It may take time after the election to judge the effectiveness of CFA and CAFTA initiatives.Ottawa –The agrifood sector has a message about its economic importance to the national economy to deliver to everyone running for a seat in Parliament in this fall's federal election and even though many candidates have yet to be selected, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) and the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) has begun reaching out to those whose name will appear on the ballot.Both organizations are working with their member organizations to find people across the country to meet candidates and attend political rallies and events to deliver the message with the hopes that agrifood's importance to the economy and the financial difficulties farmers are currently facing might also gain some public attention.“Every candidate will be hearing the reasons why he or she should be making agrifood part of their campaign,” says CFA spokeswoman Laurie Karson. “We want them to remember the information about the sector when they're in their seat in the Commons.”CAFTA President Brian Innes says, “We want to communicate the importance of trade for our sector to all the candidates. Our members have been talking to them at every opportunity. Trade is top of mind for all out members.”Part of that message is that making the current trade agreements work as they're supposed to is as at least as important as signing any new ones, he said. A big challenge facing Canadian agrifood exporters is non-tariff barriers that countries put up in violation of the spirit of free trade deals such as Italy's ban on Canadian durum and the Chinese blockade on Canadian canola, pork and beef.The CFA will hold an agriculture-leaders debate in Ottawa Sept 24 that will feature presentations by Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, Conservative spokesman Luc Berthold, NDP farm critic Alistair MacGregor and a representative of the Green party. The event, which will also include questions from the attendees, will be live-streamed and highlights from it shared among farm organizations.CFA has been working on Producing Prosperity in Canada initiative for months and it's aimed at building political support in all parties for policies that help foster continued growth in the agrifood sector and raise public awareness of the industry's economic importance to Canada so it is treated as a national priority.Supporters will be given white badges with the Prosperity logo banner on them and a colourful one-page collection of graphs that shows the economic contribution, food security and environmental stewardship contributions of the sector.CAFTA's goals include approval of Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal, ending the non-tariff barriers that Europe has imposed on Canadian agrifood products and getting increased access to Asian markets through the Pacific trade deal, Innes said.Other goals are reforms to the World Trade Organization so it remains the arbitrator of international trade disputes, negotiating a new free trade with Britain if it leaves the European Union and restoring trade relations with China back to normal.Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.