Food Security in Canada with a focus on British Columbia

Aleck OstryCanada Research Chair in the Social Determinants of Health Senior Scholar, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research in BCFaculty of Social SciencesUniversity of Victoria, Victoria, British ColumbiaCanadaostry@uvic.ca

Outline

Food security- what is it? An overview of food security

– economic access to sufficient food– physical access– safe food– nutritious food

A focus on household and individual food security in Canada. – measuring food insecurity– prevalence of food insecurity– who is food insecure in Canada?– what are the impacts on diet of food insecurity?

Food security in British Columbia Policies underway in BC to improve food security.

Exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

Food Security: What is it?

An Overview of Food Security

1) Economic Access to Sufficient Food:

Given that few people directly grow and eat their own food economic access by households and individuals to sufficient food depends on:

Personal Disposable Income. Price of Food.

Personal disposable income

Policies that reduce disposable income negatively impact household and individual food security.

Policies that improve job security, working conditions, and wages for the working poor are important.

Polices that improve the social safety net for those that don’t work are also key.

Some of these types of policies operate at provincial and others at the federal level.

They operate through labour ministries, ministries of finance, economic development agencies, employment, worker’s compensation, and pension agencies.

Price of food

If disposable incomes of marginal people increase but price of food also increases food security may not improve.

Changes in supply and demand and a mix of public and private policy and the operation of a complex market for food determines price.

Currently demand for food is growing in part due to increased demand for food attendant on economic growth, particularly in China and India.

At the same time supply constraints, attendant to climate change and ecological strain on agricultural lands may be underway (e.g., declines in production in Australia in relation to recent extended drought).

A new factor is the trumping of food by energy policy as governments subsidize the development of bio-fuels in order to promote energy self-sufficiency.

With economic development in formerly under-developed nations and the growing use of food crops for energy, conditions are perfect for food price inflation to undermine food security.

This is a general view and will differ depending on nation, time, and food product under consideration.

2) Physical Access to Food

Depends distally and structurally on the shape and nature of food supply chains.

Depends more proximally on the combination of:

i) the location of retail outletsii) an individual’s ability to access

to these outlets.

Shape of food supply chains

Depend on agri and food policy, trade policy, and, increasingly, on transportation and energy policy.

Increasingly as food tariffs decline, complex food supply chains cross international borders.

Flow through these food supply chains are often controlled by corporate giants.

Food chains may flow entirely within vertically integrated corporations or across many different corporations.

Decisions made within corporations, between them, and between corporations and various governments increasingly shape these food supply chains.

Rules made by various supra-national bodies (Cairns group of nations, NAFTA, WTO) affect the shape of food supply chains.

Location of retail outlets

This depends on a mix of policies made in planning departments (zoning laws), intra and inter-corporate policies and competition.

As an example of the latter, Wal Mart has decided to open stores in Ontario, creating a new geography of retail outlets with large grocery divisions as longtime Canadian company, Loblaws, flounders in the face of a massive intra-corporate re-organization gone wrong.

An individual’s ability to access food outlets

Ultimately depends on personal disposable income as this affects where a person lives and type and frequency of transport they can afford.

Given constraints of personal income physical access will be affected by availability and access to public transit or safe and convenient walking routes to closest store.

3) Safe food

Systems that promote food safety are central to food security

In Canada these have been traditionally organized by the federal and provincial governments.

Federal government focused on: regulating the safety of imports through national laboratories

and inspection system regulating safety of raw agricultural products for export and

consumption Provincial government focused on:

regulating the safety of food production, distribution, and retailing facilities

and consumption An individual’s access to safe food depends on the

system’s integrity and flexibility in the face of challenges (e.g., problem of BSE and regulation of small meat processing facilities in BC)

Summary

Broad policy issues of agricultural, trade, transportation, energy, and urban development are the foundation upon which long-terms solutions to food security must be based.

Poverty, low income and food prices, are key to the solution of household and individual food security.

