See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source 

World Food Day falls on Friday, Oct.16. For Canada, the occasion exposes an uncomfortable contradiction. We are an agricultural powerhouse, with productive farms, extensive trade networks and internationally respected research. Yet millions of Canadians struggle to afford the food our economy helps produce.

CHARLEBOIS: Canada — food powerhouse with empty plates Back to video

The latest global agri-food benchmarking from MNP and Dalhousie University places Canada seventh among the G20 countries assessed. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reports that 24% of Canadians lived in households experiencing some form of food insecurity in 2024. Agricultural influence clearly does not guarantee affordable meals at home.

How can a wealthy food-producing country tolerate such widespread financial difficulty around something as fundamental as eating?

Answering that question requires looking beyond grocery prices. Food affordability depends on what households earn, what governments transfer and tax, and what remains after other expenses. The grocery receipt captures only one part of a much larger household-budget problem.

Calculations reveal pressures

Our calculations, using 2015 as a baseline, reveal two distinct pressures.

Among households in the lowest income quintile, average disposable income increased by 43.4% between 2015 and 2025. Grocery prices increased by 37%. On this comparison alone, the lowest-income households appear to have........

© Edmonton Sun