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Communal Food Security Defined

A community enjoys food security when all people, at all times, have access to nutritious, safe, personally acceptable and culturally appropriate foods, produced in ways that are environmentally sound and socially just.

The BC Food Systems Network defines food security as a situation in which:

1. everyone has assured access to adequate, appropriate and personally acceptable food in a way that does not damage self respect;
2. people are able to earn a living wage by growing, producing, processing, handling, retailing and serving food;
3. the quality of land, air and water are maintained and enhanced for future generations; and
4. food is celebrated as central to community and cultural integrity.

Food Secure Canada is committed to linking health, justice, environment and a real economy.

Health - Healthy and Safe Food

Good food is the basis of health. This means also that people in need of healing, whether in hospitals, care facilities, or remand centres, require healthy food, not the cheapest available. By the same token, children (our future) require the best possible food, starting with breastmilk.

Justice - Zero Hunger

The principles of democracy and equity require that good food is available to everyone, not just those who can afford to pay for it. Nor is it acceptable that BC's food policy is based on the exploitation of people or the environment in other countries.

Economy - Sustainable Food Systems

Without food production, there is no economy. Full cost-accounting reveals the costs as well as the risks of a food system which is dependent on outside sources, long-distance movement of food, high-input agriculture, and poor population health. Food dependency holds political as well as economic dangers: any jurisdiction which cannot feed its people is at the mercy of whoever does.

Food Sovereignty

The language of food sovereignty is explicit about food citizenship: that people, communities, assume responsibility in maintaining healthy relationships within our food systems. Food sovereignty includes Indigenous peoples as teachers of food systems that have been sustainable for thousands of years. Indigenous food sovereignty understands food as sacred, part of the web of relationships with the natural world that define culture and community.

Food sovereignty also puts us in a global context, since we know that neither climate nor justice pay much attention to national boundaries.