A Focus on Household and Individual Food Security in Canada

1) Measuring Food Insecurity in Canada

Measuring food bank use: prior to recession of early 1980s few

food banks continuing welfare and employment

reform, in spite of improved job market after 1998, has left large proportion of Canadians with low incomes

Canada has among the highest child poverty rates of any industrialized nation

Number of Canadians using food banks in the month of March, over a 9 year period; 1989-2004

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

800000

900000

1989 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Source: Canadian Association of Food Banks 'HungerCounts' 2002, 2003, and 2004.

About one quarter of Canadians who are food insecure use food banks

This means that: Relying solely on measuring food bank

use will produce an under-estimate of the prevalence of food insecurity

Others, who do not characterize themselves as food insecure are using food banks.

2) National Surveys of Food Insecurity:

National Population Health Survey (NPHS)

Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS)

National Population Health Survey (1998-99):

In the past 12 months, did you or anyone in your household:

1) worry that there would not be enough food to eat because of a lack of money?

2) not eat the quality or variety of foods that you wanted because of a lack of money?

3) not have enough food to eat because of a lack of money?

10.4%

Che & Chen, Health Reports, 2001

8.4%

Canadian Community Health Survey

2000-2001 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS): 14.7% of the population lived in households

reporting food insecurity (3.7 million people) Different items than in 1998/99 NPHS

2004 CCHS: different survey items for food security (more

restrictive than 2000-01): 6.8% of population lived in households reporting food insecurity (2.1 million people)

Has the prevalence of household food insecurity changed over time?

Hard to tell because changed items measuring food security in major national surveys

Food bank use has increased over time and these now feed about 900,000 Canadians

Given the 1998-99 NPHS estimate that about one quarter of the food insecure use food banks suggests about 3.5 million Canadians are food insecure

Who is food insecure in Canada?

The likelihood of food insecurity increases as the adequacy of household income declines.

05

1015202530354045

% food insecure

lowest lowmiddle

middle uppermiddle

highest

INCOME ADEQUACY

(Ledrou & Gervais, Health Reports 2005)

Source of Income and Odds of Reporting Food Insecurity

Major source of income

Odds (95% CI) of reporting food insecurity

Odds (95% CI) of reporting compromises in food intake

Employment 1.0 1.0

Social assistance 3.1 (2.3 - 4.0) 3.4 (2.6 – 4.5)

EI, Worker’s Comp, CTB, support/alimony

1.7 (1.2 – 2.6) 1.8 (1.1 – 2.8)

Seniors’ benefits 0.9 (0.7 – 1.5) 1.0 (0.8 – 1.4)

Other 1.0 (0.7 – 1.5) 1.1 (0.7 – 1.6)

(Che & Chen, Health Reports, 2001)

The food insecure are:

Generally living in poverty. Those at particularly high risk are

living on social assistance, receiving employment insurance and workers’ compensation benefits. Many of these people are: lone parents homeless people Aboriginals

Recent upsurge in housing prices in all regions of Canada

Reduced rental vacancies in major cities

Housing price inflation on the working poor placing an even greater squeeze on income available to purchase food

What are the Impacts on Diet of Food Insecurity?

Household food expenditure and per capita income (1996 Family Food Expenditure Survey)

Per capita income ($)

Ave

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an

tity

pu

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kg)

0 20000 40000 60000 80000

02

46

81

0

Veg & FruitMilkOtherGrainMeat

Vegetables & fruit

Milk products

Meat, fish, poultry, etc

Grain products

Other foods

(Ricciuto, Tarasuk & Yatchew, Eur J Clin Nutr 2007.

< $15,000 household income less vegetables and fruit and milk products purchased

Per capita income ($)

Ave

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ee

kly

qu

an

tity

pu

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d (

kg)

0 20000 40000 60000 80000

02

46

81

0

Veg & FruitMilkOtherGrainMeat

Vegetables & fruit

Milk products

Meat, fish, poultry, etc

Grain products

Other foods

(Ricciuto, Tarasuk & Yatchew, Eur J Clin Nutr in press)

As income increases, households more likely to purchase

● lean meats, poultry and fish ● breakfast cereals ● low fat milk

As income decreases, households are less likely to purchase

● vegetables ● fruit ● milk products

(Ricciuto, Tarasuk & Yatchew, Eur J Clin Nutr in press)

Relationship between low income and diet:

