44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 16, 2022 10:00AM
- Jun/16/22 6:46:08 p.m.
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moved:That this committee take note of global food insecurity.
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- Jun/16/22 6:46:08 p.m.
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Madam Chair, first of all, I want to acknowledge all the firefighters who were here today and thank them for their sacrifice.
Vladimir Putin's unwarranted invasion of Ukraine has triggered the largest shock to the global food system in the past 12 years. It has caused global food prices to rise over 30% since January of this year, and over 60% since the beginning of the pandemic.
Just last month, when I was in South Sudan, I met with some of the people who are being directly impacted by the rise in prices, with over 75% of South Sudan facing severe food insecurity.
The World Food Programme estimates that an all-time high of up to 49 million people in 46 countries could be at risk of falling into famine or famine-like conditions in 2022. The humanitarian situation in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries, as well as the global food security crisis, are top priorities for me and our government. We continue to work closely with our allies and key international partners to respond effectively to this rapidly evolving, multi-faceted crisis.
Over the past weeks and months, I have spoken with my G7 counterparts, UN officials and the head of the World Food Programme to see what more we can do to help. We have been acting to support the most vulnerable during these unprecedented times.
In the Sahel, in April, I announced over $82 million to support United Nations agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and non-governmental organizations in their work to address acute malnutrition and food insecurity.
In the Horn of Africa, I announced $73 million for gender-responsive humanitarian and development assistance to meet the needs of people in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia to respond to the severe drought conditions that could result in over 20 million people across the region needing emergency food assistance in 2022.
In Syria and the neighbouring countries like Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey, we are seeing refugees fleeing from conflict who need additional support, including food assistance, which is why we announced over $169 million in humanitarian funding to help people meet their basic needs.
In Yemen, where years of conflict have caused the suffering of so many people, especially women and children, who bear the brunt of the crisis, we announced over $62 million to provide life-saving food and support for health care, clean water and sanitation.
We know that Canada cannot be an island of stability in an ocean of turmoil. Eventually, the ripples of conflict will reach our shores. We know too well that food insecurity and conflict are part of a vicious cycle. People who are desperate make desperate choices to feed their families, with poverty and food insecurity leading to political unrest and social tensions, and fuelling conflict.
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, we have seen public demonstrations in many places, which have left us concerned about the risk of broader social unrest. Citizens are taking to the streets, protesting against the rapidly increasing food and fuel prices. These strikes and protests are happening against the backdrop of continuous conflicts and violence driving acute food insecurity in countries like Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
It is why we have been taking action and will continue to take action on food insecurity, because, at the end of the day, international assistance is conflict prevention.
As we speak today, millions of people cannot meet their basic needs for food and clean water, with women and children most severely impacted. It is why our feminist international assistance policy looks at the unique challenges that women and girls face. Women's involvement is essential in order to find long-lasting solutions for all. Our focus on the nexus between conflict and food security must be done with a clear understanding of gender dynamics and support of women as positive agents of change.
Given the rapid rise in food insecurity, especially among women and girls, we must respond to the immediate humanitarian needs while simultaneously supporting the resilience of vulnerable families and communities. This means investing in agriculture and food systems. While I was in South Sudan, I met with women farmers who were working on innovative, sustainable solutions for agriculture, feeding not only themselves and their families, but their communities, the surrounding regions and their country.
We are working to urgently implement long-term solutions, solutions that promote sustainable peace and break the vicious cycle of poverty, hunger and conflict.
Against this backdrop of large-scale challenges, we have been working with our partners in the G7, with multilateral organizations like the World Food Programme, UNICEF and UNHCR, and with non-governmental organizations like the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Save the Children and Nutrition International, so that we can make sure that we have a coordinated and effective response to this challenge.
We are already mounting a considered and comprehensive response to respond effectively to the growing food security needs. We are already providing over $514 million in humanitarian assistance in response to the global food crisis to address growing emergency needs, both in Ukraine and in more than 40 developing countries most affected by this crisis. Our funding is supporting activities such as the provision of emergency cash, vouchers and in-kind food assistance, as well as effective nutrition intervention.
In addition to providing emergency life-saving humanitarian assistance, Canada is also committed to addressing the root causes of food insecurity. Through development assistance, we work to support the resilience of agriculture in vulnerable countries impacted by the global food crisis. In the last fiscal year, Canada provided over $547 million to support the resilience of agriculture and food systems in developing countries.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Canada has provided over $125 million to the African Development Bank to support small and medium-sized agri-businesses in Africa, and to the International Fund for Agricultural Development to support climate-smart agriculture in rural communities located in developing countries.
