Canada food security and agtech strategy

In early August 2026, Canada unveiled its first National Food Security Strategy, committing more than $3 billion over ten years to boost grocery competition, expand domestic food processing, and double greenhouse and indoor farming output. The plan aims to raise the share of healthy food produced in Canada from 75 % to 85 % by 2032 and to develop a domestic plant‑based ingredient sector, but critics note a lack of advisory services for farmers and point to missed GDP gains from exporting raw soybeans for overseas processing.

A few days later, a report from the Canadian Food Innovation Network highlighted that $1.6 billion has been invested in the country’s food and ag‑tech ecosystem since 2018, with plant‑based proteins representing the largest food‑tech segment. The analysis identified funding shortfalls, heavy reliance on public grants, fragmented regulation, and an absence of a national food‑tech strategy as key obstacles. It reinforced the government’s concern about the “missing middle” – the gap between raw commodity export and domestic value‑added processing – and underscored the strategy’s call for stronger domestic processing capacity to capture higher‑value returns.