Some of the most transformative innovations in Canada aren’t found in labs or server farms. They’re in eggs produced with a lower carbon footprint. The longer-lasting apples in your lunchbox. The salad that doesn’t spoil by midweek. The bread made from crops that survived last summer’s drought.

These are everyday outcomes powered by one of Canada’s most advanced and most overlooked innovation engines: our food system.

The scale of that engine is staggering. Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing sector is the country’s largest manufacturing sector, and the food system as a whole employs one in nine Canadians. In 2023 alone, plant science innovations contributed $3.5 billion to GDP before a single seed was planted, supporting more than 23,000 jobs in the pre-farm segment of the supply chain. On the farm, crop science helped drive $14.6 billion in farmgate revenue, strengthening the economic backbone of rural Canada. Beyond the farm gate, food system innovations generated $6.4 billion in export value—nearly a third of Canada’s net agri-food trade balance. Even in the face of climate volatility, global disruptions, and trade pressures, this system continues to deliver quietly, reliably, and innovatively.

Yet despite its scale and impact, the food system rarely gets recognized as a hub of innovation. And that matters because without public awareness and support, we risk underinvesting in the solutions that help us adapt and thrive.

Recent research from the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity reveals a critical insight: the word “innovation” doesn’t always inspire confidence. About one in five Canadians consistently feel anxious when they hear terms like “cutting-edge,” “modernizing,” or even “innovation” in relation to the food system. For many, these words signal disruption, not progress, especially when it comes to something as essential and personal as food.

But that anxiety doesn’t stem from opposition to change. It stems from a fear that progress might come at the expense of the values people hold dear. Canadians want food they can trust. They want safe, affordable, sustainable options. They want to support local producers and see their communities thrive. They associate those outcomes with the image of a little red barn and a little green tractor, symbols of care, tradition, and connection to the land.

What we need to show clearly and consistently is that innovation in Canada’s food system doesn’t replace those values. It reinforces them. Over 90 percent of Canadian farms are family-owned, and those families use innovation not to industrialize their work, but to preserve it. A smarter greenhouse still grows tomatoes the way a family farm always has, just with better yield and less waste. A new cold-chain logistics system doesn’t take away from local food; it helps ensure it reaches your table fresher and with fewer emissions. Innovation isn’t about changing what matters; it’s about scaling what works. It’s how we make trusted values go further and last longer.

This isn’t a side story in Canada’s economy, it’s a cornerstone. A driver of jobs, trade, and resilience. Increasingly, it’s where Canada stands out on the global stage. It’s time we treated it that way.

Innovation in food doesn’t always look like a gadget or an app. Sometimes it looks like a drought-tolerant seed. A redesigned trucking route. A fishery with a lower footprint. It looks like continuous improvement taking shape in the fields, across our supply chains, and in the food we rely on every day.

Canada’s food system is one of our greatest innovation success stories. Let’s make sure it gets the spotlight it deserves.

 

Lisa Bishop-Spencer, Executive Director at the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity