Food Security and Sovereignty
Everyone has access to nutritious, affordable, culturally appropriate food; the ability to hunt, harvest, grow, and share food according to cultural values; and the freedom to choose what they want to eat.
“I had to save all summer to be able to go hunting just to afford shells, an axe, food and gas to get the meat that I’m used to living on.” -Whitehorse, YK
“Local food has been always proven to be more nutritious than store-bought food. More culturally enriching, and [with a] transfer of land skills like the value of a hunter being able to not only do what they do, but to transfer that knowledge to our youth … it’s huge, but we don’t recognise that in any sort of proper way in a government program.” -Iqaluit, NU
“We hear of people going hungry way too often and having no food in the fridge.” -Ulukhaktok, NWT
“It’s really hard to eat healthy because of the prices of food. It’s easier to just get a frozen pizza and a pack of hotdogs.” -St John’s, NL
“It used to be that it was proven that a hunter would support seven households. They can’t anymore. They can barely support their own.” -Iqaluit, NU
| Measure | Indicator | Data Source |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone has enough to eat | Proportion of individuals by household food security status (marginal, moderate, or severe food insecurity) | Canada Quality of Life Framework, Household Food Security Survey Module in Canadian Income Survey and Canadian Community Health Survey, CIF 2.1.1 |
| Everyone can afford food | Census Family Low Income Measure After Tax | Statistics Canada, T1 Family File |
| Children have enough to eat | Percentage of 11–15 year-olds who report going to school or to bed hungry because there is not enough food at home | Canadian Index of Child and Youth Well-Being |
| Being able to eat nutritious, culturally appropriate food of your choice | Recommendation: Percentage of population who can eat nutritious, culturally appropriate food of their choice Proxy: Percentage of participants who ate traditional food | Gap; First Nations Food, Nutrition, and Environment Study |
| Freedom from worrying about affording food | Recommendation: Percentage of people who consistently feel confident in affording food | Gap |
| Everyone can hunt, fish, and harvest according to cultural values and practices | Proxy: Percentage of households participating in traditional food gathering | First Nations Food, Nutrition, and Environment Study |
| Supplies for hunting, fishing, and harvesting are affordable | Recommendation: Percentage of population who can afford hunting, fishing, and harvesting supplies with ease | Gap |
| Communities grow their own food | Proxy: Percentage of population who grew fruit, herbs, vegetables or flowers for personal use in the past 12 months Recommendation: Percentage of population who grows, raises, or harvests food in some capacity | Statistics Canada, Households and the Environment Survey; Gap |
| Being able to share food with your community | Recommendation: Percentage of population who shares food with others in their community | Gap |
| Food costs and subsidies are equitable across country | Recommendation: Food cost data and subsidy data by individual community | Gap |
Recommendation: existing indicator and data source partially fulfill the measure.
Gap: gap for data source where it does not exist.
Magenta: existing indicator in Canadian Indicator Framework