100 Sisters on Security: Food Security and the Agricultural Sector

Thanksgiving in Canada usually marks the beginning of the holiday season, but this year's festivities are accompanied with a level of anxiety, as food banks across the country note an unprecedented level of need. Toronto's Daily Bread saw 4 times as many clients last month as they did prior to COVID, and the numbers supported by Greater Vancouver Food Bank have tripled. Meanwhile, the numbers from Les Banques alimentaires du Québec show an increase of 33% in its clientele since 2019.

Food security is a major concern as the winter hits and many families go hungry. Food prices, housing costs and basic expenditures have skyrocketed, leaving many in our society extremely vulnerable. As temperatures continue to drop and Canada braces for icy cold weather, women will be more disproportionately impacted by food insecurity.

In this edition of our 100 Sisters on Security series, Saskatchewan Green Party leader and haskap berry farmer Naomi Hunter speaks to us on being a woman in the agricultural industry and the issue of food poverty.

"I can remember as a single mom, sending my kids to go visit their dad and I would choose to eat one meal a day, and make it soup for the two days that my kids were gone, so that I could save food to make sure that my kids have enough to eat. So women will make choices like that, in cases of food insecurity, when times are tight, they tend to always look to their families, and looking after their families first, and they will let their own health suffer if need be."

Ms. Hunter also speaks about labour trafficking in the agriculture sector. Migrant workers make up a large percentage of the farming work force in Canada, and with the recent impacts of COVID and the climate crisis on our food supply, the work conditions of temporary foreign workers need to be carefully considered. While farms and greenhouses are categorized as essential worksites in Canada, the work and living environment of migrant farmers has often proven to be harsh, unforgiving, and even inhumane. Undoubtedly, more needs to be done in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to support and assist these important contributors to Canada's food security.

"It's an incredibly corrupt program. There is no guarantee when people are brought out from that program that they will receive permit residency. It's basically slave labour. People are importing workers to help and then there's no guarantee that these people get to stay in Canada. It's...it's just horrific, like it disobeys all of the normal rules of immigrants."

Watch this episode to learn more about Ms. Hunter's experiences as she speaks of being a woman running a farm, her personal anecdotes of farms involved in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, the ways that food insecurity impact women, and how the climate crisis has irrevocably transformed the farming industry. Ms. Hunter's detailed account is impassioned, informative, and needs to be shared to gain a better understanding of how food is affected by so many different challenges facing the world today.

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Joannou, A., & MacDonald, T. (2023, October 8). Food bank use in Canada soaring ahead of Thanksgiving. CP24. Retrieved October 25, 2023, from https://www.cp24.com/news/most-challenging-thanksgiving-long-weekend-marked-with-soaring-food-bank-use-1.6593761

Vosko, L. F., Basok, T., Spring, C., Candiz, G., & George, G. (2022). Understanding Migrant Farmworkers’ Health and Well-Being during the Global COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada: Toward a Transnational Conceptualization of Employment Strain. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(14), 8574. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148574