A harvest is not food security. We grow wheat, tomatoes, soybeans, livestock and other agricultural products in abundance. But a field is not a grocery shelf. 

Someone still has to process the food. 

Without strong domestic processing capacity, Canada risks losing plants, production lines and jobs. Farmers can lose reliable markets for what they grow, while Canadians become more dependent on imported finished goods. 

At Davos, Prime Minister Mark Carney put the challenge plainly: “A country that cannot feed itself, fuel itself, or defend itself has few options.” 

Canada will not achieve greater food sovereignty simply by growing more food. We must also be able to process it here. 

That is the challenge Canada’s National Food Security Strategy is beginning to address. The Strategy recognizes that Canada does not process nearly as much of what it grows and harvests as it could and sets an ambitious objective to increase domestic processing. 

Importantly, the federal government has begun putting meaningful tools behind that ambition. 

This week, Farm Credit Canada launched a $1 billion Agri-food Project Finance Fund aimed at helping capital-intensive projects move from concept to construction and expanding Canada’s value-added processing capacity. 

The new Productivity Mega Deduction is another important step. By allowing businesses to immediately expense a much broader range of capital investments, it can improve the economics of investments in machinery, equipment, technology and automation – exactly the kinds of investments manufacturers need to become more productive and competitive. 

These measures matter. 

Our farmers produce far more than might be expected of a country our size. Yet too often, raw or minimally processed products leave Canada – taking with them the jobs and economic value created through processing – only to return to our grocery shelves as finished products. 

The opportunity is obvious: process more of what Canada grows and produces here at home. 

Food and beverage manufacturing is the indispensable middle of the food system, where agricultural production becomes the food and beverages Canadians consume. That transformation requires plants, specialized equipment, skilled workers, packaging, energy and significant investment. 

Food security does not end at the farm gate. It runs through the plant floor. 

Food and beverage manufacturing is Canada’s largest manufacturing industry and largest manufacturing employer. It purchases more than half of what Canadian farmers produce and supports more than 318,000 direct jobs. 

In many communities, a plant is a major employer, a market for local farmers and a customer for truckers, tradespeople, packaging suppliers and other businesses. 

When a plant closes, the consequences extend far beyond one company. Workers lose jobs. Farmers can lose an important buyer. Equipment is sold, skilled workers move on and supply chains adjust. Capacity that took years to build cannot simply be recreated when the next pandemic, war, tariff or border disruption arrives. 

The goal should therefore be to create the conditions that encourage manufacturers to stay, invest and grow in Canada – and make Canada an obvious place to build the next plant. 

The measures announced this week are meaningful progress toward that goal. But investment decisions are shaped by more than access to financing or tax treatment alone. 

Manufacturers need confidence that they will have the people required to operate the plant once it is built. Canada needs a stable and secure workforce strategy aligned with the year-round needs of food and beverage manufacturing. 

They also need a regulatory system that protects health and safety while being predictable, efficient and risk-based, along with competitive energy and transportation costs and reliable infrastructure. 

These conditions matter whether a company is considering a new production line, automating an existing facility or deciding where to build its next plant. 

Canada should also focus deliberately on scale: helping small manufacturers become medium-sized companies, medium-sized companies become larger employers, and our largest manufacturers compete internationally. 

That is how the National Food Security Strategy can become more than a collection of programs. It can become part of a broader industrial strategy for capturing more value from what Canada grows. 

Supporting food and beverage manufacturing is not corporate charity. It is nation-building. 

A stronger industry means more markets for Canadian farmers, more jobs, more investment and more Canadian products on grocery shelves. 

Canada has begun putting important pieces in place. The task now is to build on that momentum. 

Canada is an agricultural powerhouse. But in an uncertain world, growing food is only half the job. 

We can continue exporting our potential for other countries to process. Or we can build the capacity to turn more of what we grow into economic strength here at home. 

Because a country that cannot turn what it grows into food cannot truly feed itself.