Trusting in Canada’s food supply

by Darrell Noakes
National Public Service Week 2003, supplement in Saskatoon Star-Phoenix newspaper, June 21, 2003
© Saskatchewan Council of Senior Federal Officials

The safety of Canada's food supply begins underground, as crops or feed. We trust what goes into our food because of people like Lonnie Kelly.

Mr. Kelly is Agricultural Inputs Inspector for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Yorkton.

Agricultural inputs are broadly described as seeds, feeds, fertilizers and pesticides.

"Our job is to make sure the product is meeting the standards," says Mr. Kelly.

"When you buy something from the manufacturer you assume it's what he says it is," he says.

Inspectors such as Mr. Kelly make sure that farmers and consumers get what they paid for.

The Yorkton district covers an irregularly shaped area that extends from Rose Valley in the north, to Alida in the south, west to Kelliher, and east to the Manitoba border.

"It's over 300 miles from corner to corner," he says. Mr. Kelly plans his trips so he doesn't spend too much time away from his family.

"It's kind of a seasonal thing," he says.

"In May, you're doing fertilizer work and seed potatoes. In the summer it's crop and pesticide inspection. In the fall and winter, it's feed and feed mills. In February, March and April, it's seed. There's ongoing training all the time."

"I've told my wife I can have two weeks off in the summer now for the last 20 years, but it doesn't seem to happen," he says with a laugh.

He likes the work, though.

"There's a big variety and you're dealing will all different types of people involved in all the different aspects of farming. It's good. It's challenging."

"There's not that many bad guys out there," he says. "I don't get into real conflict very often, but it does happen. It's part of the job. When you're a regulator, you're going to run across situations that require regulation."

"You have to make sure you do it properly because that's what taxpayers are paying for – to make sure that these things are done according to Hoyle."

Though he has constant on-the-job training, his basic knowledge of the products he inspects extends back to his youth.

"My mother had 13 kids in the family, and almost all of them farm down around my home town of Manor," he says. "I spent a lot of time on the farm and worked for my uncles. I own some farmland myself now. My cousin incorporates that into his operation and I go down and give him a hand whenever I can."

Away from work, he enjoys fishing, golfing, slo-pitch softball and curling.

"We have a cabin at Kenosee Lake where my wife Sharon and daughter Amanda spend the summers and I join them on the weekends."

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