Government-industry discussions are still at the high-level stage.Ottawa—Federal officials and representatives of agrifood organizations are quietly working on ways to make Canada's agrifood sustainability initiatives produce more foreign sales, says David McInnes, who headed the team that produced last year's Canada Brand report.While Canada has made significant strides with developments such as the beef and crop sustainability roundtables and the 4-R fertilizer program, it needs to be able to support up these initiatives to boost food production while protecting the environment with credible evidence and data, McInnes said.“There's a big difference between having a set of messages about sustainability and the metrics to back up those claims. The idea is resonating through the sector, which is looking closer at how to validate its claims.”Customers at home and abroad are subjecting the contents of sustainability claims to far more scrutiny, he said. “This is one of the greatest opportunities for Canada.”The discussions about a national agrifood sustainability metrics program are still at a very high level focusing on what's needed to validate the food industry's claims. While the participants hope to have an overall strategy ready in the coming weeks, the final product likely won't be complete until 2021. “We want to avoid anything that will impose a tremendous cost on the food system.”One development that will aid the project is the formation of the Canadian Agriculture Sustainability Initiative (CASI) being led by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture to create a website where the agrifood sector could post information about what it's doing right down to the actions of individual farmers and processors.“CASI could be an enabler,” McInnes said. “It could be used to link up various initiatives within the sector.”Thus far the discussions are at the pre-competitive level or what distinguishes the sustainability measures of the various sectors of a very diverse industry, he said. “Every player has a role to play in delivering on the metrics to prove sustainability. There's a big difference between a whole lot of messages and credible data to back them up.”While the sustainability metrics discussions are having to cope with disruptions caused by responding the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government “has been an active partner in the discussions.”The development of the Canada Brand report was sponsored by Canada 2020 and involved a year of discussions with about 600 members of the agrifood sector. While the federal government hasn't formally responded to the report's recommendations, there was enough support for them within the agrifood sector to keep 'where we do go from here' discussions going, McInnes said.The report called for a Team Canada approach by government and industry to convince the world that Canada is among the most trusted and sustainable food producers.It said governments need to recognize agrifood as a strategic priority and “decide whether it is important enough to take the necessary steps to, indeed, become one of the world's most trusted and sustainable food suppliers.“The marketplace is signalling to all that ensuring confidence in Canada's food supply carries new obligations,” the report said. “In return, governments must be more strategic about a super sector that consistently generates jobs and wealth across the country, is a lynchpin for caring for eco-systems and a partner in reducing food insecurity.”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.