UN Envoy told Staggering Statistics on the Right to Food in Canada

PRESS RELEASE

11 May, 2012 – The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, who is travelling the country on an official mission, has heard from a range of citizen groups who have laid out the facts about the right to food in Canada. At hearings in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, he heard that:

1.     55.5% of people receiving social assistance nationally are food insecure. [i]

2.     17,8 % of First Nations adults (aged 25-39) reported being hungry in the last 12 months but didn’t eat due to lack of money for food.[ii]

3.     Social assistance for a single person in Ottawa is $635 a month, and the average rent for a bachelor apartment in that city is $715, leaving no money for food, let alone a nutritious diet.  Social assistance rates have dramatically declined over the last two decades.[iii]

4.     Many women in minimum and medium security prisons who must cook for themselves, receive $4 a day in order to cover all their food needs.[iv]

5.     Over 60% of kids aged 9 to 13 are not eating enough fruits and vegetables.[v]

6.     Approximately one of four Canadian adults is considered obese. The economic cost of obesity rises to nearly $7.1 billion per year, based on costs associated with the 18 chronic diseases linked to obesity.[vi]

7.     30,000 people in the agricultural labour force are migrant workers, many of whom come back year after year for decades, but who do not have any access to permanent residency, and face particular challenges in accessing rights, benefits and community services.[vii] 

8.     Two thirds of homeless people in Toronto are hungry (and without access to food) at least once a week.[viii]

9.     Food insecurity is as high as 79% in some Northern communities.[ix]

10. Over $ 3.5 billion in public funds wet to hog farms between 1996 and 2009, mostly to large-scale operations of $1 million or more [x]

11.  A tax of $0.01 per liter on sugary drinks could raise $8 million per year in Quebec and $35 million in Canada that could be reinvested in preventive healthcare.[xi]

12.  In Québec, 5.6 farms are lost per week. [xii]

“These numbers show Canada is failing to fulfill the right to food. That needs to change”, said Diana Bronson, Executive Director of Food Secure Canada. “We have told the Special Rapporteur that we need a national food strategy –that thousands of people across the country have worked for several years to build the People’s Food Policy - and it is time these ideas got implemented. Our members across the country look forward to hearing the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations next Wednesday and hearing the Government’s response in the following days.”

FSC has helped to organize meetings between the Special Rapporteur and civil society groups in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Winnipeg. Updates and background information are posted at www.foodsecurecanada.org. 

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For more information or interviews with Food Secure Canada or our members:

Diana Bronson, cell: 514-629-9236; Diana@foodsecurecanada.org

Anna Paskal: 514-889-2533; policy@foodsecurecanada.org

Follow Food Secure Canada on Twitter:  @FoodSecureCAN #Right2FoodCAN

To request interviews with Olivier to Schutter at the end of his mission, please contact:

Yoonie Kim (ykim@ohchr.org), copied to Nicolas Jacobs (nicholas.jacobs@uclouvain.be.)

[i] Health Canada, http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/surveill/nutrition/commun/insecurit/key-stats-cles-2007-2008-eng.php

[ii] First Nations Regional Longitudinal Health Survey (RHS 2008/10) http://www.rhs-ers.ca

[iii] Ottawa Public Health, www.ottawa.ca/health

[iv] Elizabeth Fry Society www.elizabethfry.ca

[v] Statistics Canada http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-229-x/2009001/deter/fvc-eng.htm

[vi] Public Health Agency of Canada http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/hp-ps/hl-mvs/oic-oac/index-eng.php

[vii] Janet McLaughlin, Wilfred Laurier University

[viii] Michael Shapcott, Wellesley Institute, www.wellesleyinstitute.com

[ix] Shirley Thompson, University of Manitobahttp://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~thompso4/harvestinghope_doc.html

[x] National Farmers Union and World Society for Protection of Animals,http://www.choosecagefree.ca/whatsonyourplate/WSPA_WhatsonYourPlate_FullReport.pdf

[xi] The Weight Coalition of Quebec / La Coalition québecoise sur la problématique du Poidshttp://www.cqpp.qc.ca/fr/

[xii] Equiterre http://www.equiterre.org/communique/forum-%C2%AB-a-table-pour-des-regions-en-sante-%C2%BB-equiterre-en-tournee-pour-promouvoir-lagricul