Sustainable Food Production, Consumption, and the Generation of

4.2 Policy Concerns from Global to Local
Policy implementation in Canada has yet to play an active role in creating a strategy to
address the growing concern regarding food security, sustainable food production and food waste
management in Canada (McRae, 1997; 1999). While the focus of this chapter is most specifically
on the impact policy has at the local level in the CRD, it must be recognized that these issues
extend to the global scale. The globalization of food has become an increasingly serious issue as
people have begun to realize the role international relations has to play in complicating food
systems (Lang, 1999). Lang points out that the food system has long been a part of international
trade, but it is only recently that it has taken on “a new pace and scale of change” (1999: 169).
This ‘new pace’ has been spurred on by transnational corporations’ focus on the developing
world, the progression of agricultural technology and the control of the food market resting with
a handful of multinational companies (Harriss-White, 1994). However, this pace of development
has not been matched by policies and regulation on a global level. “The right to food” is still
unattainable to many across the globe and, though there is a need for strict policies enforcing
food security as a basic human right, there are many obstacles to overcome in the pursuit of such
a goal (Alston, 1994; O’Neill, 1994; Pottier, 1999). Though there are international organizations
such as the Food and Agriculture Organization whose mandate includes “providing food security
for all” and international agreements like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which
provides some guidelines for exchange of agricultural goods, the major focus of international
food systems is making a profit (FAO, 2004; Lang, 1997; Friedman, 1994). The economics of
food is a booming industry worldwide, which is perhaps why food security takes a back seat to
the bottom line in global food policy issues (Lang, 1997).
Though a global food security policy may be elusive, there seems to be more opportunity
for progress on the national scale. In Canada a growing awareness of food security issues has
culminated in a need for new policy reactions to present day problems (McRae, 1997: Koc and
Dahlberg, 1999). Mirroring the global food system in its focus on profit, policy at the federal
level has been primarily regulatory up to this point. There is concern that the federal government
should be playing a more cohesive and unifying role in food security issues on the national level,
but at present the various arms of the Canadian government are bent towards issues of food and
health standards, drug and modified food regulations and labelling and packaging concerns
(McRae, 1999; Koc and Dahlberg, 1999).
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