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FOOD 2002 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS TOWARDS GREATER FOOD SECURITY
Food and Income
Food and Health
Food Access and the Food Industry
Food and Agriculture
Food and Consumers' Rights
Food and Community-Based Food Programs
Food, Cooking and Commensality
Food and Student Nutrition
Food
and Income
1. The federal government should establish basic minimum income standards,
so that Canadians have enough money to purchase nutritious foods. It should
further explore establishing a guaranteed annual income (GAI) for all
Canadians, so they can meet their basic needs.
2. The federal government should implement a national health and nutrition credit that would allow all Canadians to consistently access nutritious healthy foods regardless of their income level.
3. In order to address unemployment and underemployment, which leads to the lack of substantial income levels, governments should explore policy measures that redistribute work in an equitable manner.
Food and Health
4. Because all levels of government spend billions on illnesses that
could be prevented or reduced by dietary changes, governments should promote
greater vegetable and fruit consumption through educational campaigns
at schools, workplaces and stores, highlighting the connection between
disease prevention and healthy eating.
5. Governments should work to make food a right by legislating the wholesale distribution of basic foods.
6. Governments should explore cost measures such as differential pricing for healthy food to encourage increased consumption of vegetables, fruits, grains and beans.
7. Given the yet unknown health risks associated with genetically modified (GM) foods, governments should mandate the labeling and careful research of this new technology.
Food Access, Hunger and the Food Industry
8. Governments should lead a process to re-think the charitable distribution
of surplus food, and explore the potential of non-charity food projects,
such as wholesale food distribution outlets, community gardens and kitchens,
alternative-buying clubs to meet food access needs.
9. Municipal governments should support citywide composting programs that allow food retailers, processors, and the restaurant sector to dispose of their organic wastes in an effective, low-cost and environmentally-sound manner.
10. Governments should explore the licensing of community-run food discount stores (similar to Goodwill clothing stores), which would assure that excess or dented foods would be managed to meet the industry's need for quality control, while creating a non-stigmatizing alternative to food banks.
Food and Agriculture
11. Governments should explore marketing boards as a way of guaranteeing
stable conditions for farmers and rural communities.
12. Organic farming and other sustainable agricultural methods and practices should be encouraged through policy initiatives.
13. Unchecked development of farmlands should be legislated against and careful monitored.
14. Governments should develop policies, similar to what is currently being done in the U.S. and in Europe, that support farmers and rural life.
Food and Consumers’ Rights
15. The federal government should implement comprehensive labeling policies,
that include attention to nutritional information, country of origin,
fair trade, organic standards and GM content.
16. Governments and industries should develop policy measures that apply the precautionary principle to new food products and technologies, such as GM foods.
17. The food industry should integrate the costs of labeling into their overall operation costs.
18. The federal government should retain strong control over national food regulation and inspection processes, and seriously reconsider the devolved shift in such responsibilities to the CFIA.
Food and Community-Based Food Programs
19. Foundations and governments should fund training, networking and coalition
building among non-profit food agencies, as a means to enhance the capacity
of grassroots food groups to provide the best service to their clients
and participants.
20. Municipalities should establish food policy councils or working groups within city government that can work in partnership with third sector organizations.
21. Municipal governments should establish a commission to identify policy and program changes required to improve the coordination and delivery of food and hunger related services, and to determine the appropriate role for each level of government.
22. Governments at all levels should fund community-based food security projects through special grants programs.
Food, Cooking, and Commensality
23. Governments and foundations should finance community-based food programs
(such as community gardens and kitchens, cooking groups and classes).
24. Policies should be implemented that allow for basic foods to be offered to the entire population at wholesale prices; this might encourage further cooking and experimentation with fresh foods.
25. Governments should mandate home economics and cooking education for the entire student population through provincial educational guidelines.
Food and Student Nutrition
26. The Canadian government should create and fund a nation-wide student
nutrition program.
27. The federal government should create an expanded social safety net, which should include both adequate income along with student nutrition programs to help all children and their parents meet their basic food needs.
28. The federal government should invest in more comprehensive research to evaluate the success of current school-based nutrition programs in meeting the goal of reducing immediate hunger, and in improving the long term health and success of students.
