Alberta food slogan prepared with pride by Dee Hobsbawn-Smith
Calgary Herald, July 5, 2001

Made in Alberta. For more than two decades, an indigenous food industry has quietly and unobtrusively eased its way into the province’s economic and social fabric. Whether it’s grand Parmesan cheese, goat’s milk fudge or a vertically integrated company supplying meals to the specialty food market, Alberta-made goods have become as much as part of our literal diet as they are an integral part of our economic diet.

Alberta’s buoyant economy, in fact, is largely indebted to food and beverage processing, the province’s largest manufacturing industry. The good processing industry supports 100, 000 jobs in Albertan communities, say Janet Henderson, vice-president of training and development of the Alberta Food Processors’ Association. The association acts as an umbrella for small and large producers and processors, providing such services as education, marketing ,staff and leadership training.

And just as the industry itself continues to evolve, so too does the association that supports its growth. After years of being identified by “Made in Alberta” and before that, “Better Buy Alberta,” the association has just unveiled a new loo and slogan. Alberta- made food is now identified by white-on blue interlocking squares set on gold and white checks, topped by the pink of an Alberta wide rose, all backdrop to the new slogan, “Good Food prepared with Pride.”

Ken Gibson, CEO of the not-for-profit association, says that the new slogan is a statement of promise that will be proven.

“We recognize the need to walk the talk, that it can’t just be rhetoric,” Gibson said at the unveiling of the new campaign to raise Alberta companies’ profiles locally and abroad.

“We can’t outspend Kraft or Proctor & Gamble, but maybe we can outsmart them,” said Gibson. “Markets have changed. Alberta partnerships from the farm ate to the plate produce over $2 billion of world-class products to consumers around the world.”

Consumer driven food issues are led by safety and quality, Gibson said, followed in descending order by training and development of the food processing workforce and innovation of products. (Taking a stand based on food safety is a canny and timely response to a global and local market unnerved by threats to the integrity of its food supply. Food safety has become a hot topic in the wake of E. coli outbreaks, water-borne disease, salmonella in fresh fruit and vegetables, made cow disease, and food- and- mouth disease. Reassurance that Alberta food processors have not been tarred by any illnesses can be a major selling point.)

One need not look too far to see why made-in-Alberta food products are worth spending time and money on promoting. One great example of a successful association member is the Highwood Crossing Farm south of Calgary. Run by Tony Marshall and his family, the farm produces and bottles cold-pressed organic canola oil and flaxseed oil, two increasingly in-demand products for their strong, clean flavours, not to mention health benefits: they’re high in healthful omega-3 fatty acids and low in saturated fat.

In addition to the oils, the extruded solids are sold as well as an in-demand, high protein feed for organically raised poultry and livestock, and sought after as fertilizer among organic city gardeners. A certified-organic processing facility on the farm is used to produce and package organic granola, flaxseed muffin and pancake mix, stone-ground flours , whole grains and cereals.

Marshall’s belief in bio-regionalism means Highwood Crossing’s square shouldered bottles don’t incur high transport costs, but remain fairly close to home, sold in Alberta, although they are craved by cutting edge restaurant chefs and health-food stores across Canada.

Another member of the Alberta Food Processors’ Association, The Saskatoon Farm, provides more evidence of the bounty of locally made foods. Located on the ancient site of a buffalo jump at the junction of the Sheep and Highwood River, the farm run by Paul and Karen Hamer includes a nursery with greenhouses, buffalo herd on the range, café and general store. Twelve years after they first planted trees, The Saskatoon Farm is swimming in Saskatoon berries, jams, honeys, jellies, syrups, pies, and even sausage and buffalo burgers seasoned ‘a la pemmican’ with the berries. On the breath-taking, 600 acre site, visitors can buy a tree, buy an orchard, buy lunch or lunch makings, buy pre-picked berries or pick their own.

Chef Debbie Williams, enthusiastic, articulate, and immensely busy, is vocal in her praise of the AFPA. Looking around her busy kitchen that creates more than 12,000 berry pies a year, she is clear that small business and marketing are not always the strong suits of growers and farmers. “Without the association, lots of those little companies would ever get their product developed or to market. The association offers a wide variety of seminars to help people – training staff, safety, marketing, anything a small biz might need, including contracts.”

About the only glitch this columnist sees in the association’s approach is the curious decision to delete “Alberta” from its new label and promotional materials, which represents a departure from industry trends.        Producers of all sots have been moving more toward location-specific labels to provide provenance for consumers keen to know where their food and drink originate. For example, Okanagan wine, while still labeled so, is now getting even more specific: a wine labeled Black sage indicates the desert-like region in the south end of the Okanagan Valley that is set to rival the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario for grape quality.

Area growers of such produce as carrots are even getting more specific, with restaurant menus acknowledging that a certain crop came from some-where like Lund’s or Beck in Innisfail.

Such an omission of information in the new AFPA label seems to contradict Henderson’s assertion that “your people are part of your product,” and her goal of developing a highly skilled, motivated workforce within the food processing community. The community is, after all made in Alberta, of Albertans. Maybe Alberta still needs to be included on our province’s food labels.