Not since the 1970s have food prices been one of the leading causes of inflation in Canada.
It happened again this past November, and advocates for Canada’s poor say they are the hardest hit by the food inflation that has now seeped into Canadian grocery stores after causing deepening poverty and food riots around the world in the past year.
“Food is the number one basic need that people have and when prices rise sharply, people on fixed incomes often have to start compromising either on the quantity or quality of food they buy,” said Rob Rainer, executive director of the National Anti-Poverty Organization.
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“This absolutely puts a strain on low income families.”
Katharine Schmidt, executive director of Food Banks Canada, said food price increases make poor Canadians less food secure, force more people to use food banks and typically reduce the ability of food banks to solicit support from Canadians who have less disposable income because of higher food bills.
“We are very concerned about this because typically, this drives more lower income Canadians to seek assistance at food banks and makes food bank supporters less able to do it,” she said.
“For middle and high income Canadians, this type of increase is not such a big deal, but for lower and fixed income Canadians, it is a very serious issue.”
Statistics Canada reported Dec. 19 that in the previous month, the Consumer Price Index rose two percent, driven down mainly by lower energy costs. Without food prices, the increase would have been just 0.9 percent.
“Food prices gained momentum for the ninth consecutive month,” said the federal agency.
“Following a 12-month rise of 6.1 percent in October, food prices rose 7.4 percent in November, the largest increase since November 1986.”
The irony is that by the fall commodity prices were plummeting, but retail prices reflected earlier record highs.
Statistics Canada said the price of bakery and cereal-based products increased 12.9 percent in November while consumer prices for imported fresh vegetables were up an average 28.9 percent, reflecting in part a falling Canadian dollar.
Gasoline prices in November were on average 14.4 percent lower than the previous year.
In the early-1970s, in the midst of spiraling food prices, the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau established the Food Prices Review Board and eventually gave it expanded powers of research and publicity to explain the reason for rising prices.
Federal agriculture minister Eugene Whelan said at the time that while he would not be popular “with housewives on tight food budgets nor with some of the guys in cabinet,” he praised higher returns to farmers that were prompting higher retail food prices.
Wage and price controls in 1975 were aimed in part at curbing rising food prices.
Rainer said he did not expect that sort of government response this time, but he argued that governments in Canada should consider access to adequate nutritious food to be a “fundamental human right” and make money available to those who cannot afford a good diet.
“Tens of billions of dollars are being freed up for industry bail outs,” he said.
“Why can’t a bit of money be freed up to ensure that all the needy families in this rich country have enough to eat?”
