Prof. Simon Somogyi, the Arrell Chair in the Business of Food, spoke to The Western Producer about why Canada’s food system has been able to remain strong throughout the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Even after store shelves were cleared out by shoppers who hoarded food early on, and while farm labourers struggled to enter the country to begin spring planting, the food system didn’t collapse, Somogyi noted, because they are accustomed to remaining dynamic. 

“Wholesalers, retailers, processors — they’re always having to adapt,” he said. 

He added that crisis has “really shed a light” for many Canadians on how food ends up on our plates, with consumers now realizing the food system is a complex, expensive system that has multiple moving parts. 

Somogyi studies agri-food value chain management and agribusiness marketing management and is a professor in the School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management.