Feds providing $120M to help northern communities with food security

Mar 15, 2023

The Government of Canada is allocating $120 million to help over 100 northern communities implement their own food security programs.

Dan Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs, PrairiesCan and CanNor, said this funding will help the areas getting hit the hardest by rising food prices and operating costs.

The funds are coming from the Harvesters Support Grant, which provides funding for traditional hunting, harvesting, and food-sharing activities, and the Community Food Programs Fund which provides funding for community food-sharing initiatives including group ordering, and Elder and school meal programs.

“Indigenous and northern communities know how to best support their own food priorities,” Vandal said. “These initiatives are central to our government’s response to food security in the North and Arctic and will help strengthen food sovereignty in northern and isolated communities.”

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Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

Darcy Unger just invested millions to build a brand-new seed plant on his farm in Stonewall, Manitoba so when it’s time for his sons to take over, they have the tools they need to succeed.

Right now, 95% of the genetics they’ll be growing come from Canadian plant breeders.

That number matters.

When fusarium hit Western Canada in the late 90s, it was Canadian breeders who responded, because they understood Canadian conditions. That ability to react quickly to what’s happening on Canadian farms is exactly what’s at risk when breeding programs lose funding.

For farmers like Darcy, who have made generational investments based on the assumption that better genetics will keep coming, the stakes are direct and personal.

We’re on the brink of decisions that will shape our agricultural future for not only our generation, but also the ones to come.

What direction will we choose?

On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?