By Curtis Galbraith

Former Beaverlodge rancher part of new Food Policy Advisory Council

Mar 13, 2021 | 9:18 AM

BEAVERLODGE, Alta.,– A former Beaverlodge rancher is one of 23 people recently named to the federal government’s Food Policy Advisory Council.

Brenda Schoepp will help the government come up with a new food policy for Canada.

She says the federal minister has a set of objectives and the council will concentrate on meeting those objectives.

“We have different things like vibrant communities, so my question here would be how can we raise awareness of the importance of food in a community, in terms of economic and social and health and justice and culture,” Schoepp said. “Why is it so critically important?”

Schoepp says this may also be a chance to reduce barriers to interprovincial trade, something she has been working on for 40 years.

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She adds Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau also wants to see a food system that would allow people to get more Canadian food.

She also sees this as a chance to address nutrition and how this can be enhanced for groups like seniors. It’s also an opportunity to speak to food security for northern communities, and how to improve the infrastructure needed to get food to these places.

Canada grows 2.5 times more food than it consumes, and is the world’s fifth-largest food exporter, so there will be work done to make sure export markets are still there while making sure people here have enough.

The slogan the federal government has given the food policy is “Everyone at the Table”. Schoepp says because the make-up of the council is so diverse, everyone is at the table.

“We can identify if there are gaps at the table and then ask for someone to be invited, but right now it’s just a really diverse and fantastic group of representatives for Canada.”

Schoepp adds very few countries currently have a food policy and that developing one for Canada is expected to take six years.

“We’re lucky because the food policy profile landed on Agriculture and (Agri-)Food. It could have landed on another ministry and so we have the opportunity there to really be engaged at a high level on the development of a food policy.”

The Council had its first meeting March 4 and is due to have another in April.

Schoepp lived in the Peace Country for close to eight years and still has family here. She now lives on Vancouver Island.

The Food Policy Advisory Council web page can be found here.