G20 agriculture ministers note investment needed to boost food production.Ottawa—Just 11 weeks into her tenure as federal agriculture minister, Marie-Claude Bibeau had a wide array of issues to juggle during a four day visit to Japan for her first G20 Agriculture Ministers' Meeting.While the Chinese blockade on Canadian canola dominated the headlines, many other items came up during various one on one and full ministerial meetings including challenges to increased agrifood exports to Europe under the free trade deal.And there was plenty of talk of boosting exports to Canada's partners in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which isn't quite six months old yet.Despite “expressing deep concern” to Chinese agriculture minister Han Changfu during a meeting, Bibeau is no further ahead on receiving a scientific explanation for China's claims of alleged contamination of canola seed shipments. She told Canadian reporters in a telephone briefing there was no movement toward agreement on a visit by a Canadian technical delegation to Beijing on the issue.Bibeau told Han Canada is “becoming increasingly troubled” by China's stonewalling over the suspension of canola and other exports to China. “Canada stands firmly behind its robust inspection system and good reputation of being a reliable supplier of quality products worldwide. We remain ready to engage with China so we can rectify the situation.”In their final communique, the G20 ministers touched on themes that have gained a lot of attention in Canada in recent years. “The world is venturing into the age of new challenges and opportunities for our food systems.“Productivity needs to increase and distribution needs to be more efficient, including by reducing food loss and waste, in order to achieve food security and improve nutrition for the growing world population. This should be achieved in a way more compatible with the sustainable management of natural resources, and with leaving no one behind.”As well, Bibeau and the other ministers issued a joint call for an end to bans on grains and foods containing a low level presence of genetic engineering material, an issue that former Conservative agriculture minister Gerry Ritz put considerable effort into trying to gain international action on.While the planting of biotechnology crops worldwide is increasing annually, some countries maintain rules to delay if not block their acceptance despite two decades of safe use of these products, the ministers said.“This leads to an increasing risk of trade disruptions resulting from occurrences of low-level presence (LLP) of biotechnology crops that are approved in growing countries, but not yet approved in importing countries,” they said. The resulting trade disruptions undermine global food security.Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Argentina and Brazil issued a call for “international regulatory approaches that are risk- and science-based, predictable, consistent and transparent.” They said this approach will “champion global agricultural trade based on sound science and risk analysis principles.”Bibeau said she told the G20 meetings that Canada was building food production through government collaboration with industry and academia and this approach met the conference's core themes of innovation, value chains and sustainability.She concluded her trip to Tokyo by meeting key industry leaders from Japan's grains, oilseeds and meat sectors. Trade with Japan in pork, beef, wheat and canola has increased with the coming into effect of the CPTPP that gives Canadian exporters “a competitive advantage as more and more Japanese customers see the value in what Canada has to offer.”Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.