Different visions of what's a home-grown product

Monday, April 2, 2012

When it comes to what's considered a product of Ontario, it can vary widely – depending on whether you are talking about eggs, chicks, calves, dairy products or flour

by MARY BAXTER


Late in 2011, Egg Farmers of Ontario's director of public affairs sent a brief memo to 37 egg graders in the province. "We have created a new definition for Ontario eggs to be used by Foodland Ontario," she wrote, and invited feedback.

The original definition, established in 2008, required all eggs registered under the provincial government consumer promotion program to be laid on egg farms in Ontario. The Egg Farmers' definition proposed to allow 10 per cent of the eggs to come from other provinces.

By mid-January, the few responses from graders that trickled in were mostly negative, says Harry Pelissero, the Egg Farmers' general manager.

"We were not in favour of it," says Mike Walsh, L. H. Gray & Son vice-president of sales and marketing. The Strathroy company, one of the largest egg graders in Canada, is one of two companies in Ontario that market eggs under the Foodland Ontario banner (Organic Meadow Inc. is the other). "We feel that if you're going to put the Foodland logo on your packaging, then that product should be produced by an Ontario farmer," he says.

The program, which has promoted Ontario-grown products since the late 1970s, has, however, a very different vision about what can appear under its banner.

Calves sourced from within Canada but finished, slaughtered and processed in the province are included under the marketing program's definition of Ontario beef. Nearly 10 per cent of dairy products and cheese can be made from milk sourced from elsewhere in the country. It permits chicks sourced from Canada or the United States and raised, slaughtered and processed in Ontario.

Although 100 per cent of the province's hard wheat flour must be milled from Ontario, nearly 20 per cent of the wheat can come from elsewhere. The majority of ingredients in processed food products that use the banner must be from Ontario, and primary agricultural ingredients have to meet their individual definitions, but nearly 20 per cent of the "total direct costs of production" can be spent elsewhere.

"It is rather misleading," says Mike Fox, who helped found Transition Barrie and currently serves as the chair of its steering committee. The community group promotes sustainable living practices such as energy conservation and buying local products.

Fox says people are attracted to the Foodland Ontario brand, recognized by 94 per cent of the province's principal shoppers, because they want to buy local. They may not realize allowances are made for some products, even though the information is accessible on the brand's website. He worries about the implications of allowing wiggle room.

In cases where products can come from the United States, "what security do we have that our own industry is going to be maintained?" If the local industry isn't protected, he argues that it becomes harder to offer local product. All of a sudden, the 10 per cent allowance becomes 20, then 30 per cent "and we lose it altogether."

Gerald Poechman, an organic mixed crop, beef and egg producer near Hanover who sells his eggs through Organic Meadow, was surprised to learn of the allowances. Local food's definition has changed significantly over the decades, he says. In the 1970s, local was taken for granted to mean "that it came from somebody within a stone's throw." Now, it's defined explicitly because "we don't have as many (local processing) options and food does tend to travel a lot further." Buyers use it to reduce their carbon footprints. Curbing travel in all aspects of production has, therefore, become a necessity for products defined as local, Poechman says. For example, products from Ontario cull cows processed elsewhere might be local from the standpoint of origin, but not so much in terms of the miles taken to produce them. "It's not really honouring the intent of a local food buyer," he says.    

Others argue logistical realities drive the need to make allowances in the brand. Dianne McComb, an egg producer and grader north of London in Middlesex County and a director on the provincial egg board, points out that out-of-province eggs are brought in to fill shortages during times of high demand. (It's not something she has ever had to do, she notes). Adding a caveat to the Foodland definition would "reflect the reality."

In dairy, the five eastern provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island now work under shared policy and, as a part of this, there is some interprovincial movement of raw milk to meet commitments. To ensure 100 per cent Ontario-produced milk "would drive the plants crazy" if that became a condition of the logo, says Bill Mitchell, Dairy Farmers of Ontario assistant director, communications and planning division.

Sandra Jones, acting client services officer in the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' domestic marketing unit in Guelph, says the program's provisions were developed in 2008 with industry input and vetted through consumer focus groups.

"We know that the vast majority of consumers have agreed that, if it's a high enough percentage, it can be identified as an Ontario product," she says. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have passed the definitions that we currently have."

Eggs under the brand will remain 100 per cent Ontario-produced – for now. But that's logistics rather than principle at work: "It's almost impossible to take one egg out of a dozen of eggs from Manitoba or Quebec and somehow put it into an Ontario package with a logo on it," explained Pelissero in February. BF