Ottawa—Canada should be talking the walk it has accomplished in advancing sustainability in its agrifood system, says a new report backed by 22 farm and food producer organizations, federal departments and nature groups. Entitled Benchmarking Canada's Agri-Food Sustainability Leadership, the report proposes the development of a special index to help the sector compete, add value and improve societal outcomes. “There's an urgency to get better aligned and present Canada's leading agrifood credentials,” says David McInnes, the report's coordinator. “A sustainability index is now vital to ensure confidence in how Canadian food is produced and supplied and to drive competitiveness.” The index “would help demonstrate Canada's rightful place as a leader of sustainable, safe and responsibly-produced food to a more demanding domestic and global marketplace and be a catalyst to add value sector-wide,” the 48-page report said. It's the product of more than a year of discussions and conferences across the country on bolstering sustainability as a key ingredient in agrifood policy and production. “Worldwide, benchmarking agriculture and food practices against a host of environmental, social and health priorities is becoming essential to operate and compete, as well as to meet global sustainable development and net-zero emissions goals,” the report said. “Canada has the opportunity to build on its existing metrics to develop a more integrated picture of its sustainability and quality credentials from farm to retail.” The report provides a blueprint to develop the index and address gaps in current policies and practices. “The index would be comprised of selected indicators spanning the environment, health and food safety, well-being and economic viability.” Its development would be co-led by producers and companies in collaboration with non-industry and government stakeholders and be linked existing sectoral benchmarking initiatives and Canada's statistics-gathering capacity. The index would enable the sector to portray “the sector's strengths to consumers, supply chain customers, regulators and investors.” It would also point out that Canada's agricultural environmental footprint is among the lowest in the world. “Being science-based and externally validated, the index will also be expected to show areas for improvement and shortcomings. The need for a national and consistent picture of sustainability is pressing,” the report said. With the index, “Canada risks being left behind, shut out of markets, or unable to differentiate as other countries position their respective food systems as being the most sustainable or include sustainable production as part of their trade requirements.” “Investors worldwide are expecting companies and their supply chains to fully disclose climate, environmental and social risks and reveal how such insight creates business opportunities.” The report's backers are Agriculture Canada, Arrell Food Institute, Bayer Crop Science, Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Canadian Produce Marketing Association, Canadian Wildlife Federation, Chicken Farmers of Canada, Enterprise Machine Intelligence & Learning Initiative, Environment & Climate Change Canada, Fertilizer Canada, Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada, Global Institute for Food Security, Loblaw Companies Ltd., Maple Leaf Foods Inc., National Research Council, Nutrien, Protein Industries Canada, Pulse Canada, Standards Council of Canada, Statistics Canada, Syngenta and TrustBIX Inc.