The next Parliament needs to address the issue, Bonnett says.Ottawa—After couple of years scoping out what has to be done to build consumer confidence in Canadian agrifood products, the Public Trust Steering Committee (PSTC) finally has a permanent home at the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity (CCFI).The committee was established in 2017 by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and CCFI to bring together representatives from each of the Agriculture Canada value chain roundtables and the food industry to work with the federal and provincial governments plus a wide array of groups with an interest in the food system.Its goal was to find ways to communicate to consumers the many steps the sector is taking to ensure a safe, nutritious and sustainable food supply and to counter unfounded criticisms of it. Once the transfer to CCFI is complete, the PTSC will disband.PTSC Co-Chair Ron Bonnett, past president of CFA, said a lot of consideration and discussion concluded that as CCFI shared a comparable same mandate and similar goals as the committee, it was the best place to operate public trust initiatives from. “We are pleased to make this decision in this journey to public trust.”The PTSC was organized to create a strategic direction for agrifood public trust initiatives and was composed of industry partners across the agri-food industry, working together and with government.The agri-food industry recognizes the importance of providing a more coordinated, values-driven approach when addressing public trust and speaking to consumers about their food, Bonnett said.Research by CCFI shows that a significant portion of Canadians are interested in learning more about their food system and the people who produce it and food-related topics are relevant and top-of-mind for consumers.CCFI CEO John Jamieson said charging his organization with the public trust initiative “provides an opportunity to have one, united voice with a national focus to coordinate efforts to build public trust in Canada's food system.“We appreciate the work the PTSC did and look forward to executing on our newly defined mandate to work in a collaborative manner to coordinate trust activities, provide credible resources and to up the ante on proactive communications.”Agriculture Canada provided finding for the PTSC in 2018 to develop a strategy and plan to boost consumer confidence in food. While there was almost unanimous support for a coordinated, synchronized, collective approach to addressing public trust within Canada's food system, the lack of a coordinated approach was identified as the most limiting factor for advancing public trust.Jamieson said “CCFI presented the PTSC with a detailed proposal that includes additional services that will be delivered by the CCFI to the partners in the PTSC. It is expected that, over time, the CCFI will need to secure additional sources of funding and human resources to meet the new mandate.”CCFI Chair Kim McConnell said the Centre “is committed to doing everything within its means to help advance a coordinated effort to earn and build consumer confidence in Canada's food system.”Back in the spring, the Commons agriculture committee ran out of time to finish a study into public trust in the agrifood sector but recommended it be resumed when the committee is reconstituted after the fall election.“Public confidence in the Canadian agricultural sector is of significant importance to the various stakeholders in the sector,” the committee told Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau.The Committee also encouraged the MPs who will be appointed to the committee in the next Parliament to continue their work “to better meet the expectations of agricultural producers and Canadians.”Bonnett told the committee the public trust issue “has been building steam over the last few years. The ability of social media to put out misinformation about farming practices, how we care for our animals, how we grow our crops, the types of products that we're using has presented a challenge.”The entire agrifood industry know it needs to counter the misinformation being deliberately created about it,” he said. “There's a responsibility of individual commodities to deal with the public trust issues that they have but over that, there's a need to co-ordinate some of the responses, take a look at best practices and things like that.”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.