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By Alice McFarlane

Food Freedom Day

Inflation causes Food Freedom Day to be delayed compared to last year

Feb 9, 2023 | 3:40 PM

MELFORT, Sask. – This is Food Freedom Day.

Each year the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) calculates the date when a Canadian household of average income will have earned enough to pay for their entire year’s grocery bill.

CFA examines the proportion of income that Canadians spend on food as a way to explore year-over-year expenditure changes and raise consumers’ understanding of Canada’s food system, from Farm-Gate-to-Plate.

Canadians spent 11 per cent of their disposable income on food last year, which is slightly higher than the 10.7 per cent spent on food in 2021. That makes Food Freedom Day one day later in 2022.

CFA President Mary Robinson said having this event fall a day later will likely come as no surprise.

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“With food prices rising consistently and more quickly than overall inflation, we cannot ignore the challenges that many Canadians are facing when it comes to food affordability,” Robinson said. “While our food costs are low when compared to global standards, Canadians are seeing their disposable incomes shrink as it is taken up by the increasing costs of essential products.”

Robinson said for many Canadians, the Food Freedom Day metric does not portray the experiences and struggles with rising food prices. Due to this, CFA took a closer look at the incomes of Canadian households.

There is a large difference between how much disposable income households with the lowest income and the highest income spent on food and beverages throughout the year. Lower-income Canadian households are facing a heavier burden when it comes to rising food costs.

While Canadians have seen food prices increase steadily throughout 2022 on the grocery shelves, farmers receive a small percentage of the price that consumers pay for food, and rising retail prices are not normally reflective of what is paid at the farm gate.

Farmers have seen their costs of production increase tremendously over the past two years, with many of their largest expenses, such as fertilizer and diesel, rising nearly 100 per cent in that period, according to Robinson.

While Canada’s food system provides access to affordable food by global standards, inflation, global events, and supply issues have led to sharp rises in price for food and other essential products, cutting into every Canadian’s disposable income.

“It is only through investing in resilience throughout our entire food supply chain that we can create a system less vulnerable to disruption that can provide Canadians affordable food even in the face of global supply chain disruptions,” she said.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW