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this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
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Fuck me thats a long list. Here's a summary in the order I found them. Probably missed a few, I'm on mobile and it's Sunday...
Stick with local produce. We grow a lot in Canada.
Nearly all the beans/legumes on store shelves are from Canada.
This one is difficult, especially almonds. We do have a thriving seed industry: hemp, flax, etc.
What coffee comes from the USA?? Canadian roasters are everywhere and they import beans from South America.
Same as above, get your tea from Japan, China, India, etc.
Seasoning blends are very often from the states, but look for local blends. Or get single spices and make your own! Or go ethnic, and get spices from Asia, Mexico, etc.
Canada grows wheat, oats, wild rice, barley, rye, etc. No issues here. Get Asian rice if your worried about rice.
We produce a lot of cooking oil in Canada. For olive oil (not really a cooking oil), go with Italian.
China, Brazil, and India produce more than the US. We can get it from them.
Go with Swiss chocolate.
Plenty of made in Canada pasta. Go with Italian if you want another option.
With the exception of citrus, some processed junk food, and a few odds and ends, Canada is quite food secure.
If animal products are a concern, stop eating them. Make tarrifs your excuse to go plant-based this year 👍
Just to note that American rice tends to have high levels of heavy metals. So even without tariffs you shouldn't be buying American rice.
I am so so so glad I'm vegan. Also the fucking H5N1 virus is bad news bears. Now is really a good time to stop eating animal products even for your own safety because holy fuck.
Fruits and veg are the tough one. We don’t grow a whole lot of fresh green veggies in the winter. We don’t grow any citrus fruits whatsoever. We don’t grow berries in the winter.
Basically if you only eat local produce you’re going to be living entirely off preserves for half the year, the way my grandparents did a hundred years ago.
Unless of course you have a lot of space in your house to set up grow lights and grow your own greens indoors. I’m looking at that but it’s not easy to grow head lettuces like romaine that way.
You'd be surprised, but we grow a lot throughout the winter.
Take Ontario, for example.
You get even more options if you buy frozen or produce outside of North America or even just include Mexico (bananas, berries, mangoes, etc.)
Sure, it's convenient that we had a partnership with our neighbours, but we have to look past them now, and probably for at least the next four years.
The question is: do we grow enough greenhouse lettuce in Canada to meet demand? That seems to be nowhere near the case, as all the stuff I see in stores in the winter is from the US.
Let’s say it was a 10000% tariff on US lettuce so that stores wouldn’t bother stocking it at all. What would the price of Canadian greenhouse lettuce be? $10? $20? $50?
We send over $18 million of lettuce to the States per year. We can stop doing that and keep it for ourselves, if that ever becomes an issue.
Currently, we grow over 20 million KG of lettuce in greenhouses, so I don't think we have to worry about seasons, either.
On the flip side, if we didn't waste as much produce as we do, we'd always be in a surplus as far as I see.
Most produce waste is at the distribution and commercial level. Stores won’t buy ugly produce because consumers are picky about it.
Lettuce is a big problem though because it spoils really fast. It’s not like a green pepper that looks like an ugly goblin but is otherwise fresh and tasty. Bad lettuce is heavily wilted and covered in brown rust. Nobody will buy that, especially not at regular price, next to pristine lettuce.
20 million kg of lettuce. Is that per day? Canada has a population of 40 million. If that number is per year then it’s basically 500 grams per person per year. Most people who eat lettuce regularly eat more than that per week.
Fortunately, there have been some advancements to reduce food waste through apps that partner with grocery stores to list nearly expired items at a deep discount.
Sure and that’s great for packaged goods and more durable produce like peppers, potatoes, and gourds.
Fresh, delicate greens are the trickiest. They expire very quickly. But they also are very easy to damage while growing, harvesting, packaging, shipment to distribution, shipment to stores, unpacking, display, consumer-caused damage, and even transport home from the store.
I think to meet demand entirely domestically we’d probably have to grow 50-100 times as much lettuce in greenhouses as we’re doing right now.
Keep in mind that the tens of millions of KG in greenhouse lettuce is in addition to the tens of thousands of tonnes in fresh lettuce we also grow.
Are you concerned that we'll have a lettuce shortage? I don't see that happening, but this will give us an opportunity to expand our capacity, grow more locally (i.e. in backyards, community gardens, etc.), encourage creative ways to grow food, etc.
I want to try growing some lettuce myself. But note that if everyone grew lettuce in their backyard it would not do anything to reduce winter demand for lettuce (which doesn’t keep all winter). The backyard lettuce revolution would destroy commercial lettuce producers in Canada who only grow outdoors in the summer, while leaving winter lettuce shortages intact.
I was growing lettuce indoors using two Aerogardens. It worked really well, but didn't keep up to my family's needs. I think they offer much larger models now, and that would be an interesting option to run even only during the winter. Of course, you don't really save money when using a system like that, but DIY hydroponic or aeroponic systems can be worth the trouble for some who have the space.
Nah. Not enough people would commit to backyard gardening. But hey, I'd love to see more community gardens and backyard gardeners growing their own food, especially if they offer up excess to neighbours or local restaurants.
