Canadians do not generally live in hunger or suffer fear of starvation.
Poverty and hunger are problems experienced by others, often Third World and developing nations: Central America, parts of India, equatorial Africa, even deep in the heart of many American cities.
Food insecurity is defined by an uncertain availability of nutritional, safe food. It is also defined by a limited ability among individuals to acquire healthy foods without having to steal or risk serious health issues by improper food harvesting and processing.
Over time emerging global dynamics around methods of food production have converged to cast a growing shadow of hunger on the great Canadian doorstep.
Access to sufficient quantities of healthy food has been declining, especially over the past decade. Many of the country’s leading minds and academic institutions are saying that, to this point, the Canadian government has not taken the problem seriously. It is municipal governments, however, that have identified the problem as being serious enough to warrant planning and active measures to increase awareness, develop policy, and establish process to stem the tide of hunger that threatens to wash over many communities.
A report on Household Food Insecurity in Canada, taken in part from Statistics Canada measurements for 2012, stated that food security exists when every member of the population has consistent and unimpeded access to enough food. The report also revealed that as many as four million Canadians—of them, 1.15 million were children—suffered a lack of adequate sustenance. This means that approximately 13 per cent of households in this country suffered a profound level of hunger that year.
Factors that typically affect food availability are fuel shortages, warfare, economic uncertainty, drought, shipping disruptions, global pollution and others. A sustainable food system is one that focuses on healthy environment, economic vitality and opportunity, basic human health and social equality. Building capacity within food production systems requires building individual and community skills, supporting and providing education around wild food harvesting, gardening, husbandry, cooking and culinary arts, food preserving techniques, and social support via network building.
Local governments must continue to seek opportunities to facilitate relationships, engage and enact policy and procedure and help create opportunities for investment in sustainable food production, marketing and distribution.