↓ adequacy of household income

↑ constraints on food purchasing ↑ likelihood of food insecurity

Reduced intake of more healthy foods

Food Security in BC

Regional differences in the proportion of food insecure British Columbians

TABLE 1Food Insecurity by BC Health Region – People 12 and Older, 2005

Percentage of foodinsecure people

Number of food insecure people

Kootenay-Boundary 8.0% 5,417

Fraser East 7.7% 15,240

Central Vancouver Island 7.5% 15,441

Northwest & Northeast (combined) 6.5% 7,355

Okanagan 6.1% 16,066

East Kootenay 6.1% 4,138

North Shore/Coast Garibaldi 5.9% 12,819

Thompson/-Cariboo 5.8% 10,081

South Vancouver Island 5.6% 15,852

Vancouver 5.3% 25,339

Fraser South 4.5% 21,981

Fraser North 4.4% 19,867

Northern Interior 2.5% 2,955

Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Community Health Survey, 2005, Public Use Microdata FileNote: Sample sizes for Richmond and North Vancouver Island were too small to produce reliable results.

Age differences in the proportion of food insecure persons in BC

Food insecure Persons in BC by Age Group, 2005

7.6%7.5%

6.0%

7.2%

5.3%

3.6%

1.7%

0.0%

1.0%

2.0%

3.0%

4.0%

5.0%

6.0%

7.0%

8.0%

9.0%

12-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 Plus

Perc

en

t

Regional differences in access to “healthy” foods in BC

The BC Atlas of Wellness:

Eats fruits and vegetables five or more times per day, ages 12+

Gender differences in access to “healthy” foods in BC

The BC Atlas of Wellness:

Eats fruits and vegetables five or more times per day, ages 12+

Policies Underway in BC to Improve Food Security

Political Background

Large budget surpluses for several years 2010 Winter Olympics Provincial government commitment to make BC

the healthiest jurisdiction in the world Concern over impact on healthcare budgets of

dietary health issues (obesity-related CHD and diabetes)

Ministry of Health is developing better chronic disease management strategies focused on prevention by promoting healthy eating throughout the population based on a foundation of food security

Very active food security groups in BC communities since the 1990s

Social Policy Background

Restrictions in employment insurance eligibility since 1996

Major restrictions in social assistance eligibility in BC after 2001

Major increases in housing prices and rents since 2000

BC has among the highest rates of child poverty in the industrial world

BC’s Healthcare System and Food Security

Healthcare system re-regionalized into five large areas in 2001

New RHAs made responsible for public health in their region

In 2005 Provincial MOH released a report on food security in BC

In 2005 food security became a core public health function for all RHA’s

RHAs were funded to develop plans to improve food security in their region

Overview of Food Security Programs in BC

Three basic programs (dozens of different projects): Community-Link: an program in place since 1970s to

improve school-based food security for needy schools- (about $45 million).

ACTNOW BC- linked to Olympics. ActNOW targets common risk factors for chronic disease through an integrated approach to reduce the common risk factors of physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, overweight and obesity, tobacco-use and alcohol use during pregnancy.. (40 million dollars over 3 years)

About 30 project funded through ACTNOW related to food security. One of the most important ones is the Community Food Action Initiative (CFAI) to build capacity for RHAs to address issues of food security.

Funding to the BC Health Living Alliance to build cooperation among NGOs and other agencies to promote food security throughout the province (25 million over 3 years). About 6 million devoted to food security.

Community Link

About 40 million in funding. Ministry of Education allocates funds to the School Boards. Varied uses of monies. About 10 million goes to meals and snacks for poor children.

Breakfast for Learning to provide ongoing support of meal programs in BC. Based on raising corporate donations.

