SSW106: Food Security

“Food sovereignty begins with seeds,” says Gregorio Ajcot. The Indigenous Guatemalan permaculture activist.

Read Jackie McVicar's article, Seeds Are Life, the latest in a Halifax Media Co-op series about food security, sustainable farming, fair trade and co-operatives in the Maritimes.

********************************************************

Meal Exchange - An Introduction to Food Security

Hellmanns - Eat Local Commercial

Food Secure Canada: Brief Overview of the Canadian Food Movement

********************************************************

"Food insecurity indicates deprivation in terms of a basic human need: access to nutritious food in sufficient quantities and of sufficient quality to maintain good health. The 3.9 million Canadians affected in 2011 are vulnerable to the physical and emotional hardships that characterize the experience of food insecurity and the associated compromises to health and well-being" (pg.3).

Household Food Insecurity in Canada, 2011

Tarasuk, V, Mitchell, A, Dachner, N. Research to identify policy options to reduce food insecurity (PROOF). (2013). Household food insecurity in Canada 2011. Retrieved from 

http://nutritionalsciences.lamp.utoronto.ca/. 

• In 2011, 1.6 million Canadian households, or slightly more than 12%, experienced some level of food insecurity. 
• This amounts to nearly one in eight households, and 3.9 million individuals in Canada, including 1.1 million children. 
• There were 450,000 more Canadians living in households affected by food insecurity in 2011 than in 2008.
• Households with children under the age of 18 were more likely to be food insecure than households without children (16% versus 11%). Food insecure households include over 1.1 million children, or 17% of all children under the age of 18. 
• Household food insecurity affected one in every six children in Canada in 2011. 
• Nunavut, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick had the highest prevalence of children living in food insecure households at 57%, 27% and 25% respectively. 
• Two-thirds of households whose major source of income was social assistance were food insecure, as were 37% of those reliant on Employment Insurance or Workers’ Compensation. 
• Other household characteristics associated with a higher likelihood of food insecurity included being a female lone parent (35% were food insecure), having an income below the Low Income Measure (33%), being Aboriginal (27%), and renting rather than owning one’s home (25%).

*******************************************************

Food insecurity a 'serious' social issue, report finds

By Clare Clancy, The Canadian Press July 31, 2013.

The study said 3.9 million Canadians were affected and the 330,000 households that were "severely food insecure" were worried they would run out of food before being able to afford more.

At a national level the number of people facing food insecurity is rising, she said, with 450,000 more Canadians affected in 2011 compared with 2008.

Household food insecurity by province: Nunavut: 36.4 per cent Nova Scotia: 17.1 per cent Yukon: 16.8 per cent New Brunswick: 16.5 per cent Prince Edward Island: 15.4 per cent Northwest Territories: 15.2 per cent Quebec: 12.5 per cent Manitoba: 12.4 per cent Alberta: 12.3 per cent Ontario: 11.9 per cent Saskatchewan: 11.8 per cent. British Columbia: 11 per cent Newfoundland and Labrador: 10.6 per cent.

*******************************************************
The Hunger Game
Food banks may compound the very problems they should be solving
Saul, N. (2013). The Walrus.