George Klima, Victoria BC

A significant minority of Canadians are “food insecure”—they may not have enough to eat today or perhaps they are unsure whether they will have enough to eat tomorrow. This, despite Canada being a net exporter of food calories.
Most faiths will agree with this fundamental priority: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39). C.S. Lewis helps us to see that “…we can exercise our will to act in another person’s best interest no matter how we happen to feel about that person.” So good Catholics are in a position to consider why and how this situation has arisen. It appears that there are several reasons.

Geography

Given Canada’s geography and the cost of transportation, there are costs in getting food from where it is produced to the consumer. And indeed that’s a problem, especially for northern communities.
Retailers operating in northern communities, in rural areas, and in less-affluent urban areas, are more likely to offer limited choices of lower-quality foods than retailers in affluent urban areas. Hence we have “food deserts.” A food desert is a geographic area where fresh nutritious food is unavailable. After all, retailers cannot afford to discard unsold, outdated merchandise.

Retail Concentration

Retailers concentrate in the parts of cities because that is where they are able to generate profit from volume sales. Affluent people who have an automobile are able to buy more nutritious food. In fact, three retailers control 70-80 per cent of the national market (Loblaw, Metro, Sobey’s/Safeway), with Walmart trailing. Such market concentration provides an ecosystem where a retailer can offer low prices on a few selected items, while leaving a healthy markup on everything else. This kind of informal price-fixing inflates prices, which leaves less-affluent people food-insecure.

Meat

Cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, and farmed fish are increasingly being raised using an industrial model. These animals are being fed foodstuffs that could be eaten by humans. For example, a farmer might grow soybeans that would be fed to livestock, poultry, or farmed fish. Those soybeans will not be made into your tofu dinner. The agricultural inputs for a single serving of meat is far higher than for a serving of a grain or a vegetable. This is a tremendously inefficient and wasteful process. In contrast, raising livestock in fields, eating grass, is a more efficient process.

Soil

We humans are part of the life on this planet. We arose from the soil, from the food grown in the soil, from the soil that grew the food that fed our parents, and that fed our mothers. When we die we will return to the soil. That soil will feed others. Soil needs to be cared for sustainably. As soil degrades, there is a gradual degredation of the nutritional content of the crops that grow in that soil. As the nutritional content of foodstuffs is reduced, people benefit less and less from what they eat.

Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ encyclical (“On Care for Our Common Home”) was a comprehensive and urgent vision of sustainability. It states, “Nothing on this earth is indifferent to us.” The encyclical was critical of throwaway culture and unsustainable development, while inspiring action, sustainable action, especially in agriculture.

Plants

Plants develop from the sun’s energy, carbon dioxide, and the soil’s nutrition. Many plants begin with the miracle of a seed, which waits for the signal from a combination of moisture and temperature. The seed comes alive, taking stored nourishment from within the seed and uses that nourishment to grow leaves and roots, thus growing into maturity to then provide nutrition for animals and, eventually, more seed.

Humans

How do we humans fit into this web of life? We have some guidance from Genesis 1:26, “…let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” An enlightened understanding of “dominion” would imply stewardship, caretaking, loving care, and responsibility. Ruling and abusing clearly leads to self-destruction. This piece of scripture seems to be a pivotal instruction. In which direction should our understanding lie—loving care or abuse?

Farmers

We need farmers. We need justice and equality for farmers. They need to be successful. We also need the soil in which they grow food to be sustained and healthy. We householders and hobby gardeners will not produce sufficient food for ourselves.

We should prefer to buy seasonal foods. We should prefer to buy it from local farmers, even if their price is a little higher than imported produce.

We need to get to know them, our local farmers and producers. We can find out what they need, find out what provincial and municipal policies have an effect on them. We can get involved in supporting them financially and politically.

Ways Forward

The Second Vatican Council advocated that, “country people must be helped both to increase and to market what they produce, and to introduce the necessary development and renewal and also obtain a fair income.” This exhortation wasn’t about charity; it was a matter of justice and equality. It was also about human survival.

Those of us living in a city can begin to take responsibility by growing some food for ourselves. This activity can open our eyes to the miracles mentioned above. Having done so we can join a growing community of like-minded caring people who are on a similar path. We can inspire our friends and neighbours to also participate. Having grown food, our web of community can become more aware of the sustainability issues around growing, shopping, cooking, preserving, and sharing food.

Conclusion

Supporting our local agricultural producers is key to food security for all of us. It is also key to looking after not only ourselves but also our neighbours. Doing so is a matter of survival