When it comes to food policy in Canada, we have yet to reach a “Victorian sewage moment”, a time when the incumbent government can no longer ignore the issues and is forced to act.
In the heat wave of the summer of 1858, the smell of London was so foul, the so-called Great Stink, that it finally persuaded Parliament to ignore the “sewer skeptics” and legislate a costly and complex solution that ultimately changed health. of society forever.
The extent to which Canada’s food system needs reform is up for debate. In any case, few expect the Trudeau government to act swiftly, even though it is at the center of our current health, social and climate emergencies. Even the pandemic hasn’t motivated legislators much to make the transition to a more sustainable food system.
“I’m not sure what will convince [the government] Except for a complete or impending calamitous collapse, which is what the pandemic was, “says Roderick MacRae, associate professor of environmental and urban change at York University.” The dilemma is that our health and environmental problems are slow emergencies. Because they are slow and the impact is dispersed and the actions to be addressed are multifaceted, we do not have the skills to manage and implement change in such a scenario. “
The United Nations defines a sustainable food system as one “that provides food and nutritional security for all in such a way that the economic, social and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition for future generations are not compromised.”
In Canada, problems in the food system, from production to retail to consumption, are manifold and require the cooperation of a wide variety of stakeholders and jurisdictions to solve them. Prices are skyrocketing, helping to send more than a million to food banks. At the same time, obesity rates continue to rise, driven by mountains of junk food sold in grocery stores and making the population even more susceptible to disease. Meanwhile, western Canada is experiencing back-to-back catastrophic weather events that are attributed to climate change. Soil health is a constant concern.
“We have health, hunger and ecological crises related to agri-food in this country, not to mention a population of farmers that is heavily in debt and suffers from high rates of mental illness,” says Ryan Katz-Rosene, assistant professor of political studies at the University. from Ottawa, in an email. “Every year extreme weather causes a lot of damage to Canadian agriculture, and it is expected to get worse as the planet warms up.”
The government recognizes that a longer-term vision is necessary. Two years ago, he published a Food Policy for Canada, with the mandate: “All Canadians should have access to safe, healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate and locally produced food.” Earlier this year, an advisory panel was appointed to guide the Ministry of Agriculture on food-related issues.
However, most observers question the government’s commitment given that the various goals pit social, economic, and environmental goals against each other. In addition to making the food system fairer and more sustainable, Canada also plans to be one of the world’s leading food producers by 2025.
“The federal government still has to deal with compensation,” says Jamie Baxter, a law professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “Up to this point, the message is ‘we can achieve all of these goals at the same time.’ I’m quite skeptical that they can keep this going in the future. “
Because the food system includes many different stakeholders with conflicting agendas, there is little consensus on priorities or goals. Indeed, public servants have been tasked with a seemingly impossible task given their limited resources and legislative powers. That’s to help find a way to provide citizens with nutritious, good-value, sustainably and fairly produced food that will also add to the nation’s export coffers and not to climate woes. In Canada, systems are further complicated because agriculture is governed by the federal and provincial governments.
The government is not a passive actor in the food sector. It’s one of the most regulated industries in the country – the bread and butter of legal professionals is helping farmers and food manufacturers navigate regulations. The food law covers labeling, safety licenses, trade, health claims, food additives law, animal welfare, not to mention monitoring groundbreaking innovations like lab-grown meat. The state is also involved in managing the supply of dairy products, poultry, and eggs. Canada spends hundreds of millions of dollars on agricultural subsidies, even before Covid hit.
Not everyone thinks that today’s food system is as problematic as some activists and academics claim. For example, the first complications of the pandemic supply chain were surprisingly brief, demonstrating the resilience of the network; adding restrictions would increase insecurity. While there are problems (obesity, vulnerable workers’ rights, climate change, etc.), the relevant authorities should not group them, but rather address them separately.
“If you’re concerned about food price inflation, there are policies that can address that. If you’re addressing climate change, that’s a different set of policies,” says Ryan Cardwell, a professor in the University Department of Agricultural Economics. from Manitoba.
“I would oppose any grand scheme that targets all of these things because it will lose all its objectives in doing so. The key is to allow producers, distributors, traders, etc., to respond to emerging events because we do not know what those events are going to be. “.
The current system offers most Canadians the widest possible choice at the best possible prices. “If you walk into any supermarket, the selection and affordability of the food is absolutely amazing,” adds Cardwell.
In many categories, Canada is well regarded compared to its peers. It ranks in the top ten worldwide in The Economist Impact’s Global Food Security Index (GFSI), which measures the drivers of food security in 113 countries, based on affordability, availability, quality and safety, and natural resources and resilience.
Still, calls for changes predate the pandemic, and not just from Canadian activists. Almost a decade ago, the UN envoy for the right to food chided Canada for hunger and poor diets within its borders.
While Ottawa largely rejected the report at the time, the evidence of systemic problems has become difficult to ignore. Nearly 1.25 million households are considered “food insecure,” according to Statistics Canada. At the same time, two-thirds of Canadians over the age of 18 are overweight or obese; about 30% of children fall into this category. While the government has committed to developing a national school feeding program, Canada is currently the only member of the Group of Seven that does not yet have one.
So what kinds of legal changes are being contemplated? Some proposed laws are aimed, such as banning junk food advertising to children; recently died in the Senate. Others call for much broader policies. For some, it is necessary to review the entire system to make the transition to a more sustainable system. Others advocate a “right to food.” There are also those who think that the most important government policy regarding affordable food would be a universal guaranteed income.
“Doing so would be a more powerful tool than any right to food declaration,” Grace Skogstad, professor of political science at the University of Toronto, says in an email. “It is the lack of income, not the lack of the right to food, that is the obstacle to food security.”
Many experts acknowledge that positive changes are taking place in the food environment, albeit at a very slow pace. In addition to school feeding programs, some observers also point to additional funding to preserve wetlands, adoption of climate-friendly agricultural practices, and clean energy equipment. Some indicators, such as soil organic matter, a key measure of soil health, are improving.
Particularly welcome is the composition of the Canada Food Policy advisory panel and the fact that interest in food law is growing.
“It’s an exciting selection of people,” says Nadia Lambek, assistant professor at Western Law School, of the panel. “There has been a real explosion of interest in how the law governs food systems. That was not the case before. The challenge is that people have diametrically opposite views on what are the problems facing our food systems and how to solve them.” .
Canada is not alone in rethinking its rules governing the food system. Many jurisdictions are considering changes, particularly in light of the effect of the agri-food industry on climate change. Globally, food production, packaging and distribution contribute more than a third of man-made greenhouse gases. The EU recently ratified its Farm to Table plan, which aims to reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers by 2030 and increase organic production to a quarter of agricultural land.
But there are major obstacles to change, including powerful food lobbies with deep pockets, governments unwilling to risk financial loss, and a listless public. We now face three simultaneous pandemics – obesity, malnutrition and climate change – and few are optimistic that governments are ready to tackle these problems, according to a report in the medical journal The Lancet.
“This suggests the need to do something with all three,” says Marion Nestle, Emerita Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, at New York University, in an email. “Good luck with that.”
Agnese Smith is a regular contributor based in London, England.