by Beth Hunter
I spent three days last week prowling the aisles of the SIAL international food salon in Toronto, meeting dozens of food companies and talking about the potential of regenerative agriculture. I came to speak on a panel at called Regenerative Practices: Are you ready for the next revolution in the food Industry?, but was quickly drawn into the buzz of the broader event. Held at Toronto’s Exhibition grounds May 9-11, there were over 1,000 kiosks of companies from around the world, on-going cooking demonstrations, award ceremonies and endless food samples. It was hard not to leave a few pounds heavier than you arrived, especially if any time was spent in the vast cheese section!
SIAL is a B2B event, with sales deals being made in every corner of the salon. Participating companies are retail, food service and food processing firms of all sizes, from start-ups to multinational corporations, but mainly small and medium sized enterprises. There were surprisingly few large companies kiosks, but many corporate representatives were in attendance, scouting for innovations.
I moved from stand to stand in the large Canadian section, looking for companies that source or are interested in sourcing ingredients from eastern Canada, where FoodBridge is looking to develop regional supply chain collaborations to drive change. I found products made from wheat (many bakeries) oats (gluten free oat drinks, bars, baked goods), barley (breweries), hemp, sunflower, canola, lupin and camelina (oil), sweet potatoes, leeks, potatoes and cauliflower.
Sustainability was present in many conferences, kiosks and prizes, a reflection of the place it is taking more generally in 2023, as an inevitable issue for companies to engage with. For some smaller companies I spoke with, sustainable procurement and ESG issues were one thing too many to manage, and I moved on. But many others were intrigued or already active and want to do more. For example,
- A craft brewery and co-packer in southwestern Ontario that systematically recycles its waste by delivering to neighbouring farms for animal feed;
- Two Quebec oil companies, one organic and the other not, both promoting diverse and sustainable ingredients;
- A to-die-for panettoni company which is freezing the unused orange pulp from their production until they can find a company or organization to donate it to;
- Several bakeries dissatisfied with the lack of flexibility of the mills they purchase from and interested in new opportunities.
Co-packing presents both a (literal) space for collaboration and a difficulty for sustainable procurement. Small companies often out-source their production to a larger firm (a co-packer) with extra manufacturing capacity in their factories. On the one hand, this is a fascinating example of a pre-competitive space, with brands from several different companies being made in the same factory! On the other, co-packers make most procurement decisions for all their clients, gaining economies of scale but meaning that buyers are one more step removed from the interests of consumers, and that companies wanting to innovate in sustainable procurement need to make their case among less interested co-packing clients.
I came away from SIAL with a stack of business cards, a head full of learning and a sense of hope. Sustainable and regenerative agriculture is only now edging onto the radars of companies and the public, presenting both a challenge and a giant opportunity.