I don't think they would ever be able to put a large dent into commercial producer's business. That would be a good problem to have, since growers can switch crops and diversify what they grow, while communities and individuals fill gaps in food security/affordability.
Last year I grew tomatoes and hot peppers as well as some herbs and a few sweet peas. The peas and tomatoes were truly incredible. The peppers were quite good but didn’t really eclipse store bought jalapeños in quantity or size (they were very small but tasty).
I’m still in the planning phases of my 2025 garden. I want to try growing some beans and squash as well as more varieties of tomatoes and peppers. I also want to grow a lot more of those peas because they were the best peas I’d ever tasted!
I have a couple of rosemary plants growing inside my grow tent right now. I may try growing some small lettuces in some of the many terra cotta pots I have. Also want to grow a lot more varieties of herbs (I have all the seeds).
I'd love to get back into proper gardening. With all the stuff my (retired) parents grow, I'd just be producing excess all the time!
I do keep basil and parsley growing indoors out of a mason jar for months at a time (the parsley in particular is super high in nutrients, and can provide more than most lettuce with just a small serving), and hot peppers have been very easy to grow outdoors in a small planter!
I did screw up by growing insanely hot peppers, which are only good for pain. Ghost and Scorpion... ouch. LOL
Maybe this year I'll get something going again!
Yes! Go for it!
I actually love insanely hot peppers! I’m going to try growing some ghost peppers this year! But they won’t be the only type I’m growing, so I’ll have a backup plan!
Parsley sounds really nice actually. I remember opening up a package of dried parsley recently and the smell was incredible! I might even have some parsley seeds already in my collection (I bought a ton of seeds but got so overwhelmed I only grew a few types last year).
Me too, but I have to be practical with the ingredients I choose, as not everyone in my family loves getting burned in the mouth. LOL
We are fortunate enough to have several large nurseries in the area, so once spring hits, I'm sure my wife and I will see what they have.
Our challenge is having a huge backyard that has a lot of tree coverage (shade), so produce that requires a lot of sunlight won't thrive.
At the very least, we're looking at replacing our backyard grass with clover to bring more pollinators to the yard 😆
We have quite a bit of shade as well, though we do have one fairly decent spot of direct sun near the house. I also like to grow in containers on this gravel shoulder beside the driveway since our front yard gets more direct sun than the back.
If I get a nice big harvest of super hot peppers then I’m going to freeze some, pickle some, and dehydrate some. It’s pretty difficult to find uses for super hot fresh peppers unless you’re using them in a stir fry, Chinese style.
I think you'll also just start seeing more citrus from Spain and South Africa and other places.
Spanish citrus is fine but every orange I’ve ever bought from South Africa has been inedible. Dry, mealy, and bitter. Awful garbage that’s clearly been picked a month too early.
Well I guess we'll work it out somehow. I don't know all the answers but we'll figure it out. This also happened so perhaps it'll help.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ecuador-president-says-new-trade-deal-with-canada-finalized-2025-02-02/
Right now I have lettuce, fresh herbs and fresh tomatoes that were grown in greenhouses in Alberta.
A lot of other countries that aren't attacking us do, though.
.
Nobody said this would be easy, but that entire list is stuff that we can get elsewhere, can make ourselves, or that we can survive without until we can find a friendlier source.
I’ll look for Alberta lettuce in stores next time. I have literally never seen it. And I check the labels regularly to see where produce comes from.
If it helps, I’m in Ontario. So maybe Alberta lettuce isn’t shipped here.
While it is an extensive list, none of those are things that we can't get elsewhere, or that we don't already make ourselves.
Or things that we can't do without for a while.
Turkey. Turkey is a big one
Seems like this is limited to arcade machines and playing cards.
Fair. I was tired of scrolling on a touch screen by that point. Didn't look too closely
It took me a few minutes to figure out, too.
I got tired of scrolling after just getting to Meat, so the list is appreciated.
I guess I’ll just skip those items
Realizes it’s almost all food
Well shit… at least I don’t need sand anytime soon.
Keep in mind, the response is targeted at products that we actually produce in Canada. There should be Canadian alternatives to all of these.
Keep in mind that a huge percent of food you find in Canada is made from Canadian ingredients.
The list covers every we could import, but most of those are produced in Canada, just read the labels.
I'm sure you can find food that isn't imported from the US.
That seems less targeted than I had expected.
It's almost entirely things that we also make ourselves, or can get from other, more friendly countries.
Or things that we can comfortably do without for an extended time (playing cards and jewelry, for example)
TBH I'm in favour of a full embargo. Halt trade altogether.
What firearms does the US get from Canada?
Apparently we export several billions of dollars worth of munitions a supplies to the US and various other countries. Lots of embarrassingly authoritarian countries on the list.
Eggs, milk, cheese, butter, all of it.
Eggs are not part of dairy products. Sorry.
every store I've been in puts them next to milk, followed by yogourt and cheese and above huge letters only say dairy, so maybe people assume based on that? Still odd to me that anyone would try to blanket term it with dairy
I always forget those are actually separate. I was taught in school that eggs were dairy and have never broken that stupid memory :/
What part of the cow do the eggs come from? 😉
The ovaries