UN expert urges Canada to adopt national strategy to ensure right to food

Noting that some 800,000 households in Canada are unable to meet their daily food needs, an independent United Nations expert today called on the country to adopt a national right to food strategy.

“Canada is much admired for its achievements in the area of human rights, which it has championed for many years. But hunger and access to adequate diets, too, are human rights issues – and here much remains to be done,” the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, said in a news release at the end of an official visit to the country.

“Canada has long been seen as a land of plenty. Yet today one in ten families with a child under six is unable to meet their daily food needs,” he noted. “These rates of food insecurity are unacceptable, and it is time for Canada to adopt a national right to food strategy.”