The importance of the Canadian agrifood sector may not always gather the attention of the nation’s policymakers.
But that could change, said Kim McConnell, founder and CEO of AdFarm, one of North America’s largest agricultural marketing communications firms.
“I think our industry deserves to be at the big boys’ table. We have a whole bunch more we could contribute than we actually do today. I think we deserve to be at that table and be able to contribute and add more, but we continue to be at the kiddie table, and I don’t think that’s good,” McConnell said at the Animal Health Canada (AHC) Forum 2025 on September 23 in Ottawa, Ontario.
But McConnell said he got his bluff called on the situation a few weeks ago when he was invited to a Liberal Party caucus in Edmonton, Alberta.
He said there was a huge crowd at the caucus, and he and three other people from the industry had the attention of the attendees for two hours. While it was apparent that many in attendance didn’t understand agriculture “in general terms.” He thinks that largely has to do with the fact that the industry is “way too complex” and “way too broad,” especially for those in certain urban areas.
Despite that lack of knowledge, the desire for them to know more was there.
“They asked very good questions. They were extremely interested,” he said. “The number of times that somebody would ask a question on something and we would give a response, and they would say, ‘gosh, I’d like a one-pager on that,’ I thought that was a big takeaway. I’m not sure we’re feeding the right information.”
McConnell deduced that people in the agrifood industry have a tendency to be good at providing facts and figures, but have not been as good at providing solutions to problems that face the industry.
“I think that’s a challenge upon all of us to come forward in that regard,” he said.
McConnell spoke optimistically that Canada, and the world in general is “in a different era today than we were 8-10 months ago.”
“I think we have a lot of our political leaders that are open to some different things. I think our industry is becoming much more important. I think they’re recognizing what we can contribute. I think it is up to us to help them make good decisions. By the same token, I think they need to challenge us to come forward with the solutions, and then they endorse our solutions, not just us asking for their solutions to our problems,” McConnell said.
