b"Pivoting Futurefor theCanadian agriculture has struggles to overcome as the world moves into a post-pandemic future.BY: ASHLEY ROBINSONAS CANADA COMES out of the pandemic, there are a lot of struggles for agriculture with production costs on the rise and changing consumer demands, but if the industry can adjust and pivot, there are opportunities.At the International Potato Technology Expo in Charlottetown, P.E.I. on March 31, John Cranfield, a professor in the food, agricultural and resource economics department at the University of Guelph, gave a presentation on Canadian agriculture in the post-pandemic world and what the industry needs to do.Over the past few decades Canadians have been spending more money on food. When the pandemic hit, food bought for consumption at home jumped, while food bought in restaurants droppedpreviously both had been on the rise. The amount of money consumers spend on food will be will be affected though as theres starting to be more upward inflation pressure on food prices. People are having to accommodate what theyre buying and may not buy what theyre prefer due to high prices.This is concerning because it means that consumers food dollar maybe doesn't go as far as it once did. And so, it starts to bite into consumers ability to buy the foods that maybe they wantthey have to economize, Cranfield explains.For farmers, while they may be getting paid more for the food theyre producing, the rate of inflation for crop input prices is higher than the selling ratesqueezing farmers margins and affecting profitability.However, there are opportunities for Canadian agriculture as exports are growing which could help soften the falling farm profits. The Great White North exports more agriculture products than it imports. A big country equals big opportunities for producing food, Cranfield says.Canada needs to do more to invest in processing capacity in its food sector, so that we can take advantage of value-added opportunities at home. So rather than exporting an unprocessed agricultural commodity, we add value in through processing and export into higher valued markets, he adds. There's a huge untapped potential.In order to capitalize on this though, Cranfield stresses Canada needs to have a skilled and resilient workforce. Workers in the agri-food supply chain need to be trained with technical skills that can be transferable across different jobs in it. One way that we can build resilient workforce is to make sure that people have the adequate training that they need so that they have the skills to adapt, Cranfield says. Adding this should help the jobs to be future proof.Canada has an opportunity to be a trusted global leader for safe, nutritious and sustainable food, he says. The world wants more catered agricultural food products produced in sustainable ways.22SPUDSMART.COM Summer 2022"