Agriculture minister praises Canadian farm technology, warns of missed opportunities

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Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald says Canada is on the brink of an agricultural revolution, pointing to innovations that could redefine farming at home and abroad.

Canadian farm technology is “out of the world,” MacDonald told The Logic, highlighting a machine developed on Prince Edward Island that can identify plant diseases by taking pictures in the field. He also noted British Columbia’s 4AG Robotics, which recently raised $40 million to scale its autonomous mushroom-harvesting robots, as evidence of a sector with enormous potential.

Industry observers share the enthusiasm. “Canada has everything it takes to be [an] agricultural innovation powerhouse,” said Laurent Carbonneau, head of policy at the Council of Canadian Innovators. A recent Canadian Chamber of Commerce policy brief described agriculture and food as a “cornerstone” of the economy, “enormously important” to Canadian prosperity and with “even more to offer.”

Yet despite the opportunities, agriculture is often overlooked in Ottawa, writes The Logic’s Kevin Carmichael. “But there’s something missing. The industry is an afterthought in Ottawa, where many would struggle to name the agriculture minister. That matters in a country like Canada, which often relies on policy to offset disadvantages such as a small domestic market and risk-averse lenders,” he says.

Mark Olson, founder of Flokk Systems, wrote earlier this year that “oil is Canada’s leverage today,” but “food is Canada’s primary, and far more effective, leverage for tomorrow.”

Canada’s exports of agriculture and agri-food products have grown nearly 270 per cent since 2000, reaching about $100 billion in 2023. Yet the country’s global market share is slipping, according to RBC Thought Leadership, which predicts Canada will rank ninth among food exporters within a decade, down from fifth at the start of the 2000s.

A new report by Farm Credit Canada (FCC) points to stalled productivity growth, tied to weak investment in technology and declining research and development. FCC analysts Bethany Lipka and Isaac Kwarteng found that Canada, once a global leader in agricultural innovation, now trails the U.S., Japan and OECD peers. Productivity growth has fallen from around two per cent in the 1990s and 2000s to less than one per cent today. “This trend threatens Canada’s leadership position within the global food system,” they wrote.

Policy experts have proposed a familiar suite of fixes, including speeding up regulatory approvals for new food products, ensuring rural access to high-speed internet, and helping farmers weather international trade disputes.

But Kim McConnell, a “farm kid” from Manitoba who built one of Canada’s largest agricultural marketing firms, says the problem goes deeper. “We’re missing leadership,” said McConnell, a Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame inductee. “At the cabinet table, agriculture is way over in the corner, we should be at the top.”

Carmichael notes that agriculture’s potential is “so undeniable” that the government has become complacent. “Canada could be a food superpower, but only if the people who care about the industry start telling a cohesive story. If they don’t, the conversation will continue to spin around pipelines, cars and quantum,” he says.