An Evidence-Based Plan to Lower Food Costs

It may seem like an idealistic vision, but it is one that is, in fact, based on real-life policy examples from municipalities across Canada and around the world.

The plan starts with following Toronto's example of City-run grocery stores. Essentially, these are non-profit operations wherein all revenue goes toward maintaining operations rather than generating profit. By cutting out some of the middle-people, for example, food distributors, suppliers, retailers, and parts of the massive transportation network that gets food from places like California to Guelph- in addition to eliminating the profit motive, we'll immediately see lower costs.

Taking this one step further, we add in the federal government's $3B National Food Security Strategy. By accessing this investment, we can cut out even more middle-people because a large part of this strategy involves the introduction of "regional food hubs," where harvests from small-scale farmers can be consolidated in one central place to create the volume and supply needed for a grocery store operation. This will further lower costs and keep money circulating within our local community. Having something like this in the south end so that we don't have to travel all the way downtown to the Farmers' Market (which also only operates once a week) would be a godsend.

Another aspect of the National Food Security Strategy is the promotion of controlled-environment agriculture, or hydroponic technology, that can enable pesticide and fertilizer free growing year-round. When I started in this industry almost ten years ago, this technology was in its infancy and was only able to grow leafy greens. Now, it is common to see hydroponically grown strawberries in any grocery store, and the capacity continues to expand with each passing day. Federal investment in this technology, coupled with municipal support for its harvest, will usher in a new era of agriculture in Canada, where we can become much more food sovereign.

Alongside all of this are policies that can ban edible food waste (which I go into in detail in another article). Ultimately, what this does is prohibit grocery stores from throwing out edible food simply because it doesn't meet uniform expectations of a bruise-free, blemish-free product. Instead, they will be incentivized to lower the prices of these perfectly good items. The second part of this policy is that they are also prohibited from throwing any food into the garbage. What some grocery chains have been known to do when these policies are enacted is intentionally let these products rot so that they can then dispose of them. They are then sent to rapidly filling landfills, where they contribute to methane emissions. Instead, we can make it illegal for commercial chains to throw food into the garbage so that they must pay to have it composted. This generates revenue for our City while also producing nutrient-rich soil that can support local growers and farmers, who can purchase it at a much lower cost than imported soils, or even access it for free as is exampled in the neighbouring Waterloo Region.

As you can see, these are all realistic, feasible, and cost-effective strategies that can help lower the cost of food while supporting local people and economies, all at the same time as creating a circular food system that benefits both environmental and human health.