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On May 21, 2025, Katie Sardinha hosted a community brainstorming event on the topic Reshaping our food system: How retailer consolidation in Canada imperils food production, and what we can do about it.
Watch a video of the event on our Youtube channel HERE (coming soon).
Abstract:
Many farmers in Canada are struggling to make ends meet, while many Canadians struggle to afford groceries. Meanwhile, a small handful of companies control most of the grocery retail market in Canada, and these companies are making record profits. On May 21, 2025, join Dr. Katie Sardinha, a third-generation tree fruit orchardist in Summerland, BC, for a farmer’s perspective on how retailer consolidation imperils food production in Canada. In our food system, most Canadian farmers are price takers, unable to negotiate farmgate prices to cover rising production costs. We will talk about how retailer consolidation creates a power imbalance that exacerbates many of the problems faced by farmers today, as well as the question of where retailers are choosing to spend (and not spend) their profits. We will also talk about the tough decisions Canadian farmers are compelled to make in order to survive within an unbalanced domestic market, and why the number of farms and farmers in Canada is steadily dwindling.
Following an introductory talk (45min), the event will transition into being a community brainstorming session (75min), where audience members will be invited to participate in imagining ways to reshape our food system to make it more resilient and equitable for all. Some top-down solutions to the problem of retailer consolidation that we will consider include strategies enacted by governments (e.g. policy changes, legislation), strategies enacted voluntarily by retailers (cf. Grocery Code of Conduct), and strategies enacted through the cooperation of food producers (e.g. marketing commissions, supply management). Ultimately, however, the most enduring solution to the problem of retailer consolidation is one that involves Canadians coming together to enact a revolution from below, collaborating to build a food system that benefits us all.
The good news is that a revolution from below is already underway within our food system. But farmers and our allies cannot enact it alone – we need everyone’s help to make it grow.Make it stand out
On May 5, 2025, Katie Sardinha was featured in an article by Paloma Pacheco at The Narwhal. You can read the article here.