We are also doubling our investments in the Agricultural Market Information System, and we will work in close collaboration with partners to look into expanding it to monitor the fertilizer crisis. We believe that advocating for market transparency is crucial to keeping prices down, stabilizing price volatility and ultimately reducing poverty and food insecurity for the poorest and most vulnerable people who struggle to access food.
Canada will continue to provide both humanitarian and development assistance in response to this evolving crisis. We must stand in solidarity with Ukraine and those affected by this war. We must stand in solidarity with countries and communities in the developing world that are now facing the pressing food security crisis triggered by Vladimir Putin's unnecessary and inhumane war. We must strengthen the weaknesses in agriculture and food systems globally, in partnership with nations that need assistance. I also look forward to working with Canadian NGOs in matching and enhancing their efforts.
We must act urgently to address the immediate needs in this food insecurity crisis.
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- Jun/16/22 6:57:15 p.m.
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Madam Chair, as I stated, the grain is not allowed to leave the ports because of Vladimir Putin's war. His choice right now not to allow it to leave is creating a significant problem.
We are working with our European partners and looking at how we can get the grain out, but even by using alternative methods, we would not be able to get enough out. We need to get the ports open. I know there is active work taking place. I was talking to David Beasley, the head of the World Food Programme. I know that the Secretary-General of the UN is also in negotiations and that work continues.
I would like to say I am hopeful, but I will be honest that from what we have seen from Vladimir Putin, we cannot count on that. We will continue to work as hard as we can.
We are also looking at temporary grain storage and what support we can provide so that we can have that storage. That way the new harvest can also be stored so that when the grain can come out, we can eventually get it out. We are looking at all options.
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- Jun/16/22 6:58:28 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am really concerned about the situation where food and hunger are being used as a chip in Putin's war against the people of Ukraine, and now the world. It speaks to a larger destabilization that is happening. We are just learning about the Colorado River. With 80% of it going to agriculture, it feeds 40 million people, and the climate crisis in the southwest is now going to have severe impacts on agriculture. We depend on that agriculture as well. We have Putin blocking the ports, using food as a hunger weapon, and we can see increasing destabilization from climate change.
I want to ask the minister what steps Canada will be taking in the long term to ensure food security and to ensure that we can actually respond to this destabilizing global reality that we are living in 2022.
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- Jun/16/22 7:01:53 p.m.
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Madam Chair, anyone who has read about the history of conflict knows that a lot of the conflicts have started because of the lack of food. If we just look at the Syrian crisis, we see that it was because of food prices increasing that protests took place in Syria, and the Assad regime went extremely hard on the population when the uprising started. Right now we have to be very mindful, from previous experience, to look at the touchpoints where food insecurity is taking place.
We are coordinating our approach so that we can make sure we are showing support, but it is absolutely vital, not just within Canada but also in the international community, that we send a strong message to the global south, which is dealing with this crisis, that we will be there for them while we deal with the crisis in Ukraine.
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- Jun/16/22 7:03:23 p.m.
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Madam Chair, this is exactly what we are doing now. In addition to providing direct support, we are looking at the systems that we have put in place. A lot of investments have already been made. I visited a research lab in Nairobi that is looking at drought-resistant seeds and fertilizers, so there are a lot of things that we can leverage.
We need to look at nations that have the ability to increase their food production. Right now, our department is working on a plan in collaboration with some of our partners within the G7 and the United Nations. This is exactly what we need to do. We need to change the dynamics of how we look at a long-term solution so that we do not rely on the traditional supply chain systems for food.
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- Jun/16/22 7:16:25 p.m.
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Madam Chair, this is a very important debate, and I am glad to see people in the House contributing to it.
One of the big issues I have is that, in foreign affairs and international development, Canada has not contributed its fair share of food security funding for a long time. Right now, we are set at $250 million a year. That is about where we have been through past Conservative and Liberal governments. One of the things the sector is asking for is that food aid be indexed to the price of food so that when it goes up, our contribution goes up.
I am wondering if the member believes that indexing our commitments for food security would be appropriate.
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- Jun/16/22 7:17:13 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I had the honour of travelling to Guatemala a couple of years ago before COVID with the World Foodgrains Bank. What is really impressive with programs such as that is that it is not necessarily always about the money. It is about going to those communities and teaching them how to grow their own food, providing them with the assets, resources and technology they need to grow their own food and become self-sustaining.