ACT NOW Food Security Programs

Specific funding for liaison with NGOs, professional groups, and across ministries to promote food security

Joint Ministry of Health and Education school programsBC School nutrition surveyBC School guidelines for food and ending machine sales Healthy eating and physical activity learning resource

AND with the Ministry of AgricultureSchool fruit and vegetable snacks programAction Schools BC healthy eating programAgri-food partners in healthy eating programSchool fridge project (with Dairy Foundation)

AND with all food security interested stakeholders the CFAI

School Programs- basing programs on research evidence

2005 BC School Nutrition survey showed: although elementary schools had few snack

machines, “junk food” was sold in school fund-raisers and in tuck shops

high schools students had greatest exposure to junk food from vending machines

schools with a nutrition committee in place had healthier foods on premises, fewer vending machines, and more healthy food choices in existing vending machines

survey provides a “baseline” against which to measure changes as school nutritional guidelines are introduced

Community Food Action Initiative

CFAI Stakeholders are the Ministry of Health, Regional Health Authorities, Ministry of Employment &Income Assistance, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, Ministry of Education, Public Health Agency of Canada, BC Food Systems Network, BC Healthy Living Alliance, Union of BC Municipalities, Aboriginal Community, Ethno-cultural community, Academic Community , BC Community Nutritionists.

The goal of CFAI:

to increase food security for the BC population by building on existing community strengths and assets, utilize existing coalitions and networks, and assist communities to build capacity.

Specific objectives are to increase: awareness about food security access to local healthy food food knowledge and skills community capacity to address local food

security development and use of policy that supports

community food security.

CFIA Actions to Date

RHAs have hired food security coordinators They work with local community food activists, groups,

and food policy councils. They encourage community groups to apply for funds

to improve food security The idea is to mobilize community resources to improve

food security Funding available about $1 million/yr. Projects funded tend to be community gardens,

kitchens, food banks etc. Most RHAs funding these local community “food

charities” others are funding local food policy councils BC Community nutritionists taking a lead role in these

RHA food security initiatives

Miscellaneous projects

The Farmers' Market Nutrition and Coupon Project (FMNCP) is the first project of its kind in Canada. This is a pilot project launched by the BC Association of Farmers' Markets in five BC communities to help low-income families buy and consume more BC-produced fresh farm products.

This project will be expanded to many more communities in the next few years.

Background context is that a broader “buy BC” project was underway through the 1990s but was dropped after 2000.

Cooking skill building grants from Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance with Education for community groups.

Nutritional Guidelines for Vending Machines in BC Public Buildings project. These guidelines are very similar to those produced for public schools.

BC Healthy Living Alliance is partnering with Northern Health Authority to introduce fruits and vegetable program into the regions schools.

Conclusions

Income security has been steadily eroded for low income Canadians over the past 15 years

Low income and high food prices are the main barriers to healthy eating for food insecure Canadians.

Given the uneven way in which food security has been measured since the 1990s, it is not clear whether or not it’s prevalence has changed.

Nonetheless about 3 million Canadians are likely food insecure at present.

The dietary intakes of food insecure Canadians are less healthy than for those who are food secure.

In BC, household food security varies across income, region, by gender, and age.

In spite of the roll back in social assistance rates in BC over the past 7 or 8 years, the BC government has recognized the central importance of food security and healthy eating in its drive to reduce the burden of chronic disease.

Programs rolled out to reduce food security are primarily based on lifestyle modification, RHA and community mobilization and engagement and alteration of the school nutrition environment.

Pilot programs are underway to modify nutrition environments in all government ministries.

Pilot programs are also underway to better utilize fruits and vegetables grown in BC in schools and in the diets of poor people.

Projects are developed in such a way that increase the collaboration between government departments and across stakeholder and community groups.

Ministries of Health are leading the policy charge to improve food security in BC.

Basic thrust to increase collaboration across health and community sectors and to in particular to reach out to other non-health sectors is essential and underway in BC.

Their likelihood of success will be increased: bring back basic income supports for poor people expand support for Community link program (i.e., increase school

feeding programs while implementing school food guidelines and other school food programs).

remove economic incentives for selling unhealthy food in schools and other public places

develop more projects that link consumers directly (particularly the food insecure) with producers

link with agri-policy makers to determine how to encourage local production of, and access to, more healthy foods

link with agri-policy makers to determine policies to meet the needs of farmers (higher prices for their products) with the food insecure (lower food prices)

link with non-health Ministries to ensure policy developments are undertaken with food security implications fully in mind (e.g., policies on bio-fuels)

more fully develop the research and evaluation components of food security programs