An Introduction to Food Security

Why is Food security a Social Justice Issue? Here are some facts from The Cost of Eating in BC 2007 Report (Ministry of Health)

• The province continues to have the highest child poverty rate in the country at 15.2%, compared to a national rate of 11.7%.

• Research shows that “the most important barrier to healthy eating is inadequate income.”

• The facts are:

• More than 76,500 British Columbians used food banks in 2007; almost 28,000 of those were children.

• The primary source of income for food bank recipients are income assistance (42%), disability income supports (21.5%) and employment (11.5%).

• The 2005 count of homeless persons in Greater Vancouver was 2,174, almost double that of 2002.

• Homeless counts underestimate the extent of the problem due to challenges in counting people with no fixed address.

• The count does not include those in shelters, couch surfing, or living in overcrowded conditions.

• Income assistance is too low to pay rent and buy enough healthy food.

• Those living on income assistance are very likely to report food insecurity (59.7%).

• Food insecurity is higher in the lowest income families (48.3%), off-reserve Aboriginal families (33.3%), female lone parent families (24.9%) and in families with more than 3 children (15.0%) especially when one of them is under 6 years of age.

• Minimum wage is too low to provide a single person working full time with enough money to live above the poverty line in BC.

• It costs on average $715 a month to purchase a healthy food basket for a family of four (two parents, two children) in BC with a high of $796 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region compared to $680 in Interior Health. The average cost of the food basket in 2007 is 9% higher than that in 2006, which was $653.

There are some visible disparities between income and access to healthy food. Food security aims to secure that all people at all times have access to enough food that is affordable, safe, healthy, culturally acceptable and can be obtained in a dignified manner. Food security is also about the ways in which our food is produced; individuals should have access to food that is ecologically, socially and culturally sustainable and acceptable. To achieve a community, province and country that are food secure requires the cooperation of many. From policy to non-violent direct action, food security is an issue that affects us all.

Here are some scary facts about Vancouver Island’s food insecurity:

• “Presently on Vancouver Island, we do not have food security. 90% of our food is brought in from the outside.”

• “It is said that there are only 3 days' worth of fresh food on the Island to feed its populace in the non-summer months”

So how do we change these facts, bring 90% down to 10%? I will explore policy, education and activism in Victoria to assess what is being done and what needs to be done. This blog can act as a kind of social acupuncture to point out opportunities where pressure can be applied to create change.

"One cannot alter a condition with the same mind set that created it in the first place."
— Albert Einstein