Canada’s agriculture sector must work together for success — that was the message of the day at the 2026 Future of Food Conference in Ottawa.
This year marked the tenth anniversary of the event, held on Feb. 10, Canada’s Agriculture Day.
Farm Credit Canada CEO Justine Hendricks opened the packed conference by speaking to the need for unity in the sector.
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“It’s been 10 years of working together to build a stronger industry, and we’ve been asking ourselves a really important question: how can we better feed our families, our communities? How can we better feed the world?” she said. “The theme of today’s conference is igniting the power of 10 and unleashing a new decade of action.”
Hendricks noted “2025 was a pretty unforgettable year, but sadly for all the wrong reasons.”
“[This year] is the year we must turn the page and make bold changes that respond to new global environment in which we find ourselves,” she said. “Each and every one of us in this room has a responsibility to do our unique part to drive this industry forward.”
“It’s doing it together,” Hendricks added. “That’s where we’re going to make a difference, because none of us can do it alone.”
Producer/business collaboration drives innovation
The theme of unity connected many of the day’s conversations.
In the morning’s first panel, investors and agribusiness leaders discussed the importance of collaboration for industry-wide success.
That collaboration must begin with understand the goals of four primary stakeholders in the agriculture system: farmers, tech startups, universities and nonprofits said Johnny Park, CEO of Wabash Heartland Innovation Network (WHIN), an American consortium dedicated to advancing tech adoption.
“The success of the ecosystem depends on how you align incentives for all those four stakeholders,” Park said.
Farmers often know they must adopt technology but don’t have the time or resources.
“The way we solve that is, as a nonprofit organization at WHIN, we do a very rigorous vetting process of all those technologies from around the world,” Park said. “That itself is very enticing for farmers to engage with us, because we are essentially becoming their R and D on their behalf.”
Technology companies want access to customers Park continued, “so, we enable that by having a network of farmers in our region who are incentivized to adopt their technology once they go through our vetting process.”
As for academics, Park said what they often want most is the ability to do research.
“The best way to do that is let the farmers use emerging technologies from around the world,” said Park.
This will raise problems for companies and farmers to solve with which universities can engage.
Park argued adoption, not invention, is what drives innovation. Policy should encourage farmers to take risks on tech.
“The farmer who adopts emerging technologies faster, judiciously, is going to win at the end.”
‘Unit economics’
Gustavo Bassetti, partner at investment service Just Climate, said his company often considers the whole food system when eyeing potential investments.
“We try to understand how the companies that we’re investing in are helping everyone succeed,” Bassetti said.
The firm looks at what Bassetti called “unit economics.”
“Can you do simple math and show to me this new technology or new product is going to make the farmer’s life better, and not necessarily add a line of cost that does not have a benefit?” he asked. “It sounds simple, but a lot of companies are unable to answer that question.”
Roger van Hoesel, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Dutch company Ecosystem Navigators, said he has seen new technologies stagnate or fail to find adopters when farmers are not consulted and considered in the process.
“In the Netherlands, we have seen fantastic technology,” van Hoesel said. “Close to my office is this company has a completely robotized greenhouse. Not a single person in it anymore. Still, it’s not being adopted yet, and it has to do with the fact that it was developed by people who are not farmers themselves.”
Innovators need to find farmers in the community who are open to their technology and have influence in their communities, he said.
In a later panel, Ashley Nicholls, Founder of REACH Agriculture Strategies echoed the need for farmers to be active participants in partnerships.
“When we’re talking about innovation, we’re talking about collaboration and getting people involved, I think that it needs to come from both sides,” Nicholls said.
“We need to be really paying attention to boots on the ground. We can develop all the best protocols in the world, we can develop all the best financial programs, all these amazing products, but if the end user, if the producer that is in the pen, that is in the tractor, if they aren’t willing to use it … the innovation side of things just kind of falls flat.”
How collaboration can drive public trust
Lisa Bishop-Spencer, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity (CCFI), said collaboration can help win back public trust in the Canadian agri-food sector.
According to CCFI public sentiment research, trust in Canada’s food system has been shifting.
“For the longest time, maybe for the last nine years, farmers have been at the top in terms of trust and transparency,” said Bishop-Spencer. “This is the first year that we’ve seen scientists overcome farmers.”
She said this is a good sign, as it means those who are trusted to talk about the food system are being treated as more reliable.
“The importance of collaboration is the fact that when people don’t trust the food system, it affects the entire system,” she said. “It affects affordability, it affects food security, it affects food sovereignty and it affects innovation.”
A record low of Canadians had a positive impression of the food system in 2024. Those numbers saw a sharp turnaround in 2025, which Bishop-Spencer attributed largely to unity in the face of threats from the U.S.
“The question is, how do we leverage that and make it last? Because during crisis, we’re great and we’re well trusted, but how do we maintain that in times when we’re not in crisis?”
The next step in collaboration is to get more people talking about Canadian food. Trusted industry voices who talk about what they do can address some of the myths out there.
“It’s as simple as going on a live and just walking your barn and showing people what you do and telling the stories of who you are,” Bishop-Spencer said. “If they trust you, then they’ll trust your neighbor.”
She noted the new Canada’s Food System initiative, which she said is “aimed at elevating the food system from farming, from before farming, to all the way to retail and food service.”
Collaboration for red tape reduction
Collaboration is also integral to getting a message to the government regarding the sector’s concerns about red tape said Pierre Petelle, president and CEO of CropLife Canada.
“CropLife Canada has always been a big proponent of working in collaboration with the whole value chain, so from farmers to input providers to exporters and processors,” he said.
CropLife has over 40 member organizations, including Bayer, Nutrien and SeCan. Petelle said they have had concerns about predictability and a buildup of regulatory barriers.
Last summer, that sector sent a letter to federal leaders asking to work together on ideas “to really unleash Canadian agriculture,” Petelle said.
Petelle said this type of collaborative approach is something he expects to see CropLife members continue with.
“We know that if our members are enabled, they bring better technology that helps the farmer be more productive, that then helps the exporter export what the consumers want in other countries.”
