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A UBC Okanagan researcher has warned that we should be “genuinely concerned” about the availability of food in Canada as the COVID-19 crisis drags on.
Joanne Taylor, who is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the university, said “social and environmental calamities” are making it harder to guarantee supply.
She pointed to closed international borders, meatpacking plant shutdowns and a shortage of migrant workers – all of which combine to create the consequent increase in grocery prices.
“Canada imports about 45% of its domestic food supply while being the fifth-largest food exporter in the world,” Taylor explained.
“Some BC communities export 95% of [their] produce, creating a reliance on California for its fruit and vegetables where drought and forest fires are also prevalent.”
In the Okanagan, meanwhile, there are droughts and floods caused by climate change.
Other challenges seen around the world include farmland being lost to urban development as the global population continues to surge, a loss of good soil and damage from forest fires.
“Since 2008 the global food crisis was identified by skyrocketing food prices, food riots and displacement of the impoverished, indicating that the current food system was not succeeding in eliminating poverty and food insecurity,” Taylor said.
She added: “There is also a dependence on Western diets rich in meat and dairy, which rely on animal feed crops. In fact, the current COVID-19 crisis has most affected meat and migrant workers.”
The consequences of food insecurity can be grave, Taylor explained.
“Increased food prices necessarily place further pressure on our personal or family budgets, creating scenarios where families may be in food-deprived situations,” she said.
She advises residents to support local farmers and to learn how to grow food themselves.
“No one knows how long the current COVID-19 situation will continue or if international farm workers will be able to travel to our agricultural communities,” she said.
“It is therefore critical that we all learn the basics of how to procure local, nutritious foods with an understanding that we must be able to adapt to future climate change-related social and economic disruptions. It has never been more important to buy locally produced food to support farmers and our communities.
“And as Canadians, we should never take fresh food and water for granted.”
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