U.S. tariffs have galvanized a Buy Canadian movement, with shoppers fervently checking product labels to ensure that their purchases are Canadian-made. It’s a sentiment shared by the Canadian government, as witnessed by its recent announcement of a Buy Canada policy, which is expected to make procurement of Canadian goods an obligation for the government and its agencies.
The “Buy Canadian” campaign is an important one in today’s economic climate, but product labels do not tell the whole story of what we are paying for when we take out our wallets. Because of the economy’s complex supply networks and business ownership structures, it’s hard to see where the money goes.
This lack of visibility makes it difficult to make purchasing decisions that support the economic health of local communities. But tools like Economic Nutrition (EN) can enable us to choose products and businesses that do just that.
Economic Nutrition is a powerful framework that encourages people to invest in the future of communities.
– Zita Cobb, Founder & CEO, Shorefast
Economic Nutrition is a practice and framework designed to help people and organizations make informed purchasing decisions that support local economies. It was developed by Shorefast, and we already use the tool with our community-led businesses. Data from our Economic Nutrition labels, for example, support our local procurement strategy and help us benchmark against geographic and spending targets. The labels have not only helped us ensure that our spending is directed in ways that support the local economy; they have also deepened our relationships with our suppliers and our customers.
And we recently launched an Economic Nutrition pilot project through the Shorefast Institute for Place-Based Economies for others looking to support their own communities in this way. Over the past few months, 13 organizations – including businesses, non-profits and municipalities – have been collaborating with the Shorefast Institute to learn about Economic Nutrition and to start their own process of obtaining EN certification. The process is providing us with key learnings as we seek to scale up the model to businesses across Canada in 2026.
Economic Nutrition is a key part of our efforts to refocus the economy around place-based communities, recognizing that each community in Canada has distinctive strengths, cultural knowledge and human creativity that – when properly developed – can stimulate local economic growth and boost the national economy.
The concept is modelled after the nutrition information found on food labels. In the same way that those labels provide clear and consistent facts on a food’s nutritional content – including calories, fat and cholesterol – Economic Nutrition displays standardized information on the percentage of every dollar a business spends on producing a product or service, and its geographic distribution.
The EN label simplifies detailed accounting and complex money flows to provide clear, easy-to-understand information about the financials behind a product or service, using the total operating costs of a business for a fiscal year. By introducing visibility into the equation, Economic Nutrition enables people to see how much of their money remains local and how it’s being allocated.
Increased visibility also builds trust between people and businesses, fostering customer loyalty and related benefits. And the tool enables businesses to more easily measure their procurement practices against their own targets and industry standards to identify areas for improvement.
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Bottom line: people want to make buying decisions that positively affect place-based communities and support the Canadian economy, but they lack the information they need to make those choices. Economic Nutrition gives businesses the opportunity to display the financial facts behind the price of their products and showcase materials sourcing and employment practices that benefit the communities in which they operate.
Economic Nutrition is a powerful framework that encourages people to invest in the future of communities. Thriving local economies drive the national economy forward. Now more than ever, Canada needs tools like Economic Nutrition to build economic strength and a more prosperous and resilient country.
Zita Cobb is the founder and CEO of Shorefast, a Canadian registered charity.
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