Hunger in the midst of plenty | UN official says Canada will face ‘tough questions’
The United Nations’ top official on food security issues has condemned Canada for pursuing an export-oriented agricultural policy while millions of Canadians do not have secure access to food.
Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told a May 16 Ottawa news conference that after more than a week in Canada, he concluded the country has a serious human rights problem that it will have to answer for at the UN.
He spent his time in Canada meeting food security advocates, local food supporters, First Nations leaders, food bank officials and the National Farmers Union.
Read Also
Manitoba beekeepers battle for survival
Honeybee colony losses have hit 43 per cent, making 2025 the latest in a string of poor bee survival years for Manitoba’s honey producers
De Schutter called for Canada to develop a national food strategy under the leadership of the health minister that emphasizes local food, smaller farms and more emphasis on feeding Canada’s hungry.
He criticized Canadian minimum wage, tax and social policy for favouring the rich over the poor.
As well, he noted that as many as 900,000 Canadian families use food banks every year.
“This is a country where inequalities are increasing and in which the top 10 percent of the population are 10 times more affluent on average than the bottom 10 percent,” said the Belgian academic and local food advocate.
“This is a country in which taxes and benefits reduce inequality much less than in most (rich) countries. Today we have a large number of Canadians who are unacceptably too poor to feed themselves decently.”
Canada is the first developed country De Schutter has visited to prepare a report during his four years on the job.
He said he will present his report to the UN later this year, where it will be reviewed by various human rights committees that monitor agreements Canada has signed.
“Canada shall face some tough questions, I’m expecting, at the end of 2012 or early 2013 in that context.”
Canadian local food advocates quickly embraced the UN report as a call to action for a national food strategy that addresses domestic poverty and hunger.
“We need a food policy that says no one goes hungry,” Food Secure Canada executive director Diana Bronson told a May 16 news conference.
“We live in Canada. Kids should not be going to school hungry. It’s as simple as that.”
Opposition agriculture critic Malcolm Allen quickly embraced the report as a call for a national food strategy based on local needs.
“We consider ourselves the food basket of the world but we can’t feed ourselves,” said the NDP MP.
Conservative government ministers were quick to dismiss the validity of the report.
Immigration minister Jason Kenney said De Schutter should butt out and visit countries where there is real starvation.
Health minister Leona Aglukkag, the only minister to meet the UN envoy, said his recommendations on how to improve food availability in aboriginal and Innu communities were out of bounds.
“What I said yesterday was that I was very insulted by the UN rapporteur coming to Canada to study aboriginal people, Inuit, and not come to the Arctic, and to write a report on what is best for me as an aboriginal person from Canada’s Arctic is insulting,” she said in the House of Commons May 17.
De Schutter said part of the problem is Canada’s agriculture and trade promotion policies of the past 50 years.
“I have heard many concerns about the way agriculture policies have been shaped since the Second World War,” he told the Ottawa news conference.
“The result of the shifts that have been encouraged over the years has been that more efforts have gone into promoting export agriculture and boosting the ability of Canada to be competitive on global markets … but much less energy has been put into promoting local food systems,” he said.
Local food systems are good, he added, because they contribute to healthy communities, help small farmers and the environment and give urban consumers access to healthy food choices.
