Can We Not Can?

Can We Not Can?

CanGro, the last tender fruit processor in Ontario, shut down in 2006. They removed many productive fruit trees as part of the closure agreement, reducing Ontario’s capacity to produce food. In 2007, Heinz significantly reduced contracts with local tomato growers when the farmers finally won a price increase. Small-scale meat producers struggle in 2010 to find abattoirs to process their product in a cost-effective way. Recently the only freezer facility in Ontario with capacity and segregation for organic closed as well.

So, what has happened to our food processing sector?

The sector has been economically significant in Ontario since the 19th century, robustly self-sufficient and employing thousands of people. Since the 1950’s, however, globalization and consolidation moved quickly, wiping out key economic centres such as the thriving canning industry in Prince Edward County—the heart of Ontario’s processing industry for decades. This trend to consolidation and vertical integration has meant the loss of key infrastructure— central and scale-appropriate regional storage, regional distribution, regional purchasing and marketing have been plowed under to make way for the new model. Like all instances of drastic erosion, the soil for regional food processing will take time to rebuild.

It is clearly time to rethink the model. The West End Food Co-op joins the ranks of many groups working to think of new ways to have a food system: one that is regionally based, regionally owned and operated, and that retains profit in Ontario’s communities.