Conservative leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis said Canada will be experiencing a lack of food unless the federal government starts supporting farmers. .“As a nation that has prided itself on being an agricultural giant, we should not be facing the kind of food shortages that other countries around the world are experiencing,” said Lewis in a Tuesday email. .In the early days of COVID-19, Lewis said many people talked about how Canada needed to prioritize food security. She added people talked about the importance of shopping local and supporting Canadian farmers to ensure the country never again faced supply chain problems. .Lewis went on to say the Canadian government has “thrown all of that out the window.”.She said farmers across Canada are under immense financial strain. No other G7 country has a carbon tax or a nitrogen fertilizer tariff from Russia. .The Liberals, she said, have “prioritized optics over good policy.” This approach will have devastating impacts on the cost of living and food security. .Lewis said there are other solutions the Canadian government could take to help farmers transition to a new approach. Canada could have used its natural gas reserves to produce local nitrogen and offset the tariff it imposed. .She said Canada’s farmers are “paying the price of short-sided, net zero policies and soon that cost will be transferred to you.” .“It’s time to wake up to reality, and secure our food supply chains,” she said. .“Our farmers have fed us for countless generations and they have always been good stewards of the land.”.Lewis came out in support of the Dutch farmer protests on July 15. .READ MORE: Lewis speaks out about Dutch farmer protests.“Canadian farmers are horrified to see what is happening in the Netherlands because our country is following the same destructive path,” she said. .“The Liberals’ Net Zero policy commitment is predicated upon the complete decarbonization of the entire food supply chain under a technocratic management system.”