To my colleague's question, I absolutely believe that Canada has a pivotal role to play in financial commitments to food security around the world, but rather than indexing that or hitching it to something, it is more important that we leverage those federal dollars with the private sector and NGOs to make those countries more self-sustaining.
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- Jun/16/22 7:20:01 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I know my colleague is very well versed in this field. When the cost of everything is going up, including the cost of fertilizer for farmers, and there is less fertilizer because of the war in Russia and Ukraine, what is going to happen of course is that people and farmers are going to need to start making choices. Those farmers could make the choice to not put fertilizer on their land because it is too expensive. Could the member please explain to us what the reduction in food production on that land would be with less fertilizer being used?
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- Jun/16/22 7:21:44 p.m.
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Madam Chair, could the member share with the House how important it is to see the issues of global food security and energy security and how closely tied together they are, and especially the ways Canada could help address both of those absolutely essential elements of our world's economy?
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- Jun/16/22 7:31:28 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I appreciate that we are able to have this discussion tonight on the importance of global food security.
Certainly, one of the things that my constituents often bring to my attention is the close connection between food security and energy security. This is no more evident than in Ukraine. Those issues are closely connected, even just the industrial connection between modern agriculture and the energy industry, natural gas, for example, being required for the production of nitrogen-based fertilizer.
I would value hearing the thoughts of my colleague from the Bloc on how we can ensure that Canada plays a productive role in both solving the food insecurity challenges that exist, but also being a primary player in global energy security.
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- Jun/16/22 7:41:35 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I have to say I am absolutely delighted that we are having this debate today and that we have the opportunity to speak about this issue. I firmly believe that the food security crisis that is facing the global community is one of the most pressing issues affecting the world right now. I am going to speak about the impacts of Ukraine on this issue, but I want to start by saying that where we find ourselves today is not just a result of what has happened in Ukraine. In fact, before the war in Ukraine and before February 24, there was a food security crisis on the planet.
Before COVID, food insecurity was increasing significantly. During COVID, those numbers jumped massively, to the point where we had hundreds of millions of people around the world who were food-insecure. Then, the war in Ukraine happened. Two weeks ago, Russia destroyed a major grain warehouse in the city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine. The terminal plays a crucial role in getting grain out of Ukraine into the global market. Many people in North Africa and many people across the Middle East, which some people will describe as the “ring of fire”, are very dependent on the grain that comes from Russia and Ukraine. That major grain export warehouse was the hub for moving those grains around, so the conflict in Ukraine is making what was a very dire situation around the world in terms of food security much worse.
I have heard in the House tonight some talk about how we need to make sure that we give people the tools to produce their own food. I absolutely agree with that, but this is not an issue of giving people tools so they can access their own food. This is the fact that we have an emergency and crisis where there is no food going into these regions. People are urgently at risk of starving to death. This is the reality we are in. The reality is not that we should figure out how to get fertilizer to Canada. That is a different issue. This is not a reality of “we should figure out how to make sure that our development dollars are more effective”. That is a different issue.
What we are dealing with right now is an urgent food crisis where people around the world, in Afghanistan, Lebanon and North Africa, are going to die because they do not have enough food. It is a different conversation that we need to be having in this place right now. I understand the desire to talk about a whole bunch of different things, like the price of oil and gas or the issues that farmers in western Canada are facing. I come from western Canada, and I understand that, but this debate needs to be on the lives of the millions of food-insecure people around the world who will die if the global community does not step up and deal with this.
I want to talk about the implications of that a little. What we are seeing with Vladimir Putin is a madman who has no interest in caring for people around the world. He knows exactly what he is doing when he stops food and crops from leaving Ukraine. He is causing and sowing mayhem in other countries.
Members know what happens when there is not enough food: There is conflict. That happens. People go to war if they cannot feed themselves and if they cannot feed their families. What a perfect way for Vladimir Putin to make the west blink: to make the west divert its attention from Ukraine by having conflict in North Africa, Afghanistan and the Middle East. It is a perfect plan if western countries and the globe do not come together and respond appropriately.
I have to tell members that we have some very clear solutions. We have heard from experts. I will quote until the end of time one of my very favourite people in the entire world, Mr. David Beasley, who is from the World Food Programme and who incidentally has asked time and again to have food security commitments from this country be indexed to the price of food. That is a very clear ask from the World Food Programme. I hope people in this place are listening when I say that this is something the community has asked for. It is something that specialists and Nobel Prize-winning organizations have asked for.
