Alphabet City Discussion Three:
Food as a Right
The last discussion in our Alphabet City series focused on “Eat Local”. Now we want to examine the economic factors that underpin many of our edible decisions, whether it’s eat local, eat organic, or eat Kraft Dinner.
Living in an urban or suburban environment in Canada means you have any type of food at your fingertips nearly any time of year. The awareness of food seasonality seems to fade away. But among this bounty, nesting within our larger urban and suburban centres are “food deserts” where no restaurants or grocery stores have taken root, or where the nearest source of fresh produce is a long bus ride away. Below is a map of such deserts in the Greater Toronto Area (food desert areas depicted in yellow).
A common tool to compare the prices and thus, in essence, the availability of food in a geographic region — whether urban or suburban, Canadian or Burmese — is the “food basket.” A food basket is nothing more than a collection of typically common food products and their prices. We’ve dug up examples of food baskets from around Canada to help illustrate the differences in cost of food. See below:
Food Basket in Northern Canada
Food Basket in Saskatchewan
Food Basket in Toronto (PDF)
Food Basket in Rural Ontario
We want to know more. For instance, what happens when you add organic produce to the equation? Can eating organic, and presumably healthier, actually work across Canada, or even across neighbourhoods in a single city? How do the specifics of where you live determine what is going to be served at your dinner table tonight?
Comments (5 comments)
Chris: The one issue that I have noticed within this stream is food as a right for the end users (well eaters). Taking this from the other side, non-local farmers produce goods primarily for an export based local and national economy. How would they see or react to the eat local movement? It is understood that North American big business is involved in most these markets, say bananas. In the end the money (what small amount of it the farmer actually gets) does provide a livelihood for someone far away. By our own changing tastes or food politics we are not only changes our own local economies but are changing others around the world. October 19, 2007 10:38 EST
boards: Chris, if the local farmers owned their fields and were in a co-operative with other small scale farmers in the area they would make much more money than they do through big companies such as Dole.
At the same time, perhaps these farmers should be diversifying their lands to avoid eventual fallow fields that are associated with mono-cropping and focusing on feeding the local communities. This will lead to self-sufficiency for an area and move it one step closer to becoming a sustainable system on the earth.
All of that which is listed in the box is available in my area at one of the many large-scale, chain grocery stores. I would not buy most of what is listed as it is either unhealthy for a person (wonderbread: bleached wheat, sugar, yeast, etc.); is a heavily sprayed non-organic product; or comes from way to far away/is gown under unsustainable practices). I am lucky enough to have a food-delivery company who deals with organic and local Mennonite farmers in my area (waterloo - homefield organics) so I can get all that is available in the grocery stores in organic format at no more of a charge.
The chain stores usually have many of the items i am looking for in organic format (other than meat) but for some reason source these items from around the world instead of around the area. For instance i am finding organic cucumbers from Israel and organic Garlic from China, but can't find organic apples from one of the many local organic orchards.
Food is a right. A livable planet for those who are young now and for those who have not been born is also a right. Unsustainable food production and consumption patters will lead us to fallow fields and desertification in the not too distant future. October 21, 2007 16:35 EST
RickW: Food might well be a right, but is unrestricted reproduction of the human race also a right? October 24, 2007 19:49 EST
Lynn: RickW, isn't that why we're here. That whole survival instinct thing- to me, that's not about rights, that's about species survival. If we all ran around worrying about our right to reproduce, humanity would have died out long ago and you wouldn't be here. For better or worse, that's the fundamental drive underlying our presence here on earth. It ain't pretty or glamourous or even a particularly mighty pursuit, but it's all we've got. October 26, 2007 13:38 EST
RickW: Lynn:
Unrestricted reproduction AND unrestricted access to food? 'Tis a very fine (and scary) path one treads with those two requisites.....
November 01, 2007 19:50 EST