Jamieson has an extensive background in agrifood issues.Ottawa—Building public trust has been a key aim of the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity and its new president has been on the same page for years.In his role as Deputy Agriculture Minister in Prince Edward Island, John Jamieson used to provide extra funding for branches of the department that took initiatives to build public trust.“It's an issue the food industry needs to get in front of big time,” he says. “We have to make consumers understand how good our food system is.”When the CCFI president and CEO's role opened with the impending departure of Crystal Mackay, Jamieson put his name forward. He was involved with CCFI's forerunner Farm and Food Care Canada and attended several CCFI conferences in Ottawa and liked the buzz about the agrifood sector at those events.“I was looking for a new endeavour and it was an interesting opportunity,” he said. “We have a huge opportunity with our food system and we need to work on that.”The Barton and subsequent reports have made eloquent arguments for maximizing agrifood's potential and CCFI could work with other organizations to get the sector and governments onside, he said.As well as being provincial Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Jamieson was also Deputy Minister of Rural and Regional Development in P.E.I. Prior to that, he served as the Executive Director of the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture. He's a professional agrologist and Certified Nutrient Management Planner and sits on both the Farm and Food Care Foundation Board of Directors and the Dalhousie University's Faculty of Agriculture Advisory Committee.He says his experience and knowledge of the agrifood sector will help him continue to build CCFI “as the recognized leader in public trust in Canada's food system.” He will be based in the Guelph office as of June 17.He also wants to encourage all the leaders within the agrifood sector as well as in government to talk to each other a lot more and plans to spend time in Ottawa working on that. He knows many of the key players from his previous jobs.Along with building up public trust in its products, he wants the sector to put more effort into promoting best practices through the food production chain to demonstrate to consumers the industry's commitment to safe and nutritious foods. “There's too little discussion of this it and we need them in place to respond to criticisms of our products.”CCFI Chairman Kim McConnell said Jamieson's with experience in the sector, he will be “to further advance our mandate as we strive to build public trust within Canada's food system … his many contacts in the food, agriculture and aquaculture industries, and his personal passion to advance public trust.”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.