26 November 2019, Ottawa, ON - FAO North America and CARE Canada co-organized an event entitled ‘Not a morsel to waste: Fighting climate change from pasture to plate.’ The event held in downtown Ottawa at iPolitics, a Canadian political news publisher and events convener, attracted over 150 attendees. The session highlighted Canadian perspectives and priorities on the key findings of the latest State of Food and Agriculture: Moving Forward on Food Loss and Waste Reduction (SOFA 2019) report, and explored solutions and policy options for tackling this global challenge.

Jessie Thomson, Vice President of Global Partnerships at CARE Canada provided welcoming remarks. Thomas Pesek, Senior Liaison Officer at FAO North America, delivered a technical presentation on the findings of the SOFA 2019. According to the latest estimates from the Food Loss Index, 14 percent of the world’s food is lost between post-harvest and before the retail stage. “If we want to reduce food loss, then we need to know where it occurs and where interventions will be the most impactful,” emphasized Pesek.

A panel discussion moderated by Canadian television broadcaster Catherine Clark followed the presentation, featuring senior representatives from the Canadian government and NGOs working on solutions to address food loss and waste from different perspectives.  

Lori Nikkel, Second Harvest CEO, underscored findings from a recent study that estimates  that 58 percent of the food produced in Canada is lost or wasted. “It doesn't have to be this way. We need measurement, leadership and collaboration to address food loss and waste,” stressed Nikkel. 

Jason Baillargeon, Director of the Food Policy Division at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), highlighted AAFCs works with different organizations and stakeholders to address food loss and food waste, especially thought promoting policy coherence.

Jennifer Orgle, Program Director for Collective Impact for Nutrition (CI4N) at CARE USA, underlined that women are more prone to the effects of food loss and waste, especially because they have less access to productive resources, formal employment, and often produce crops that are more nutrient dense, but also more perishable.

Stephen Potter, Director of the Agriculture and Food Systems Division at Global Affairs Canada, emphasized that agriculture is a female dominated sector, and that Canadian development policies take into account access to and control of resources and services, also considering the different workloads which men and women face.

Following the panel discussion, Santiago Alba Corral, Interim Director of Agriculture and Environment at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) provided closing remarks.

The participants concluded that reducing food Loss and waste is an imperative to improve food security and nutrition, reduce emissions and tackle climate change, foster gender equality and to lower pressure on land and water resources.