We’re all hoping for better days ahead, trying to forget how awful the past year has been. It’s separated us from loved ones, or worse, taken them away forever.

Most of us can’t shake off 2020 fast enough….except for my sister.

She too has experienced heartbreak this year, living on the other side of the border, unable to cross it to see her kids and grandkids in Canada.

But she’s trying to take the high road. She urges us to learn whatever lessons we can from this, the biggest modern-day mess we’ve ever encountered, and use those lessons to our advantage going forward. 

Lessons like budgeting, cooking at home and self-discipline, for example.

I sensed similar advice oozing from Canada’s Food Price Report, released in December. The report, which forecasts food prices for the coming year, felt like a punch in the gut. It estimates food will cost families five per cent more -- nearly $700 – than last year. Readers of The Grower will be particularly interested to know vegetables, along with meat, are the leading commodities that the authors expect to climb the most, an estimated 4.6- to 6.5 per cent. 

The report’s co-author and co-spokesperson, Prof. Sylvain Charlebois at Dalhousie University, doesn’t mince words. He starkly warns that many families will be “left behind.”

The chilling reality, though, is that they already are. From coast to coast to coast, the struggle with food prices is full on. A study this fall from the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity showed prices are consumers’ biggest concern about food, surpassing technology and other factors that used to cause angst.

So Charlebois, like my sister, wants people to arm themselves with information and dig in. We know it will be a tough year and that we’ll get bowled over if we lie down. 

So, he says, be ready. To begin with, cook more at home. So much help is available online to show people how to cook. 

As well, be even more disciplined than you already are, about splurging. And finally, he says, do your research. 

Research includes bargain shopping. I’ve always glanced at grocery store flyers, but since the pandemic kicked in, I’ve come to consume them voraciously. I look forward to the Flyer Thursday email arriving and getting the chance to potentially cash-in on sales. 

There are other ways to save on vegetables, says the food price project’s other author, Dr. Simon Somogyi, who holds the Arrell Chair in the Business of Food at the University of Guelph.

He notes the dilemma we face: Health Canada, along with pretty well every nutritionist you talk to, says eat more vegetables. When prices go up as predicted, that’s more of a challenge.

But he sees some light on the horizon. When the Canadian growing season comes online in summer 2021, prices will soften and more families will have access, he says.

For now, though, he says consider frozen foods.

“When folks go to the grocery store, they should have a look in the frozen food aisle, particularly for peas, broccoli, carrots and corn,” he says. “Frozen vegetables are snap frozen just after harvest, so their nutrients are locked in. They can be just as nutritious as fresh vegetables, but at a lower price.”

We’re fortunate that the food supply chain for fruit, vegetables and other commodities works amazingly well. Superb fresh domestic produce is available here during the growing season, and as Simogyi says, later too as frozen products. Greenhouse production is increasing, extending the season and the offerings. We have reliable connections with the U.S., Mexico and other countries – at least, in a normal year – for winter fruit. Even through 2020 we had most of the food we need.

News of COVID-19 vaccine arrivals gave us reason to be optimistic that the worst is behind us, at least from a respiratory health perspective. But indeed, let’s heed the warnings and learn from 2020.