Abstract
Eradicating household food insecurity is essential to the articulated vision of a national food policy that aims to promote healthy living and safe food for families across the country. Household food insecurity refers to the insecure or inadequate access to food due to financial constraints. Despite federal commitments to improve the situation, food insecurity in Canada increased between 2007-08 and 2011-12. It currently affects more than four million Canadians, and is particularly grave in Indigenous communities. Food insecurity takes a toll on individuals’ health and well-being, and it is a burden on our healthcare system. The social epidemiology of household food insecurity shows it to be inextricably linked to the social and economic circumstances of households. Federal and provincial policy interventions that improve the financial circumstances of very low income households have yielded reductions of up to 50 percent in household food insecurity prevalence and severity. Yet, prevalence rates remain high. A national food policy represents an invaluable opportunity to address food insecurity in Canada. To do so, this policy must transcend the conventional boundaries of agriculture and agri-food. Addressing food insecurity requires the integration of policy actions across the three levels of government. In addition, performance targets must be established, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation mechanisms implemented, to ensure that policies and programs meant to address food insecurity actually have a meaningful impact.
Highlights
Eradicating household food insecurity is key to the articulated vision of a national food policy that aims to promote healthy living and safe food for families across the country
It is imperative that the 1.7 million households in Canada ( Tarasuk, Mitchell, & Dachner, 2014) currently facing food insecurity be brought into the articulated vision of a National Food Policy that promotes the enjoyment of healthy and safe food for families across the country (Office of the Prime Minister, 2015)
Household food insecurity is often presented as the absence of food security, but population-level assessments of this condition have focused on a much more tightly circumscribed set of experiences of food deprivation and dietary compromise rooted in financial constraints
Summary
It is imperative that the 1.7 million households in Canada ( Tarasuk, Mitchell, & Dachner, 2014) currently facing food insecurity be brought into the articulated vision of a National Food Policy that promotes the enjoyment of healthy and safe food for families across the country (Office of the Prime Minister, 2015). Despite federal commitments to improve the situation (i.e. Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action) (Mah, Hamill, Rondeau, & McIntyre, 2014), the prevalence of household food insecurity in Canada has increased significantly, with over 600,000 more people affected between 2007–08 and 2011–12 (Figure 1). These statistics understate the true prevalence of food insecurity in Canada because First Nations communities are not included in the Canadian Community Health Survey. According to the 2012 First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC), 54.2 percent of households in the 2008/10 First Nations Regional Health Survey, a survey of First Nations adults living on reserve and in northern First Nations communities, were food-insecure (40.1 percent moderate, and 14.1 percent severe)
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