I spent a great deal of time preparing a lovely PowerPoint presentation, but I'm going to look at it myself and just use it as a speaking tool, and hopefully I'll send it to you so that it can be transcribed. In the north, we would be transcribing it into 64 aboriginal languages, so we'll see what we can do.
Today I'm going to talk about community food security. That's different from food security, and I'm going to talk about it in terms of childhood obesity.
When we talk about community food security, fundamentally we're talking about redesigning the systems that feed us, in order to prevent childhood obesity.
Most people are familiar with the FAO definition of food security. It states that when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious foods to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active life, they are food secure. As they say, if you have the food you need for health and if you can access it, then you're food secure.
But in B.C., we think of it differently. We think of food security not only as access to food, but as being about food supply. You can't really be accessing the food if you don't have the supply of food, so we see those as very much intertwined concepts and we do not differentiate. But we then have to zero in and look at our systems that feed us and the policy that underpins those systems.
We talk about a healthy sustainable food system and community food security in the same breath. A healthy sustainable food system is one that does not compromise the land, air, and water for future generations. It does ensure that all people have access to the foods required for their health. It is a system that is economically viable over the long term. It's one that recognizes food as a part of culture and community. You can't separate these things. They're all together. We say food security is dependent upon that.
We talk about food policy even at the grassroots level. We talk about food policy as being a framework within which decisions are made, and it provides the context for those food systems that impact our access to and supply of food.
Even at the grassroots level, even in the little villages in Haida Gwaii, we're very aware that Canada does not have a coherent food policy. We have all kinds of bits of policy, regulations, and guidelines around food, nutrition, and agriculture, but we don't have what we would call a coherent food policy at the federal level. We also don't have that at the provincial level and we lack it at the municipal level, so we're thinking big when we're thinking about making changes. But we recognize that it's very complex.
When we talk about a coherent food policy, we're talking about one that has the optimal nourishment of the population as its highest purpose, one that makes agricultural production and distribution a servant of that purpose, and one that ensures that the food system is environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable. It's a policy that is putting health first.
There are other things we look at when we think about food security—and I wish I could show you some of these beautiful little PowerPoint slides here. We think about the consolidation of power in the food system and the fact that the top four producers of packaged food in the U.S. are Nestlé, Unilever, Philip Morris, and PepsiCo. They are the proud makers of foods such as Butterfinger, Lean Cuisine, Carnation Foods, Lipton Tea, salad dressings, JELL-O, Pepsi, and chips. In 2000 alone, we were looking at almost $100 billion in the U.S. That's how much money went into those kinds of products.
We look at that wealth in the food system, and then we compare it to the fact that a lot of people living here in British Columbia or living here in Canada can't afford to eat. I don't know if you've seen the cost-of-eating reports put out by the Dietitians of Canada. Basically, once the rent and the other things are paid, for people who are living on social assistance, there isn't enough money left over for food.
We talk about the proliferation of fast foods. If you think about trends, McDonald's was at $19 billion worldwide in 2002. The top ones are McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
And by the way, I moved to Prince George ten years ago. They had three Tim Hortons restaurants, and now they have twelve. The population hasn't changed, but we sure have a lot of fast food.
Around the world, the top two food products are McDonald's and Coca-Cola. If you go to Australia or China, it's McDonald's and Coca-Cola. In Hong Kong, McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Indonesia, McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Thailand went way out there on a limb; they eat KFC and drink Pepsi.
You have a proliferation of fast foods and you have a proliferation of food banks. There is a lot of information in here that it would be difficult to speak to without you actually seeing the slide, but we've had an exponential growth in the rate of food banks in this country. We have fast food fare and we have food bank fare. Interestingly enough, when you go to the food banks, they're getting the leftovers of what we have to offer in this food system. The leftovers from the KFC? That kind of stuff goes to the food bank. In Prince George, it's donuts, donuts, and more donuts. If you have a child who is at risk for diabetes, what are they going to get when they're at the food bank? Donuts.
We're disconnecting from our food, and in a phenomenal way. Less than one percent of the foods in our grocery stores in the north are actually produced locally, so we're completely reliant upon foods being shipped in—and we're in the hub of the north in Prince George, so I'm not talking about our more rural and remote communities. If there was actually an emergency, like a snowstorm or something that closes down the highway, we would run out of food in one to two days. Our major grocery stores only keep stock on the shelf that long.
