Food Security
What is Food Security?
A community enjoys food security when all people, at all times, have access to nutritious, safe, personally acceptable and culturally appropriate foods, produced in ways that are environmentally sound and socially just.
FOOD SECURITY
Global agreements (which Canada has signed) state that food security is a basic human right. We define food security as a situation in which
- everyone has assured access to adequate, appropriate and personally acceptable food in a way that does not damage self respect;
- people are able to earn a living wage by growing, producing, processing, handling, retailing and serving food;
- the quality of land, air and water are maintained and enhanced for future generations; and
- food is celebrated as central to community and cultural integrity.
HEALTH
Good food is the basis of health. This means also that people in need of healing, whether in hospitals, care facilities, or remand centres, require healthy food, not the cheapest available. By the same token, children (our future) require the best possible food, starting with breastmilk.
JUSTICE
The principles of democracy and equity require that good food is available to everyone, not just those who can afford to pay for it. Nor is it acceptable that BC's food policy is based on the exploitation of people or the environment in other countries.
ECONOMY
Without food production, there is no economy. Full cost-accounting reveals the costs as well as the risks of a food system which is dependent on outside sources, long-distance movement of food, high-input agriculture, and poor population health. Food dependency holds political as well as economic dangers: any jurisdiction which cannot feed its people is at the mercy of whoever does.
Breastfeeding: A Paradigm of a Sustainable Food System
What would a sustainable food system look like? To answer this question, we can just look at the characteristics of breastfeeding:
- The consumer is in control;
- The food is designed to meet the specific needs of the consumer, and changes in quality and quantity as those needs change over time;
- There is no excess packaging the packaging is infinitely re-usable and aesthetically pleasing;
- No fossil fuels are used in the production or distribution of the food;
- There is a direct, not to say intimate, relationship between producer and consumer;
- The producer needs to be healthy and well-nourished or the system does not work;
- Once the system is established, both producer and consumer derive pleasure from it.
- Cathleen Kneen, 2005