I also want to mention some of the other things we can do. I think it would be irresponsible to come to this and talk about the people who are starving around the world and not provide those solutions, those options, of what Canada can and should do, because there are options here. The next G7 meeting will be happening in Germany in a few weeks' time. The NATO summit is in Madrid, and will take place at the end of June. The Government of Canada can ensure that the global food crisis is on the agenda at those meetings and Parliament can ensure that this happens. We can make sure there is pressure we are putting on our government. We can ensure that famine prevention and response are a core part of the 2022 G7 agenda and at other global forums such as the G20, as well as in the discussions ongoing with the World Bank and the IMF. We can make sure that food security is on those agendas.
Canada right now should be pledging $600 million toward food security around the world. That is the ask, and this urgent pledge needs to happen and be announced very quickly. That $600 million needs to be spent fast. It needs not just to be promised. I do not want a minister to stand up and promise these dollars and not deliver them for weeks at a time. This needs to happen very quickly. This is an urgent need. This money cannot come from other pots. It cannot be money that was devoted to women and girls or to humanitarian aid in Ukraine. It has to be money that is used for food security.
I will say as well that Canada needs to up its game on food security in the long run. I have mentioned in this place before that we give $250 million a year. We are not providing our fair share of food security money to the global community. We need to up that to at least $400 million a year, and it needs to be an annual commitment. It needs to be something Canada stands for. If we are a country that believes in human rights, that believes in women's rights and that has a feminist foreign policy, that is something Canada can do and needs to do right now.
I will tie this very quickly to our responses with respect to Ukraine. We have heard from members of the government and the opposition that there needs to be more commitment to defence spending with NATO. The call has been to ask for 2% of spending for NATO. Do members know what we spend on humanitarian aid in this country? It is 0.3%. What we are saying is that as a country that believes in human rights, in multilateralism and in global solutions to global problems, we are prepared to spend 2% on defence spending and get nowhere near that in humanitarian aid or in official development assistance. We just have that as a fraction. I look around the world and see places like Denmark, which spends 2% on NATO. That is great. It also spends the promised 0.7% on ODA. It also meets its commitments in humanitarian aid. I would say if we are going to raise one we cannot not raise the other because it means that we do not believe in people. It means that we are not supportive of that.
I know I am running out of time. I am going to quote David Beasley from the UN World Food Programme one more time. He came to the foreign affairs committee and told us that Canada and other developed countries have an option. We have a choice. We can pay right now, or we can pay a thousand times more if we wait. That is only in dollars. That is not in human lives, that is not in human suffering and that is not what Canada should be doing.
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- Jun/16/22 8:07:15 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, would my colleague agree with the statement that world hunger is being induced by two causes? The one we think of right now is the lack of availability of food and the situation in Ukraine causing or exacerbating that, but the second thing that is causing hunger around the world, particularly in the global south, is simply the cost of food. It is becoming unaffordable in so many places.
I wonder if he has a comment on that dynamic.
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- Jun/16/22 8:20:22 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, a few moments ago, I was speaking about the importance of teaching a person to fish. I used to live in the near-northern town of Fermont, which did not have road access until 1984. I know and remember very well how expensive food can be, such as a $15 salad. Even a $25 million investment to help communities even farther north than Fermont, which is after all only on the 52nd parallel, is a band-aid solution.
What steps does the government plan to take and what measures will it implement in order to help communities access reasonably priced, healthy food?
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- Jun/16/22 8:23:05 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Regina—Lewvan.
I wish I were speaking more about Canadian food security this evening than speaking about global food insecurity.
Prior to being elected, I farmed for most of my life. I have spent a lot of time in agricultural organizations and I also worked with an internationally focused NGO. It has been mentioned here tonight, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, which deals with hunger, and so, with that background, I have spent a lot of time working for food and talking and thinking about it.
If I had to title my remarks today, I would title them with the axiom that we hear at the farm, “nothing cures high prices like high prices”, and its corollary, “nothing cures low prices like low prices”. Ag pundits often cite this expression when they are talking describing volatile agricultural markets, but we might ask ourselves what this has to do with global food insecurity and why should Canadians care.
Embedded in that expression actually lies one of the solutions to this crisis that we are facing, albeit it is a bit more of a longer-term solution, but respecting and understanding market dynamics is something we all need to collectively do. This works if governments and we collectively respect how markets work. High prices of anything, food and any product, encourage more production and increase supply. Low prices encourage demand and eventually high prices. I will come back to this in a moment but with the corollary that governments understand this dynamic.
