As we get ready to celebrate harvest across Canada, I can’t help but smile as I think about how kids answer when asked about food.
“What do you have?”, they’ll often reply when asked if they are hungry and want something to eat. I have found the answer is the same for toddlers and teenagers alike. My 4-year-old daughter says it all the time and my brother’s teenage kids said the same thing recently too when visiting my mother’s house.
What do you have?
Luckily, for us in Canada, the answer is LOTS.
After all, we’re the 5th largest agri-food exporter in the world (6 th largest importer) and we sell about half of everything we produce, grow, and make here in Canada.
Thankfully, this gives us plenty to eat and even more to choose from.
This time of year, my kids and my friends’ kids have tons of options: Corn on the cob, strawberries, peaches, yellow and green beans and the freshest tomatoes you’ll ever eat, are all readily available this time of year. Earlier this week, I bought all these items from a farm stand in the small town where I grew up in rural Ontario. Locally grown and as fresh as food can be. And the taste was without comparison. My daughter gobbled everything up, especially the peaches and strawberries.
And while the beauty of technology and globalization means we can eat all these foods year-round, everyone knows that a locally grown tomato or a basket of strawberries just picked taste exponentially better than anything that was imported and flown in.
Ultimately, we’re lucky to live in a country with such an abundance of food riches – especially when global disruptions have made food security a real issue around the world.
That is why at C3FC, we are committed to showcasing all Canada’s food wealth. From pork, beef, and grains to dairy, food processing, seafood and countless others, we have it very good when we think about it, and we should be both proud and grateful for this fact.
Tell us on our X (formerly Twitter) page what your favourite harvest food are! What do you have? Anything and Everything!
Please note that we will be highlighting various aspects of the harvest in the weeks ahead so stay tuned for more information and some exiting ways we’re going to interact with our growing C3FC network.