FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE May 2024 5 labour shortages and Covid-19, the Canadian feed industry has faced considerable challenges in recent years. Through this turmoil, the industry became stronger through the development of new contingency plans and vital collaborations. Despite the successes, these experiences revealed the fragility of our supply chain. A more robust supply chain will be crucial in ensuring that our industry can continue to adequately feed Canadian livestock, as well as supply our international customers, even in times of crisis. Over the coming years, ANAC will be partnering with like minded organizations to support initiatives that strengthen our labour force and ensure the feed industry is recognized as an essential service during crises. RAISING THE FEED SAFETY BAR The Canadian feed industry has been a longstanding global leader in feed safety. Being the first to develop a feed safety program in North America and one of the first in the world, our industry puts in the work to make Canadian feed products some of the safest and highest quality available on the global market. Our commitment to feed safety was reaffirmed when we launched the updated version of FeedAssure®, our feed safety program, with more rigorous standards. The updates address emerging threats to feed safety such as feed defense and feed fraud, as well as expand on foundational elements like biosecurity, supplier approval and crisis management. With emerging diseases such as Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) threatening domestic livestock and the fear of foreign animal disease such as African Swine Fever (ASF) entering Canada, it is critical that feed mills take precautionary steps to keep feeds safe and disease-free. Through voluntary participation in the FeedAssure® program, Canadian feed and ingredient suppliers are taking the necessary steps to deliver the safest feed possible to livestock producers. ANAC is committed to continuous improvement through regular reviews of the program, supporting implementation of up-to-date feed safety best practices and proactively addressing new threats to the food value chain. PARTNERING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE Environmental, social and economic sustainability is top of mind for players throughout the animal protein value chain. Environmental impacts from animal food products are increasingly highlighted by consumers and governments globally as an opportunity for improvement within our sector. While great strides have already been made, the Canadian feed industry is motivated to continue progress in this space and do our part to preserve the social license of high-quality animal proteins for human consumption. To achieve this goal, working in partnership with our protein producing colleagues is imperative. Through nutritional innovations, we can offer producers new tools to reduce the environmental footprint of their products. Our lobbying efforts over the past year have been successful in shaping a regulatory environment that allows us to bring these innovations to the Canadian market. In January 2024, we saw the first feed additive reducing methane emissions in cattle approved in Canada. This groundbreaking approval was the result of collaboration between industry and government. To reliably track our progress on sustainability outcomes over time, we must begin with a clear understanding of our performance today. To this end, ANAC joined a coalition of private-public partners representing the entire food value chain from production to retail with the collective goal of credibly measuring and presenting an integrated picture of sustainability for Canada’s agri-food sector. With the solid benchmark generated through this initiative, Canada is well positioned to measure our improvements going forward. We look forward to continuing to build synergistic relationships and supporting livestock producers in a challenging but exciting world. As the Executive Director of ANAC, I am honoured to be able to help play a small part in our members’ success in helping feed the world.
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