Let me speak for a second to why Canadians should care. Obviously, we are all experiencing increasing grocery prices and grocery food. Canada is a rich country. On average, we spend about 10% of our disposable income on the cost of food, which is much lower than in many parts of the world. However, the vulnerable in our own society feel the brunt more than many of us.
We know that many problems do not respect international borders. We are dealing with greenhouse gases and climate. That does not respect the border. As we have learned, travel mandates and things like that have not slowed the spread of COVID-19. So too the effects of global hunger in other parts of the world will affect us.
I am reminded that World War II was not declared in 1939 when Hitler crossed boundaries into Poland and Czechoslovakia. World War II came from a conflation of various regional conflicts. Whenever in any part of the world a population's average caloric daily intake falls below 1,800 calories, there is civil unrest, food riots, hunger, all sorts of other problems. Let us think back to the Arab Spring.
It is important to put a few stats on the record. Global food hunger was actually decreasing through 2014. It has been mentioned that conflict around the world has actually been driving those numbers up. It was down to under 600 million people. The latest figures put it at over 800 million, with 50 million people actually facing acute starvation. There are two issues. As I mentioned in a question earlier, the price and availability of food require both short-term and longer-term responses.
To address food instability, food needs to be available. My former employer worked in this space. Certainly, in a short-term response, we do need to supply cash. The Canada Foodgrains Bank led Canada to delinking our food aid back in 2008, which is a good thing, but what we need to do far more is to drive the cost of food down as well.
For that, our Canadian agriculture needs all of the tools at its disposal, certainly fertilizer and access to fertilizer. Restrictions on the use needs to be balanced with our environmental responsibility, but we cannot be putting policies in place today that impact Canadians' ability to produce food.
The carbon tax has been talked about as well. As I said, high prices cure high prices. More supply is attracted by high prices. For the world's poor, we absolutely need to put more food onto the market, which will lower the cost, which is the second possibility.
Let us put our collective efforts toward those aims.
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- Jun/16/22 8:28:14 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, as my hon. colleague from Chatham-Kent—Leamington mentioned, he has ties to Ukraine. We heard him contribute in a very meaningful way on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.
I want to ask him a couple of things. He highlighted very precisely what the challenge is in vulnerable countries and the geopolitical dynamic that could come from that, and I applaud that because it is spot on. We heard in Kharkiv, which is where the plant-breeding research station is in Ukraine, was targeted directly by the Russian Federation. We heard from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that it is going to try to salvage some of the varieties that are there.
I am of the view Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada can work constructively to help rebuild some of the varieties where there might be some common overlap. Does he believe that would be a constructive solution the government can work on, and will he constructively raise that to help push the government to work in that domain?
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- Jun/16/22 8:30:12 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I would like my colleague to elaborate on those examples and tell us how our own expertise can support and develop production in developing countries that are facing food shortages.
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- Jun/16/22 8:41:23 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I am going to bring this back to the global food crisis. I know there has been a lot of discussion about farmers in western Canada, but really what we are talking about is the global food crisis.
I want to let the member know that right now we are facing hunger that is generational in scope. There are 181 million people at risk of starving to death. In Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, one person is dying from hunger every 48 seconds, so this is pretty desperate. I wonder if the member could tell me what he thinks is an appropriate percentage the Canadian government should be spending on food security and support for international development.
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- Jun/16/22 8:48:08 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I appreciate the speech from the member opposite.
There is one big concern that I hear from constituents, many of whom are very involved in agriculture, not just locally but in global food production. They speak often about how frustrated they are with the government and the barriers that are being put up in terms of the role that Canada can play, both in addressing global food insecurity and in food production here at home. Both are very closely linked by things like the carbon tax and front-of-package labelling. It is ironic that we are having a debate about global food insecurity when the government here in Canada is pushing an agenda that would have devastating effects on the domestic food industry here, and I understand that the member has been a proponent of it.
What is the message that this is sending to the world about the role Canada has to play in global food security?
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- Jun/16/22 8:59:50 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am pleased to hear the investment amounts referred to by my colleague to help countries in Africa feed themselves, as well as the steps that are being taken to support small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises in those regions.
That said, I still fundamentally believe that money cannot be eaten. Even here at home, we are at high risk of seeing food shortages. What can we do right here to support not only our own agriculture, but also agriculture in developing countries that are having a very tough time?
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