The century-old sites that work to perfect Canadian steak are being shuttered to save money — as the feds plan to waste billions elsewhere

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Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Monday that he’d ordered the drafting of a national strategy to “(strengthen) domestic food production.” Which was laughable, considering that only days before, the federal government began closing down seven of its critical agricultural research sites.

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On large scales and long timelines, public agriculture research translates into more affordable, more secure food. Science takes time, so it’s likely going to be years before we can fully quantify what this loss means for the country. But it’s easy to see where diminished research capacity takes us: less information for farmers, fewer problems solved, and more dependency on American research, which doesn’t always fit our climate.

Each casualty has contributed to national food security in a unique way. The Lacombe research centre in central Alberta has been around since 1907, where, aside from its work on crops and honeybees, it developed the Canadian beef grading system. It works on furthering the science of meat quality, flavour, nutrition, safe handling, optimal packaging, and the genetics of cows and pigs. It’s essentially the country’s meat lab — and one of the reasons why our steak tastes so good.

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