We did have a major snowstorm a few years ago in Boston Bar, and they actually sent CBC in there to film the grocery shelves that were empty of food. The little old senior citizens with their pantries of pickled preserves and things were the ones who had food. The average food product travels 3,000 kilometres to get to where we live.
We're disconnecting with our food and we're connecting with our couch, right? I have an estimate here that we spend 9.55 years on the couch by the age of 70.
And then there's the proliferation of fast food marketing and all of that stuff that we're getting on television. I know other people have spoken to advertising targeting children. What are kids eating? Slurpees before veggies. More pop and candy than ever recorded in history: 30% of their total energy intake and 30% of their total fat intake comes from the “other” food group. I don't even know if the food guide has the “other” food group on it any more. How do we keep track of that?
When I was looking at the types of foods that make up Canadian children's nutrient intake, I was shocked to see that not only is all that energy over there for fat and that type of thing, but there's quite a bit of fat in those fruits and vegetables. I was looking at those fruits and vegetables and I thought, how do we get fat in fruits and vegetables? When I was looking at this data, I found out that they actually put french fries in there. When you're looking at food groups and how much food the children are consuming from different food groups, french fries get put into the fruit and vegetable group. Something is wrong with this data. Also, condiments like ketchup and relish are actually considered something that would go into the fruit and vegetable group. If you've had enough of them, you're considered to have had a fruit and a vegetable. So when we say our children aren't eating enough fruits and vegetables, remember that what they are eating is probably mostly french fries.
What do we have? We have a huge issue of malnutrition. And when I say “malnutrition”, I'm talking about over-nutrition. I'm talking about overweight, about obesity. But we have the paradox of hunger at the same time in this country.
In B.C. we have what we call a community food security movement. The grass roots are really active about making some changes and are aware of these problems with their food systems.
Am I running out of time?
They want to see a system that pushes against the one we have, so they're looking for localized food systems. Instead of urban–rural divisions, they're looking for urban–rural partnerships. Instead of a long trade route, they're looking for a short trade route. Instead of fast food, we want slow food. Instead of packaged and processed, we want fresh and whole. Instead of burgerization, we want local food specialities. Instead of biotechnology, we'd like to see indigenous knowledge, wisdom, and those types of things respected. Instead of food just for profit, what about food for health? Instead of just being consumers, what about being citizens?
We do a whole continuum of things with our communities. If the status quo is that you go to the food bank if you have a problem, or we give you a pill and we'll take care of it that way.... We're engaging communities in reshaping and redefining their food systems. They're doing things like community kitchens, community gardens, food co-ops, and farmers' markets, and they're trying to rebuild those localized food systems.
We're not saying to do without the industrialized food system, because we want our coffee, but we also want to have a localized food system beside it.
Communities are even working at creating food policy councils. Like the interministerial committees, that's bringing municipalities and the health sector and a variety of people together at a local level to create policy that will support this environmental change that they're wanting.
There are lots of beautiful pictures here of the things that are happening in the north.
I'm really excited, because the B.C. provincial government has gotten on board with ActNowBC. We have the Olympics coming; the premier has said this is going to be the healthiest province in Canada, but our Minister of Health has said something like, “Let me tell you something about the health of our people here in B.C. They're not very healthy.” And he came up with what I call this doomsday slide.
Basically, by 2017, if we keep continuing to spend the way we are on health care--and a lot of it is on preventable diseases--and we keep the flat 3% growth rate in education and an 8% growth rate in expenditures on health, all the other ministries' money--all of it--will be going to health. There'll be no money left.
This slide was shown to every minister, and all of a sudden this interministerial committee has been created; it's to act now. They have five goals they're working on. Food is one of them; there is active living, tobacco, obesity reduction, and--I don't know, I forget the other one. Anyway, there are five, but it means we have an interministerial committee, and they're working on food policy.
I'm hoping the federal government can build on some of the lessons we've learned in B.C. If we want change, substantial change, we've got to look at things from an environmental and a policy perspective, not just, “Eat your fruits and veggies.” We've got to support the grassroots in what they're doing. Health Canada has done a wonderful job with supporting a number of beautiful initiatives that are sustained because community has taken them on. We've got to create a national coherent food policy. We need a national coherent food policy.