It’s a major policy proposal that’s been three years in the making and become Malcolm Allen’s pet project. Now the NDP agriculture critic couldn’t be more thrilled.

“It’s done. Thank goodness!,” Allen says in his Scottish lilt, with a big smile on his face, as we sit down for an interview in his cozy corner office in Ottawa.

On Wednesday, the federal NDP became the first national party to develop a pan-Canadian food strategy. Long anticipated by politicians and stakeholders alike, the document fulfills a 2011 campaign promise by outlining the NDP’s vision for Canadian farmers, consumers, food processors, and retailers.

“It’s a very broad document that speaks to a number of groups,” Allen says.

Several of the strategy’s clauses are expected to be used in the party’s 2015 election platform, made possible given the clear-cut way the party’s vision is laid out.

“It’s not structured from beginning to end,” Allen explains. “You can go to any part of it and take pieces out of it and take pieces out of that part and work on them and get them implemented.”

For farmers, there’s a detailed look at major agriculture issues and industry challenges, including improving competition, better rail transportation, improved access to new crop varieties, and access to new markets (as long as supply management isn’t jeopardized).

There are also calls for more public agricultural research (a reccuring request from industry), improved access to land and capital for young famers, funding for animal welfare and stronger insurance and business risk management programs.

Processors, meanwhile, are encouraged to keep their operations in Canada and clearer and consistent guidelines for investors should be provided.

“In some cases we need incentives for [processors] to retool. It could be tax breaks, although not a blanket tax break,” Allen says.

Still, if processors do decide to leave, there needs to a be a way to ensure the market remains competitive the MP from Southwestern Ontario explains.

In the last six months three major processors – including ketchup giant Heinz – have announced plans to shut down their Ontario plants. Some leave and refuse to sell their machinery to other companies.

“We need to find a way around that,” Allen says.

“It’s not a question of freezing them out, but the issue is that they’re keeping out domestic market players and then they just let the building fall down.”

Among the promises to industry stakeholders, though, is a broader reflection of social issues, most revolving around improving access to healthy and affordable food.

“Somehow there are people that don’t eat well in this country, in some cases don’t eat, let alone eat well,” Allen says.

In 2013, researchers found more than two million Canadians experience food insecurity, while more than 800,000 visit food banks every month. Limited access to food was particularly evident in remote regions like Canada’s North and among low-income families.

Titled, ‘Everybody Eats,’ Allen’s strategy aims to change this. He wants everyone to be able to afford a healthy, culturally appropriate meal.

The Canada Food Guide should be updated, a sodium reduction strategy should be adopted, and various institutions – including hospitals, schools and federal food programs – should make certain healthy food is available to their patrons, the strategy reads.

Industry and government should partner with schools and local food growers to develop a Pan-Canadian School Nutrition Program, while traditional foods should be encouraged in Canada’s North.

“A group in the North who wrote to us saying ‘you know, pineapples are really nice, but we don’t actually eat pineapple. So we want fresh fruit, for sure, but we want culturally appropriate food that we will actually consume’,” Allen recalls.

There’s even a bit about offering youth cooking classes in school. By the time Canadian children turn 16, Allen says, they should be able to cook at least six nutritious meals.

“Home economics doesn’t exist anymore!” Allen says. “It is an issue of giving folks skills that are getting lost. There are families today that don’t cook.”

“The irony, though, is that folks want to know. One of the most frequently watched shows on that square box,” Allen says pointing to the television, “are cooking shows. People really have this attachment to cooking even if it is vicariously by looking at someone else do it.”

“I don’t think it would take to much to instill in the next generation how to cook. Most of us want to know how to do it.”