Food Policy

The Food Policy Committee is designed to monitor, shape and advocate policies that accurately represent and represent the beef industry. The committee’s work is broad and covers multiple agencies and files ranging from labelling, nutrition, international policy, and emerging technologies.  

While these may seem at times as separate files, food policy is not built in a vacuum. Rather, food policy is at the intersection of global deliberations and reports, domestic nutrition guidelines, approval of technologies, and how consumer preferences and perceptions impact government’s agenda.  

Food policy is a flexible committee that adapts to emerging issues and opportunities, allowing the beef industry to respond to policies that affect producers outside of trade, animal health, and environment.  

The work of the committee is to position beef as nutritious, sustainable, and high-quality protein that supports food security, lessens food waste, and is a global leader in both sustainability and quality.  

Nutrition

CCA advocates for a healthy balanced diet, which for many Canadians, can include lean meat that is high in nutrient quality but moderate in calories. Very few foods can match the nutrient density of beef. Beef is one of nature’s best sources of iron, zinc and B vitamins, all vital nutrients essential to human nutrition. 

On average, fresh red meat (including beef) accounts for just 5% of our total calorie intake. The amount of beef Canadians eat is in keeping with the global recommendations from organizations like the World Health Organization. To reduce the amount of nourishing beef that women, children and aging adults eat, would leave them vulnerable to deficiencies in protein, iron, zinc and B-vitamins. 

CCA supports work to increase the knowledge and implementation of healthy eating for Canadians, which includes options of healthy proteins including beef. CCA emphasizes that any development of initiatives to support healthy eating is based on balanced, scientific evidence. 

Food Waste

Ruminants turn products that are inedible by humans into a nutrient-dense protein option. In the Canadian context, there are several examples of this at the regional and national level. Regionally, there are examples of feedlots taking food loss such as weather damaged crops, expired potatoes, apples, and other agricultural by-products (malting barley from the beer brewing process) and using these feedstuffs for feedlot cattle. At the national level, an inedible product that Canada has a natural abundance of is grass and forages. Grasslands which may be either unsuitable for crop production and/or are critical to habitat to wildlife populations are grazed and converted into a protein source. Finally, grazing livestock plays an integration role and can increase the efficiency of existing systems. For example, sheep and goats graze marginal lands or orchards, thereby increasing efficiency while ‘giving back’ in the form of manure. 

Novel Technologies and Labeling

CCA works to ensure beef producers and the industry have access to technologies and tools that support the growth and efficiency of the sector. At the same time, CCA advocates policies and regulations that give an equal playing field for all food products and accurately represent these products in their labelling.  

International Engagements

Global policies shape Canadian outcomes, international discussions influence Canadian regulations and policy, trade, and public perception. At these fora, it is key to ensure the producer voice is heard.  

CCA participation at this level provides practical, on-the ground expertise to inform policy discussions. Today, CCA engages in these same forums to ensure science-based data and real producer perspectives are reflected as well as share our industry’s progress and best practices in sustainability.