Canadians are facing some complicated choices when they visit their local grocery store.
Do you buy the organically grown fruit that was shipped in from halfway around the world, or the unlabeled produce from a farm in the Okanagan? Was that bag of coffee produced by a farmer in return for a fair price? What are the climate impacts of the food choices that we make?
Canada’s leading environmental organizations released their call to action this week, Tomorrow Today: How Canada can make a world of difference. One key recommendation from the report was for mandatory labeling of our food by 2010. The labels would provide information on nutrition, country of origin, fair-trade, and organic standards to help Canadians make informed decisions when they buy their food.
Another suggestion is to amend Canada’s Food Guide to give information about the climate impacts of food choices. Our food choices affect the environment.
Buying local, organic food whenever possible is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint – and your taste buds could be very thankful.
The David Suzuki Foundation has some more great tips for eating healthy food that is safer for the environment. Check them out here!
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Jonathon Narvey is Principal consultant at WRITEIMAGE
He blogs about politics and life in Vancouver at Currents
Strawberry photo by StuckInCustoms
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jo-ann k
What good is more labeling? Stuff that is 50% packaged here in Canada but comes from something else is marked Canada - coffee, shrimp, strawberries in Feb marked Canadian? Last time I checked we don't grow coffee, or raise shrimp or have strawberries growing anywhere in Canada in February. I really don't think my government is going to do anything soon about labeling foods we eat. I buy local when I can.
lora bruncke
Phone or visit your government reps and get to know them!
Then they will understand you have legitimate concerns.
We could also go to our store managers and ask them to set up a 'local' tag like they already have 'organic'.
Then we can see if we are putting our money and science into local products, like we should. Sending produce around the globe for pennies is surely stealing!