Would you take to the streets to protest the high cost of food?
A growing number of concerned citizens in the northern territories of Canada started a Facebook group — Feeding My Family — and have organized protests outside their food stores to draw attention to ever-rising food prices.
This is an area where food prices are traditionally high. So if you live in the northern territories of Canada, you know your food will be more expensive than in Toronto or Pittsburgh or Atlanta.
As food prices have been going up everywhere else, imagine the impact on an area that regularly struggles with high food prices.
So how much are they paying these days? Some sample prices:
-- $65 for a pound of chicken
-- $28 for cabbage
-- $14 for 2 liters (about a ½ gallon) of milk
-- $19.29 for 3 liters of orange juice.
Feeding My Family started about three weeks ago, and now boasts more than 15,000 members.
"I want everyone to step in. Not just organizations or governments. I want everyone to step in and help us lower the food cost," said Leesee Papatsie, the Iqaluit woman who started Feeding My Family.
Canada already subsidizes healthy foods in remote areas through its Nutrition North Canada program, though concern is growing that much more needs to be done.
The Facebook protests were helped out by a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food as he visited Canada in May.
"What I've seen in Canada is a system that presents barriers for the poor to access nutritious diets and that tolerates increased inequalities between rich and poor, and Aboriginal non-Aboriginal peoples. Canada is much admired for its achievements in the area of human rights, which it has championed for many years. But hunger and access to adequate diets, too, are human rights issues — and here much remains to be done." -- Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food.
Food in Canada, even southern Canada, is more expensive than in the United States. I've been to low-cost grocery stores in Ontario and Quebec that had products more expensive than regular grocery stores in the States.
Some of the American coverage has focused on the high prices without the context. Distance and transportation combine to make accessing food rather difficult. Small airplanes are often the best way, especially in winter, to bring in food. The growing season, well, isn't. This makes providing low-cost food rather difficult.
The great part about the Facebook connection is that people who otherwise might not realize their struggles can see the outrageous prices that those in the North pay for food, much of that same food we would complain about the price, even if the cost is 20% of what they pay.
apples photo credit
broccoli photo credit
peanut butter photo credit
protester photo credit
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