Some families are struggling due to sticker shock at the grocery store
Thanksgiving is this weekend. With the price of food these days, we’re all wondering how most of us will cope. In partnership with Angus Reid, Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab investigated what Canadian consumers plan to do with their menu over the weekend. In total, 1,503 Canadians were consulted on September 30, 2022, for this…
It is time for tax reductions to help consumers weather food inflation
Did you know that there is a global food security index? The well-known magazine The Economist has just published its 11th edition. The Global Food Security Index comprises a set of indices from more than 120 different countries. Since 2012, the index has been based on four main pillars: food access, safety, sustainable development, and…
Almost 24 per cent now cutting back on food purchases, almost 70 per cent of whom are women
While inflation is showing signs of dissipating, food inflation appears to be on a totally different path. Food inflation has outpaced our general inflation rate for over 12 months now. Statistics Canada just announced that the food inflation rate for retail was 10.8 per cent and 7.4 per cent in food service. Canada ranks third…
Ottawa's taxes and regulations are driving up costs for farmers and the families that buy the food they produce
By Robin Speer and Gunter Jochum Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is reassuring a hungry world he personally will “drive action on food security” while Canadian farmers will put food on their tables. But back home, his government makes pronouncements that are the policy equivalent of deflating the tires on tractors across Canada. The federal government’s…
Some trouble spots include dairy and bakery goods
Statistics Canada is reminding Canadians every month this year how painful their trips to the grocery store are. The retail inflation rate is at an astonishing 9.9 per cent, its highest point since 1981. And food inflation has exceeded the general rate since last December, which is why food prices are on everyone’s mind. Allegations…
It's time that Canada wakes up and does more to recognize that our brothers and sisters are starving
As a child, I was made to eat everything on my plate and was told that wasting food was affecting the starving children in China. Today, sad to say, my family and many other Canadians have forgotten the need to avoid food waste and, more importantly, have turned our eyes away from starvation in other…
Food inflation in Canada may have already peaked
Once again, the numbers coming out of Statistics Canada were discouraging. The food inflation rate in the country was 8.8 per cent in June, which is still higher than the general inflation rate. Everyone is affected by higher food prices. Americans learned last week that food inflation at the grocery store was 12.4 per cent,…
Flexitarians have decreased risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes and reduced risk of cancer
For a number of years, I talked about becoming a vegetarian. I could see the health and environmental benefits, but completely removing meat seemed a bit extreme for my tastes. I recently discovered flexitarianism, a vegetarian diet where one eats meat occasionally. I limit my intake of meat and seafood, but I can still enjoy…
Our choice is clear: protect the life we love or keep electing these idiots
If there’s any point to writing about energy, it’s to perhaps try to pull together disparate bits of information that the average citizen is too busy to notice, the sort of random and arcane stats and events that only genuine weirdos devote their spare hours to. Truffle pigs find the truffles. People learning about energy…
Stop feeding people food to cars and animals
As if plagues and wars aren’t enough, the media is scaring us about oncoming food shortages. We’re already seeing rising prices in restaurants and grocery stores, and we’re being warned about actual famines in other countries. There are three main causes. One is the damage to the supply chain movements caused by the pandemic. Hopefully,…