Several media outlets sought the expertise of Ontario Agricultural College food economist Dr. Mike von Massow regarding a demand from Ottawa that major Canadian grocers come up with a plan to stabilize prices. 

In an interview with The Canadian Press that appeared in several news outlets including the National Post, von Massow said that while it’s easy to blame grocers, many factors have been driving food prices up along the whole supply chain, including the war in Ukraine and extreme weather. 

“If they wanted to engage with the food industry broadly to find ways to do (lower prices), maybe they could. But to me, this isn’t the way to go about it,” he said. 

Regarding a plan to gather Canadian grocery executives for a summit to tackle food inflation, von Massow expressed skepticism to Global News that such a summit would “really fundamentally affect affordability for Canadians.” 

von Massow also spoke with BNN Bloomberg about how Canadians can reduce food costs. 

A professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics, von Massow researches retail and restaurant food demand, supply chain management, and value chain structure and performance.