Many of us have had our eyes and ears turned toward the events unfolding in the Middle East. It is heartening to see that the little guy, amassed in enough numbers, still has a voice commanding of attention. As we focus on the violence, the victory and the seemingly contagious nature of the protests, it is easy to lose sight of what initially set them in motion — rising food costs. It may be difficult for us to imagine rioting in the streets when food prices rise 10 per cent, but that’s because in this country food spending accounts for a mere 10 per cent of our income. In many developing nations, food costs 50, 60 or 70 per cent of a family’s incoming revenue. An increase of 10 per cent can be crippling to those in that situation.
If you think you're fortunate to live in a country with a food production industry as vast and varied as Canada's, you're absolutely right. If you think this guarantees a steady food supply, you may want to take a closer look. Canadians are under a number of illusions where food is concerned.
The Illusion of Abundance
Rising fuel costs, land use changes from food to bio-fuel production, population growth, weather events and climate change, loss of agricultural land to development, investor speculation, and a flourishing Asian economy are putting unprecedented pressures on food supplies the world over. The United Nations Global Food Crisis Task Force reports that, although some say it is a distribution rather than a quantity problem, in reality global food demand has exceeded supply. With a world population that will hit seven billion this year, the supply issue is not going to go away.
Go for a walk through your grocery store and search for foodstuffs, whether fresh or packaged, that were actually grown and/or produced in Canada. The truth is, the vast majority of the food we eat is imported. This fact alone puts us at the same risk as every other country with a food trade deficit. Canada is not immune to soaring prices or dwindling supplies. Every one of the aggravating factors listed above applies to us.
The Illusion of Choice
Our society is becoming increasingly dependent on supermarket produce, growing less of its own food. If you’ve ever tasted a garden-fresh tomato, you’ll surely agree that it tantalizes the taste buds a whole lot more than its produce aisle cousin, but do you know why? Strange as it may seem, flavour (even nutrition) is a quality not important to those who are in the business of selling mass quantities of vegetables. Supermarket tomatoes have been bred to grow to a nice uniform size, turn red even when unripe and stay firm for transportation and storing, not for taste or food value.
Our love affair with supermarket shopping means we are losing those varieties that don’t ship or store as well, and genetic diversity that is crucial to a stable food system. As produce varieties fall out of favour they fall out of production and become extinct forever. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports that since the beginning of the 20th century, about 75 per cent of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost worldwide. They declared 2010 International Year of Biodiversity because “extinction rates have been estimated to be as much as 1,000 times higher than the typical natural rates over the Earth's history — before human civilization. … We are destroying our biodiversity at a faster rate than at any other period in human history.”
Agribusiness is also threatening our choice to grow and eat what we please. For example, in Canada there are no requirements to label genetically modified foods, so you can’t avoid them even if you wanted to. And once approved for cultivation, GM crops cease to be under the jurisdiction or control of the government, meaning the average citizen has little or no say as to where GM crops may or may not be planted.
Colossal multinational firms are also busy buying up independent seed companies and consolidating, streamlining and eliminating seed varieties as they go, further eroding diversity and choice.
The Illusion of Green
What could be more environmentally friendly than digging in the dirt, planting a seed and watching it grow? In days gone by, virtually all of the food energy available on this planet came from the sun through photosynthesis. Either you ate plants or animals that ate plants, and you worked your soil with animals that ate plants. The production of a few implements requiring coal-fired steel factories was pretty much the only place you would witness the use of fossil fuels.
Skip forward to today and you come upon a very different scene. In our industrial agricultural system, except for the photosynthesizing role we still assign to the sun, the energy required to produce our food is wholly derived from fossil fuels. Seeding, irrigating, fertilizing, harvesting, transporting, processing, packaging, distributing, end-user purchasing, storing, preparing, and cleanup — all require vast amounts of fuel energy. According to a University of Michigan study conducted in 2000, it takes more than 80 calories of fossil fuel energy to get one calorie of food from farm to fork. With a system that currently spends about 18 per cent of total fossil fuel energy on agriculture, just how “green” is it?
Industrial agriculture also uses water in staggering proportions, with upwards of 70 per cent of all fresh water available worldwide being used for farming. In 2007, the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability presented its findings on agricultural water usage in the Okanagan Valley. Consider the amount of water it takes to produce these common food items: every kilogram of apples grown requires 350 litres of water, blueberries — 722 litres/kg, grapes — 787 litres/kg, raspberries — 982 litres/kg, peaches — 1,100 litres/kg, plums — 1,300 litres/kg, cherries — 1,500 litres/kg, apricots — 2,497 litres/kg, chicken — 5,124 litres/kg and beef — 10,771 litres/kg.
Conventional agricultural chemicals are also taking their environmental toll. Fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides used in the farming process are leaching into the ground and making their way into our waterways. Where lakes and streams empty into the ocean vast “dead zones” are created. Chemical-rich waters feed algae blooms so massive they starve the ocean waters of oxygen. These oxygen-depleted waters are completely devoid of all marine life. In summer 2010, the dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico measured a sprawling 12,000 square kilometres.
While illusions are all around us and can be overwhelming, it is not too late to refocus on a real food future. You can begin by eating more locally grown food and growing more of your own using sustainable practices. Eating local means less demand for fuel, more emphasis on responsible land use, increased control over supply, enhanced biodiversity, better nutrition, and improved local economies. Knowledge is power, and just as the common person in Tunisia or Egypt or Libya can make a difference, so too can we.
• • •
Well, that’s it folks. This piece completes three solid years of Thought for Food in the Advance and it’s time for this foodie to put down her pen. Many thanks to the Advance for printing Thought for Food, and my readers, whose feedback has given me the energy to continue writing. Here’s to good food for all!
Gail Southall is a local food advocate working to promote the economic, social, physical and environmental wisdom of a dynamic, locally sustained food system.