Food: We're Doing It Wrong -- Fast Food Marketing, Poverty, and Food Security

Two significant food-related reports were released today. One of them, Fast Food Facts, looks at fast food marketing in the United States and found that the industry spent $4.2 billion on advertising in 2012. The other one, Hunger Count, looks at food bank use in Canada and found that 833,098 people turned to a food bank in Canada in March 2013. These reports are both significant because they point to important issues relating to health and food security in North America. They are related because our capitalist society values and promotes advertising as increasing choice, while at the same time continuing to support an unsustainable food system that ensures low income families have little to no choice.

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Is poverty inevitable for Canada's Indigenous children?

Canada ranks 25th among the 30 countries in the OECD with regard to child poverty. Among immigrant, racialized and Indigenous communities the child poverty rate even higher than the Canadian average. In particular, 50% (HALF!) of status First Nations children live in poverty. This is unacceptable.

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