Food & Beverage Manitoba represents the agri-food sector, the largest industry in the province and perhaps the only one that will provide any major economic distinction in the future.
In the past, the organization has done a good job lobbying and providing training support for its members, the great majority of whom are small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
But like every other industry in the world, agriculture and agri-food manufacturers have to buckle down and figure out how to address climate change.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Michael Mikulak was appointed executive director of Food & Beverage Manitoba in April 2021, and has now spent two summers in Manitoba after being out of the province for 17 years.
Michael Mikulak, who was appointed executive director of Food & Beverage Manitoba in April 2021, has now spent two summers back in Manitoba after being out of the province for 17 years.
During his first summer back he experienced record-breaking drought and this current one is turning into one of the wettest on record.
“The new normal is that the weather will swing wildly. We need to adapt otherwise we will see massive crop failures, massive shortages and all sorts of other issues,” he said.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Karen Colley chairs the board of directors for Food & Beverage Manitoba.
That’s not an explanation for why the organization is launching an annual conference called Cultivate: What It Means to be Green, A Sustainability Conference and Trade Show on Wednedsay, but it provides some context.
Agriculture and agri-food processing account for over 70 per cent of all freshwater use globally and agriculture and agri-food manufacturing account for one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions around the world.
“The industry’s use of water is the primary driver of bio-diversity and land-use losses around the world,” he said. “It is massive.”
The industry will play such an important role in the province’s future economic prosperity that Mikulak said the association is committed to taking a leadership role to help its members figure out how to make the transition to become zero-carbon emitters and to reduce their water footprint.
Manitoba may not have a long track record as striving to be progressive or in taking a leadership role in these hard issues, but Mikulak said the opportunity is there for his association to do just that.
For one thing, the province is already producing a wide variety of commodities that create more opportunities to add value, something that has been happening more often (such as the recent investments in plant-based protein manufacturing). Manitoba also has a green-energy grid and a centralized location in North America that make logistics and handling that much more efficient.
But because so many of the environmental considerations that need to be addressed by agri-food manufacturers take place further down the supply chain, Mikulak said the industry is not necessarily fully attuned to the issues.
“The time to do this was 10 years ago,” he said. “At this point it is all hands on deck. The industry needs to move as fast as it can afford. That is the message we’re sending home.”
But Mikulak said despite the urgency there is plenty of optimism.
Unlike the oil and gas sector — “What is the solution? Stop burning oil and gas,” he said — the agri-food industry is not going to stop producing food. He said the solutions don’t fundamentally undermine the industry’s ability to function.
“We are going to leverage the ability of the soil to store carbon,” he said. “The more we can figure out how to create farming and agri-food systems that can store carbon rather than release it, that will only improve yields and the quality of the food and it will end up having a positive feedback loop.”
The daylong conference at the RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg will present a broad exposure to many of the key issues the sector needs to address with presentations on: maximizing environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting; technological advances to help reduce water usage, increase efficiency and lower costs; and better understanding the supply chain; as well as issues like regenerative agriculture, upcycling and precision fermentation.
Karen Colley, who chairs the board of directors of the organization, said, “The general consensus is yes, people are worried and concerned but they know we can get through these things step by step. Getting exposure, like at the Cultivate conference, to more information and understanding how we are going to get the results eases the blow in any transition.”
In addition to the presentations and practical workshops there will be a curated trade show featuring service providers that can work with members to help them on their respective routes to sustainability.
Colley said there is always reluctance when changes are imposed because it invariably comes with extra costs.
“In manufacturing, there are incremental costs everywhere you turn,” she said. “I think people are open-minded and willing to take that on but they are worried about the bottom line. Margins in manufacturing are always very slim.”
But she said the organization’s members understand it’s not like a switch will be flipped, but that it will be a process.
Martin Cash
Reporter
Martin Cash has been writing a column and business news at the Free Press since 1989. Over those years he’s written through a number of business cycles and the rise and fall (and rise) in fortunes of many local businesses.
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