By: Karen Foster, Alicia Martin, Gavin Fridell, and Kathleen Kevany
Rising tensions between Canada and the United States have made increased military investment and a renewed focus on national defence all but inevitable.
A recent Angus Reid poll found three in four Canadians want to see the country’s military strengthened in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada as the 51st state. In early March, former prime minister Justin Trudeau committed publicly to increasing military spending.
While it makes sense for a country feeling vulnerable to invasion to look at recruiting new soldiers and increasing its arsenal, there is an additional facet of national defence that is too often overlooked: food preparedness.
Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs are already “stoking a new nationalism” in Canadians and sparking interest in buying local, but food should be part of the national defence conversation, too.
The double edge of globalization
The globalization of food systems, in Canada and the rest of the world, has intensified since the Second World War. This has brought some benefits, such as year-round access to fresh produce, but it has also made Canada’s food systems vulnerable to the whims of its trading partners.
Academics focused on food security and sovereignty have long raised concerns about import-dependence on key nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables.
Even in 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic shone a harsh light on food supply chains in Canada, research showed that the production of fresh produce was declining while imports were increasing.
Now, faced with both a trade war and annexation threats, Canada must confront whether its domestic food systems can feed its population in a crisis — economic, political, environmental or otherwise.
Food systems and national defence
Trade-dependent countries worldwide are recognizing food security as a matter of national defence. Some, like Sweden, are making plans to take stock of the capacity and resilience of their food systems, and actively working toward a system that can sustain the lives of their citizens in a crisis.
Sweden’s total goods trade accounted for 67 per cent of its GDP in 2023, compared to Canada’s 53 per cent. Despite its high level of trade dependence, Sweden has put food at the heart of the country’s total defence approach to national security.
Total defence is a defence policy that emphasizes both traditional military activities and civilian activities, including their food systems.
The Swedish government, in its defence resolution, states: “A well-functioning and robust food supply and personal preparedness of the civil population are ultimately a matter of survival and maintaining the will to defend.”
This approach is not focused only on individual or household levels of preparedness — that is, whether people have enough in their pantries — but also includes the overall preparedness of the systems that produce, process and distribute food.
Canada, with its heavy reliance on global trade and the U.S. as a primary trading partner, would do well to take note.
Food sovereignty in Canada
There are hundreds of scholars and thousands of community entities working to make Canada’s food systems more sustainable and resilient in the face of financialization, farmland consolidation and the globalization of supply chains.
In Québec, for example, there is a growing movement to mobilize and empower producers, community entities, the agrifood sector, policymakers and additional stakeholders to build more resilient, territorial food systems across the province.
Canadian experts play a key role in global discussions on food systems resilience, with scholars contributing to the United Nations Committee on World Food Security’s Building Resilient Food Systems draft report. This report is designed to help countries make their food systems more resilient, equitable and sustainable.
Yet Canada’s efforts are not co-ordinated, empowered or moving fast enough in the push for greater food sovereignty. The point is not to abandon trade, but to manage it more strategically.
Both international and domestic markets are crucial for Canadian farmers, and many local companies are devoted to importing everyday goods like coffee, tea and bananas under fair trade and agroecological conditions.
Trade relations, however, are about more than economics; they involve building political partnerships with Mexico, the European Union, Asian countries and beyond — something Canada needs now more than ever.
Sweden has already recognized this. Its food preparedness strategy involves deepening co-operation with like-minded Nordic countries and collaborating around the supply, transport, stockpiling and testing of food.
Crisis-proofing Canada’s food systems
To ensure Canada can feed itself in a crisis, the government must invest in domestic production, processing and distribution infrastructure. This would create more efficient, connected local markets that removes some of the burden of buying local from individuals.
The Canadian government must also promote diversification in production and export. Canada needs to move away from monoculture farming and toward more regional networks and agroecological approaches. These approaches are more resilient to both crops themselves and the diverse markets they open up, reducing Canada’s dependence on single trading partners like the U.S.
Key agricultural policies such as the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership need to go beyond the long-standing focus on prioritizing export markets. They must also invest in infrastructure and partnerships in Canada to strengthen their support of Canadian producers, ranchers, fisheries and food system players at home, to help them work together at a regional scale.
Correcting power imbalances in our food systems is also critical. Greater local and regional autonomy over how food is produced, processed and distributed would help with this. These strategies would make Canada less vulnerable to supply chain disruption.
Countries like Sweden recognize these efforts as part of national defence — an approach Canada should consider.
But while we fight annexation from the kitchen table, we must recognize it doesn’t start there; it starts at a higher level. Only better policy, infrastructure and systemic change can prepare Canada to be more proactive and resilient in the face of world crises — economic or otherwise.
About the Authors:
Karen Foster is Associate Professor, Sociology and Social Anthropology and Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Rural Futures for Atlantic Canada, Dalhousie University.
Alicia Martin is a Postdoctoral Fellow, Common Ground Canada Network, Dalhousie University.
Gavin Fridell is a Professor of Political Science and Global Development Studies, Saint Mary’s University.
Kathleen Kevany is a Professor of Sustainable Food Systems, Dalhousie University.
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*This article originally appeared in The Conversation.
We already produce enough to feed ourselves. It’s just a matter of avoiding overly processed foods and eating frozen, or otherwise preserved, fruit and vegetables out
of season. With the exception of a few imported fresh fruits that’s how I ate growing up and how some of us still do.