Last night was the AGM for the Saskatoon Co-Op. I went in part to support the resolution that was being put forward asking the Saskatoon Co-Op to explore ways of helping the Good Food Junction to become established. The resolution passed with flying colours and the president, Grant Whitmore, said a few words in support of the project, which was encouraging to see.
As a member of the Co-Op, I also wanted to express my concerns about the amount of local (or even Saskatchewan and Canadian) food in Saskatoon stores. Jen summed it up extremely well in her comment a few days ago:
For several reasons, not necessarily ideological, I have been a Co-op shopper for several years. One thing that I find really distressing is the apparent complete disconnect between the history of the cooperative movement and the buying practices of Federated Cooperatives Ltd, which is headquartered here in Saskatoon and is the largest cooperative in Canada. Imagine my disgust when last week I was in the Greystone grocery store and saw that pork ribs that were on special were imported - from FINLAND. This in the same week that Stomp Pork, which employs hundreds of people in Saskatchewan communities, filed for bankruptcy. Now, I don’t tend to buy a lot of meat at the grocery store, and I know there are a lot of issues with intensive pork barns, but at a time when the Saskatchewan pork industry is on its knees, why on earth is a powerful retailer like Federated Cooperatives importing pork from the EU?
After travelling all the way from Finland to Saskatoon, those ribs were being sold at less than three dollars a pound. I suspect it’s part of some EU-subsidized program to get rid of surplus in the European market, but it baffles me how it can be that freight from northern Europe is less than feed grain in the Humboldt area.
There are many environmental and animal welfare arguments against intensive hog operations, but if they continue to falter and we continue to lose the processors in this province, the few small-scale producers left will be in dire straits as well.
….those ribs have motivated me to start with turning my regular grumblings and occasional comment cards into more concerted lobbying to Federated Cooperatives to encourage them to think about their roots, their place in the marketplace, and the opportunity they have to be a leader in supporting Saskatchewan farmers, livestock producers, and greenhouse growers. For starters - why are the Co-op store brand pickles imported from India? Why are there US-grown potatoes on the shelves?
I asked the pork, pickles, and potatoes question at the meeting last night. There was also a question from another member about why late last summer, she couldn’t find any BC fruit in Saskatoon Co-Op stores. The general manager replied that in the case of fruit, they take the best quality produce they can find, with a preference to Canadian, but quality was the first concern. In the case of the infamous pickles from India , he said that we can’t produce them here because we don’t have necessary year-round production of cucumbers. He said that in the case of pork and potatoes, they would source Saskatchewan-grown product first, and then if it wasn’t sufficiently available, they would look further afield.
But how hard are they looking? Sobeys sells carrots and potatoes from the Sovereign Hutterite Colony in Rosetown well into the new year, and then they sell Manitoba’s Peak of the Market. Surely the Co-Op can find pork that at least originated in Canada, instead of Finland? Also, last time I checked, pickles last about 5 years short of forever. Do you really need to grow cucumbers all year round to have pickles on the shelves all year round? (my mother’s cold room says ‘NO’)
The Co-Op has a responsibility to listen to its members’ concerns, and if the crowd response to these two questions was any indication, members do take this matter very seriously. I am truly sorry to say that the Co-Op’s love affair with US-grown grown produce is a major reason why I don’t shop there regularly. I think it’s important to keep bugging the management about this. They need to keep trying harder to get well-labelled Saskatchewan-grown food on the shelves. Otherwise, we may find that when locally grown food becomes a necessity, there won’t be enough farmers left to grow it for us.
Your newly-elected Saskatoon Co-Op board directors are:
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Gord Bedient
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Joy Crawford
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Doug Surtees
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William Wardell
Make sure to keep them on their toes!
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