Fred Steele
"The success realized by the CanadaGAP since 2008 continues to stand as an impressive achievement led by the Canadian Horticultural Council."
Paul Leblanc, Chair of the Industry Standards and Food Safety Committee, CHC, March 11, 2015
It is hard to believe that food safety has only been in place nationally for 7 years. The CHC’s CanadaGAP initiative started when growers were being faced with multiple food safety requirements from retailers each putting their own spin on programs, and often without keeping in mind that practical programs are important. CHC took the lead for horticulture to establish a single, sensible food safety program. Sometimes I wonder how practical some parts of the food safety program are. As CHC President Keith Kuhls said, “Documentation is sometimes a pain, but we would rather be in charge of our own destiny than having someone else dictate to us”. So, my criticism is tempered when I consider the alternative of having to deal with multiple different retailer programs.
The CHC recently made the administration of the CanadaGAP food safety program independent when it established CanAgPlus, a standalone corporation.
Here is what we have built: CanadaGAP is a national program offering third party audit and certification. CanadaGAP meets the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards. CanadaGAP includes all parts of the value chain up to the retailer, so that everything from producing, packing, repacking, storing and wholesale (and soon, brokers) of fruit and vegetables is covered. Across Canada, there are 2,500 producers now enrolled, so fruit growers in B.C. represent about 20% of the CanadaGAP program. Many B.C. cherry producers are enrolled in other programs, such as GlobalGAP.
Food safety programs (usually either the Canadian On-Farm Foods Safety program or GlobalGAP) and the Environmental Farm Plan Program are the core programs for growers.
Where the need for food safety programs has been driven by domestic and international retail buyers, the EFP program was developed in response to the many environmental regulations, and is seen as a program that shows your commitment to environmental protection (and also reduces liability of the grower for environmental issues that could arise).
These programs are complex and there is a lot of duplication between food safety and EFP programs.
The BCFGA and other associations have worked to simplify programs as much as possible, as well as lobby for adequate resources for the programs. Most growers will agree there is much work remaining to be done in the areas of simplification and program funding! Recently, the BCFGA Annual Convention proposed merging the EFP and food safety programs to eliminate duplication and reduce administration costs.
The BCFGA discovered an electronic, “fillable forms” version of the food safety program while we were in Quebec at the Canadian Horticultural Council. The BCFGA is considering making this electronic version of the Food Safety Manual available to all members. It would eliminate paper, but also allow you to transfer the document to advisors by email. What do you think?
There is much frustration with the current EFP program - especially the disruption in funding and the removal of the most beneficial of the BMPs for our tree fruit sector. This is an ongoing problem in which the BCFGA continues to seek solutions.
In addition to food safety and EFP, other programs are being proposed, and these programs are voluntary, not mandatory. One program is the Tree Fruit and Nut Biosecurity program. The other is a sustainability program. Both are being discussed and developed with the input of association representatives, though biosecurity is more developed.
The biosecurity program is being proposed to help interested producers to develop a plan to deal with risks of introduction of pests and diseases onto the farm. For example, when apple clearwing moth appeared on a farm in |the Glenmore-Ellison area several years ago, the grower decided to remove and burn the entire orchard that was infested. If the grower had a biosecurity plan, it may have prevented the introduction of the pest in the first place. TFN biosecurity will need to be narrow in scope, so that the amount of effort and paperwork required by growers who participate in the voluntary program will be minimized.
Like the complexity that our sector faced in dealing with food safety, a new challenge is sustainability. According to the Canadian Horticulture Council, several grocery retailers are discussing sustainabiliy programs, and of course they woudl all be different.
CHC has taken note of the many proposals being developed by retailers on sustainability.
Profit, social, and environmental sustainability are core parts of the proposed program. It is intended to be a ‘module’ that can be ‘plugged into’ CanadaGAP. Growers at the CHC Annual Meeting emphasized that the idea of a sustainability program is not to harmonize, but to differentiate and add value to Canadian production. I invite input from BCFGA members on food safety, environmental, biosecurity and sustainability programs. ■
Fred Steele, Kelowna orchardist and President of the BCFGA