Celebrating Canadian Agriculture and Food Innovation

Stewart’s book also includes several essays that are essentially a loving meditation on the importance of food in our lives and how central food is to defining us as a people. Although, I must say, to me the book tends to support the notion that we do not have a single Canadian cuisine as much as we have a vast array of regional cuisines, common only in the sense that they share Canadian ingredients and spices, flavourings and techniques from around the world.

Unlike a lot of recent books on food that are written by urban sophisticates who use every opportunity to bash the food industry (see my earlier reviews of Michael Pollan’s two books) and to promote the latest fad in food politics, Stewart’s book is refreshingly free of political rants and sermonizing; no admonitions about eating “local” or “organic,” or guilt trips about eating unnatural foods such as butter and eggs.

The book is a gentle celebration of the unheralded success of Canadian agriculture and food innovation over the years. It is also a useful and timely reminder of the importance of publicly funded science in our past. Over and over again in the book we see the many benefits of applied university research or the contribution of Agriculture Canada’s scientists at the Central Experimental Farm and other Research Stations. We cannot lose this, and must do a better job of explaining to decision makers the economic benefits that flow from this “government” research.

I am proud to say, and full disclosure requires me to admit, that Anita Stewart is my friend, and I recommend her latest book without reservation. Enjoy. Bon appétit.