http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/cnw/article.jsp?content=20100915_094503_7_cnw_cnw
Many industries are deemed ‘safe’, and will hardly, if, ever experience a serious downturn; one that is probably the safest of all of them is food manufacturing. No matter what the economic situation is people have to eat, this is an area that the population will cut spending in but will never stop spending. An example of this is the Canadian food manufacturing sector which unlike its other manufacturing brethren didn’t experience negative growth during the past recession, though its growth slowed it never dipped into the red. In these times where people are constantly looking for a safe bet to invest in, if they are even brave enough to put their money in the stock market, food manufacturing companies such Nestle or JM Smuckers. The companies that produce basic living necessities seem to be strong in times of economic hardship, and they can be safe bets to invest in, the major exception is the housing industry which is extremely susceptible to economic downturn. People always need to feed themselves and with our more and more urban culture as long as population is growing the food manufacturing industry will grow.