This Years Food Day Canada Should Be One to Remember

Since its debut in 2003, Food Day Canada 2020 just might be the most important and – let’s be honest – relative celebration of our farmers and fishers, processors, retailers, restauranteurs, and stay-at-home – or rather this year, “stuck-at-home” – cooks

by Cam Patterson

When the celebration was first conceived, it was billed as the “World’s Largest Barbecue” to bolster fledgling faith in our Canadian beef when BSE brought about a dramatic and financially devastating embargo from our southern neighbours that rings somewhat familiar in this, the year of the global pandemic.

Like 2003, nation-wide pride kicked in to support our famers and the industry in general, because we’re Canadians and when one of us is hurting, we are all hurting, and so was the case when the dominion wide barbecue was a country-wide success, kicking up our pride when it needed it, but also telling our farmers and ranchers and beef industry to hang in there – we’ve got the best steak on the planet!

“My extra nod is for the farmers and ranchers, butchers and processors, transportation and retailers, who kept on keeping on, in the face of COVID-19″

 

Well, enter now 2020 and the rampant and ruthless little virus that has ground the world to a stand still and sent us running for our own stashes of PPE, rubbing alcohol and hand-sanitizer. That’s not to say that famers and the supply-chain that gets all our food from field to table has not had its setbacks and hardships every year since, but this years’ pandemic has all but crippled us – and every country’s food sector for that matter – to its knees.

And yet, not broken the determination and back-bone that is the Canadian farmer. Processing plants took their lumps and some hard losses. Farmers still need buy-back programs while they watch their crops and herds sit idle because the supply chain had no choice during the pandemic and crippled trade talks but grind to a devastating halt. And yet, we found a way to keep shelves stocked, people fed while we wade along waiting for what could be the “second-wave”.

So, this years’ Food Day Canada celebration will be different for sure. And this long weekend ( for most of us across the country ) we all should buy something local, be it produce, eggs, meat, fruit, chocolate, or what have you, and give our little bit of recognition and support to the families and people who kept Canadian grown and raised food on our tables when we needed it most.

And remember while we’re eating that tasty burger and raising a beer with friends who are safely social-distanced, this pandemic shall pass like all pandemics before it.

But since I write for Canadian Meat Business magazine, my extra nod is for the farmers and ranchers, butchers and processors, transportation and retailers, who kept on keeping on, in the face of COVID-19.

This years Food Day Canada is really for you!