In Search of Social Justice -- A National Food Policy
One Way Ahead

Publisher:  National Anti-Poverty Organization, Ottawa, Canada
Year Published:  1977
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX193

Working paper defining NAPO as a special interest group concentrating on legislation and policy surrounding issues of the Canadian poor.

Abstract: 
In this working paper, the National Anti-Poverty Organization asserts itself to be a special interest group
concentrating on legislation and policy surrounding issues of the Canadian poor (which today make up one third of our population). NAPO focuses on the issue of food, which it considers to be a crucial area of need among the poor. Because he does not have access to the food system, the low- income consumer is rendered powerless - he becomes the victim of escalating prices and is forced to eat less nutritive food and often less food. The problem is further complicated by the resulting social problems including malnutrition and starvation. NAPO charges that the public is generally apathetic to this issue, that the government has no comprehensive public policy on food and that agribusiness takes advantage of the non-policy. NAPO thus challenges the government to develop a public food policy that will guarantee access to quality, nutritive food at an affordable price as a right to every Canadian citizen. Social security systems and government bureaucracies alone cannot pierce the poverty dome. In order to have impact in the public policy area, NAPO insists on policy interrelatedness between economic and social realities and needs. In considering the development of a national food policy, such items as land use, agricultural policies, nutrition, marketing systems, energy policy, the role of multi-nationals and food import, processing, distribution, and pricing policies will have to be taken into account. The paper lists 10 concrete recommendations for action in the above areas.