Closing the loop on Canada's National Food Policy: A food waste agenda

Authors

  • Tammara Soma University of Toronto Department of Geography and Planning/ Food Systems Lab

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.314

Keywords:

food waste, food policy, Canada

Abstract

In the near future, Canada will be implementing a national food policy; in doing so, it will be joining a growing number of countries with policies and strategies that address the growing problem of food waste. Food waste is a major economic drain estimated to cost Canada $31 billion dollars annually or $107 billion in true cost, when the costs of wasted water, energy, and resources are included (Gooch & Felfel, 2014). Despite the staggering cost, there is currently a limited number of scholars tackling the issue of food waste in Canada (Abdulla, Martin, Gooch, & Jovel, 2013; MacRae et al., 2016; Parizeau, von Massow, & Martin, 2015). Some of the leading think tanks and research institutions, such as the World Resources Institute (WRI), National Defence Research Council (NRDC), as well as inter-sectoral collaboratives such as Canada’s National Zero Waste Council (NZWC) have identified several priorities to address food waste. Key priorities include, but are not limited to: 1) education and awareness; 2) harmonizing food waste quantification through waste audits and establishing reduction targets; 3) addressing confusion over “best before” labels; 4) incentivizing surplus food donation; and 5) landfill bans on food waste. While these priorities are currently being debated and consulted upon in Canada, several countries around the world have already reached the implementation stage. Canada is therefore in a position to learn from the impacts of policies in other countries with a view to developing a more sustainable, systematic, and just approach to food waste prevention and reduction in Canada.

 

Author Biography

Tammara Soma, University of Toronto Department of Geography and Planning/ Food Systems Lab

Tammara Soma Ph.D (Planning) is a food systems expert with extensive knowledge of food policy, food waste and food security in both Canada and Indonesia. She is the Co-Founder of the Food Systems Lab and the International Food Loss and Waste Studies Group. She is a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholar.
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Published

2018-09-30

How to Cite

Soma, T. (2018). Closing the loop on Canada’s National Food Policy: A food waste agenda. Canadian Food Studies La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur l’alimentation, 5(3), 273–278. https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.314

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 3 (2018): Special issue: Building an integrated Food Policy for Canada

Section

Commentaries

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