Tuesday is Food Freedom Day, which means by now the average Canadian will have earned enough income to pay for his or her grocery bill for the entire year.

With food prices continuing to go up, Food Freedom Day this year fell three days later than it did last year.

Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett says because of these higher grocery bills, it's even more important to purchase Canadian food.

"Agriculture is sort of a silent partner in the economy," he says, "a lot of people don't realize that food processing is the largest manufacturing sector in total in Canada. The fact that it's there and people are buying Canadian products helps create jobs for people that have maybe never even seen a farm."

Bonnett says even though grocery bills may be more costly in Canada right now due to the weak dollar, food is still affordable.

"If you go to a lot other countries you'll see a lot higher percentage of the income is spent making sure there's food on the table," Bonnett says.

This year the University of Guelph's Food Price Report forecasts food prices in Canada to increase about two to four per cent from last year.