Canada’s contribution to fighting world hunger has fallen off sharply during the past decade and should be replenished, say international development activists.
A coalition of activists used parliamentary hearings to mark World Food Day Oct. 16 to complain about Canada’s declining interest in world food issues.
“Agricultural production has risen steadily. Canada is seen as a ‘food power’,” Stuart Clark of the Winnipeg-based Canadian Foodgrains Bank told MPs from the House of Commons agriculture and foreign affairs committees.
“Yet Canada’s efforts to share food with those who are hungry have dropped dramatically over the past 10 years.”
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In theory, Canada supports a 1996 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization pledge to cut the number of hungry people in half, to 400 million, by 2015.
In practice, Canada’s spending on food aid and development has been cut by as much as 70 percent during the past eight years of Liberal government.
The aid groups, including Oxfam Canada and Inter Pares, cited internal studies by the Canadian International Development Agency indicating that while CIDA’s foreign aid budget fell 25 percent during the past decade, “aid for helping hungry people feed themselves (through agriculture, food and nutrition programs), were cut by as much as 80 percent.”
Clark presented a World Food Program graph that showed Canada’s contribution of more than one million tonnes of food aid in 1992 fell to less than 300,000 tonnes by 2000.
He noted that a Canadian delegation will be in Rome Nov. 5-9 for an FAO food conference. They could face some tough questions.
“Changes, both here in Canada and internationally, have altered Canada’s reputation without any public policy debate,” he told MPs. “At the world food summit in Rome in November, Canada will have to explain our actions to the world.”
The aid cut was carried out in part to help the government eliminate the deficit. But it also is a case of changed priorities by the government and CIDA minister Maria Minna.
During the Commons committee meeting, CIDA chief economist Bill Singleton conceded that food related spending has declined.
“Canada has traditionally been a strong supporter of agriculture and rural development in developing countries,” he said.
“It is also the case that, over the past decade, the share of CIDA’s programming going to support these sectors has declined.”
He said it reflects an international trend, and the priorities of the minister, to concentrate investment in the environment, gender equality, education and health.
Singleton said that in many cases, spending in these areas also help rural and agricultural populations, even if they are not the primary target.
The aid agency representatives suggested that an adequate diet is a key to promoting many of the broader aims, including education and health.
They urged the government to restore food aid and development funding, as well as freeing the aid system from its mandatory ties to the Canadian economy.
“In some cases today, it is faster, cheaper and better for local farmers for Canada to purchase food for food aid in the region where it is needed,” said Clark. “Yet Canadian rules continue to require that 90 percent of food aid come directly from Canada.”
In the Commons, Minna was given a chance by Liberal backbencher Mark Eyking to explain her strategy to combat world hunger. Food did not figure prominently.
“The problem is not only with food production,” she said. “It is also a problem of insufficient income to buy food, of poor health in regard to producing and consuming food and not having an appropriate balance of vitamins, minerals and available food.”
