers and ranchers to associations and food companies. Farm & Food Care Canada will continue engaging directly with Canadians about food and farming.

Farm and food industry leaders and speakers from around the world gathered at the Summit to communicate their experiences and perspectives. They were also among the first to see the results from the first Public Trust Research report. Here are a few highlights from the findings:

2016 Canadian Public Trust Research Report:

• The rising cost of food and access to healthy affordable food were the two top concerns for Canadians, ranking above health care and the economy.
• Only 30 per cent of Canadians think that the Canadian food system is heading in the right direction, compared to 40 per cent in the US; 50 per cent of Canadians said they were unsure.
• With 93 percent of Canadians saying they know little or nothing about farming, determining fact from fiction about our food continues to be a growing issue.
• There is a growing skepticism of traditional information sources like government agencies.
• There is an increasingly positive view of farmers (now at a 10 year high).

Read the full report here.

Media coverage has been and remains strong. The Globe and Mail, Canadian Grocer and many dallies, weeklies and trade publications have already covered the Summit, the new research and the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity. Visit the In the News section of the Farm & Food Care Canada website for media links.

Farm & Food Care Canada thanks the following Canadian Centre for Food Integrity founding members:

• A & W Food Services Canada Inc.
• Alberta Agriculture and Forestry
• Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency Ltd.
• Alberta Pork
• Association of Canadian Faculties of Agricultural and Veterinarian Medicine
• Beef Farmers of Ontario
• Burnbrae Farms
• Dow AgroSciences
• Egg Farmers of Alberta
• Egg Farmers of Ontario
• Farm Credit Canada
• Food and Beverage Ontario
• John Deere Canada ULC
• L.H. Gray & Son Limited
• Maple Leaf Foods
• SeCan
• Shur-Gain, Landmark
• Tim Hortons

Research Partners included Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Nova Scotia Ministry of Agriculture, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural AffairsSpeaker details, the Summit program and the inaugural public trust research report are all available on the Farm & Food Care Canada website.