Reports on Food Freedom Day, the date on the yearly calendar by which the average Canadian has earned enough to pay the grocery bill for one year, are usually full of celebration. Report writers typically marvel at the availability of quality food to Canadians and express gratitude to the farmers who produce it so affordably.
This year reports on the milestone date were congratulatory as usual, but markedly tempered by concern over the sustainability of an agricultural system that provides low returns to those who produce food.
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Feb. 12 was the Food Freedom Day for 2010, the same date as it was in 2009. Canadians spend an estimated 11.9 percent of their disposable incomes on food.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, other member countries spend an average of 8.3 percent more of their income on their annual grocery bill than Canadians. For example, Australians pay 12.7 percent more and Japanese pay 35.7 percent more. Mexicans, in a less developed country , reportedly pay a whopping 125 percent more of their incomes on food than Canadians do.
GrowCanada, a partnership of various agricultural companies and organizations, estimates the average Canadian farm produces enough food to feed 120 people every day, while “the farms two or three generations ago produced enough food for 10 people every day.”
So, the reasons for congratulation are obvious – productivity, abundance and affordability.
It is a good news story in many ways.
The cause for concern is that the farmers’ share of the food dollar continues to be small. A recent study commissioned by the prairie members of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture shows that, on average, only 27 percent of the cost of a week’s worth of groceries for a family of four goes back to the farms where the food is produced.
“Should we be celebrating the fact that farm families are underpaid,” asked Alberta farmer and National Farmers Union representative Margo Staniforth.
“It’s such an accepted part of our culture that we mistakenly think of it as normal.”
Various agricultural groups are seeking solutions. Some are asking for programs that will guarantee farmers their costs of production. In this issue of The Western Producer are stories of requests from fruit growers and pork producers. For many producers, and depending on the year and the markets, growing food is often a losing proposition.
How is this scenario sustainable, particularly when the world population is growing and ever-larger supplies of food will be needed?
Must it be said that the way to ensure a secure food supply is to ensure that farmers are paid enough to keep producing it? The question, of course, is how?
Key to a solution will be a fundamental shift in consumer attitudes toward food costs. “Poor” is a word that should not perennially appear before the word “farmer.” And although many surveys show that consumers say they are willing to pay more for food they know is Canadian, healthy and safe, evidence at the checkout shows otherwise.
We have only to recall the riots of 2008 in many other parts of the world, when food prices rose dramatically, to gauge general appetites for higher food costs.
While some farmers were finally making profits that they could put back into development of their food-producing operations, critics were decrying the unusual transfer of wealth, however temporary it proved to be.
As a population, we need to think differently about food production and its importance to our quality of life.
A reliable food supply in Canada and around the world depends on farmers’ ability to make a living while providing it. Period.
Bruce Dyck, Terry Fries, Barb Glen, D’Arce McMillan and Ken Zacharias collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
