Can Canadians be convinced to fill the gap remains a big question. Ottawa—The agrifood sector now is officially part of the federal essential infrastructure for the battle against COVID-19 but it isn't clear to several organizations just what that entails. While the April 2 declaration by Public Safety Canada is welcome, “this measure alone is not enough to ensure food security,” says Laurie Karson of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. “That is why CFA is still seeking a declaration that would grant the agrifood industry, through governments, additional powers to ensure there is no disruption in the supply and flow of food. “We strongly believe that all orders of government in Canada need to approach food security and the stability of our food supply as a priority, second only to mitigating the impacts and spread of COVID-19,” she said. Carla Ventin, Vice-President of Consumer & Food Products of Canada, said the declaration “is a step in the right direction, but further conversations along the agrifood supply chain are urgently needed to ensure Canadians continue to have access to food today and in the coming months.” The federal announcement “seems to thoroughly cover food and the supply chain, which is all good, it's advisory in nature and does not supersede the provincial lists,” she said. “FCPC has been strongly advocating at the highest levels of government to urge them to develop guidance and formal communications that reinforces the food system, and their supply chains and workforce, as essential critical infrastructure.” Speaking to reporters April 4, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said farmers across the country “rely on temporary foreign workers to make sure that we can feed our country. That has been the way for many, many years and we are of course looking to ensure that we're able to receive temporary foreign workers, that they will be properly quarantined for two weeks before they start doing the work that is so necessary for us all. “At the same time, we see many, many Canadians out of work who are wanting to help out, students who are looking at opportunities for summer jobs that they might not otherwise have and we know there are many people interested in helping out in terms of feeding this country,” he said. “So we're going to be having more to say in the coming, coming days and weeks about how we're going to pull together and make sure that our agricultural producers, our fisheries, our agricultural transformers are going to get the support they need.” Janet Krayden, Workforce Expert at Mushrooms Canada, said more is needed “to help keep our Canadian farms and processing fully operating. None of the emergency measures that have rolled out have included support for essential farm workers or farmers who are absorbing the steep costs of changing their operations to comply with directives they are receiving on a daily basis from four different federal departments and also different levels of government. “With schools all being closed, essential farm workers need to pay for childcare as a new cost and it is very difficult now to obtain,” she said. “This is not helping to keep healthy essential farm workers on the job. The federal government needs to add agriculture “to existing emergency programs for business and to use existing business risk management programs for agriculture as another way to provide an emergency cash injection to essential service farm businesses.” The Canadian Cattlemen's Association said the designation “is an important step to helping maintain open borders for trade, plants operating at full capacity, and cattle and beef products to flow uninterrupted through the beef value chain domestically and internationally.” 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.