The Canadian Food Sentiment Index: October 2024, released Oct. 10, is based on responses from more than 3,000 Canadians.

Food prices have increased 27 per cent since 2019, the report said, and 84 per cent of respondents cited food as the expense that has surged the most in the past year. Nearly half — 48.2 per cent — reported that they look for more sales and discounts, while also using coupons, shopping at less expensive stores and switching to generic brands.

Twenty-two per cent of respondents said they are buying fewer non-essential foods, such as ice cream, and opt for bulk or staple foods like pasta and beans.

Food spending per capita has had a modest increase. A notable spike in food spending occurred at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but expenditures have since stabilized at just above pre-pandemic levels, report authors noted.

Restaurant spending took a hit during the pandemic, dropping to less than $40 per capita in early 2020 due to pandemic-related closures and restrictions.

Food insecurity is a growing challenge, especially among younger Canadians, according to the report. Nearly half of Generation Z — 46 per cent — reported drawing from savings or borrowing money to afford groceries, the highest percentage among all age groups. Only 13 per cent of the oldest generation — those born before 1946 — said they needed financial help for food.

Some 47.3 percent of respondents said affordability was their main concern. Nutrition, at 24.9 per cent, and taste, at 16.7 per cent, also scored highly.

Many respondents said they check nutritional labels, opt for local foods and take steps to reduce food waste.

Farmers were the most trusted choice when respondents were asked about trust in the Canadian food industry, with a score of 3.69 out of five. They were closely followed by Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

In contrast, major grocery chains received the lowest trust scores. The report also showed that most Canadians believe food prices are rising faster than government estimates. Over 54 per cent of respondents said they perceived food inflation to be higher than official reports.

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According to provincial licence data interpreted by CBC, Albertans can expect 68 per cent of all water allocations in 2024 to be dedicated to agriculture; far ahead of industrial (22 per cent) and municipal (seven per cent) categories.

For the time being, Alberta consumers seem fine with that, says an agricultural economist with the University of Alberta.

However, if at some point consumers have to make personal sacrifices, would they change their consumption patterns and chose food requiring less water to grow? Would there be blowback against food produced under irrigation?

Ellen Goddard says there is limited research on the topic and a record of support for agriculture among Alberta consumers.

But that doesn’t mean the industry should be complacent. Many consumers are more aware of the water footprint of growing crops and cattle than they’re given credit for, Goddard adds.

“Are there concerns about water availability? Absolutely. Are people conscious of the fact that certain foods contain more water than other foods or require more water to grow than other foods? Absolutely.”

The best bet would be for the ag industry, and its irrigation sector in particular, to publicize the benefits of irrigation before consumers are directly affected by water shortages, she says.

“(Consumers) are very concerned about what affects them individually.

“If you explained to them that irrigation water was allowing more food to be produced and was keeping food prices down, I think that would be a pretty compelling story for most people.”

Albertans have a long history of supporting agriculture in the province. Goddard points to farm programs and the BSE crisis as examples.

“I’ve had a very long career and over my career I’ve asked the public hundreds of times about different types of farm programs. And people are very supportive of the idea of public support for farmers.”

She’s optimistic that consumer support for agriculture in Alberta will continue, lending farmers social licence to use the water they need to grow crops and livestock.

“If it came down to making something of a sacrifice so that there could be water for farmers, I’m convinced that would be supported, from everything I’ve ever done in terms of research,” says Goddard.

It might also be useful for producers, where feasible, to examine market opportunities for low water footprint foods. According to foodprint.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to research and education on food production practices, foods with smaller water footprints include fruits, vegetables, grains, beans and lentils.

Goddard points to a 760-participant survey in California in 2017 that illustrates the opportunities and limits involved in producing such foods.

Conducted by the Universities of Alberta, Delaware and Windsor, the survey asked participants if they were willing to pay more for food with a low water footprint during a drought. The answer was yes, but there appeared to be a cap on how much.

Results indicated an “implied positive willingness” to pay for water efficiency of about 12 cents for each gallon of water saved in the production of food.

The researchers went back to respondents and told them the severity of the theoretical drought had increased. Although willingness to pay for low water footprint foods increased, the margin wasn’t statistically significant.

Surveys conducted in relatively prosperous times are one thing, but how people would actually react to water scarcity is another, notes Goddard. As well, people in provinces without high irrigation use may have different ideas about food that requires lots of water.

Water is the most important environmental pillar to Canadians, says Goddard. According to her own unpublished research, 49 per cent of Canadian respondents in 2023 ranked water as most important in terms of sustainability of natural resources.

“I have some stuff I have done over time about how Canadians define sustainability and it surprised me that so many Canadians define water as one of the more pressing environmental concerns.”

Complicating matters is minimal research on how Canadians, North Americans and Europeans in general would change their food consumption behaviours if drinking and bathing water had to be rationed, says Goddard.

“If you’re actually facing water restrictions in your own life, how does that change your concerns about farming and food and all of those sorts of things? I couldn’t find a study that actually looked at that.

“The bulk of the research done in this area is done in developing countries where access to clean water is more restricted in the first place … I think it’s a problem and I think we need to look at it.”

A 2022 survey conducted by Goddard in Canada asked respondents how much more they would pay for beef if it was produced more sustainably.

“The people with strong environmental attitudes and the people that identified water as one of their most pressing concerns were far more likely to say they would pay more for beef,” she says.

“They personally think water is very important and when it comes to beef production they’re willing to pay more if it’s more sustainable, which in their minds also includes water.”

However, when Goddard repeated the survey in 2023, respondents facing inflationary pressure in the grocery aisles weren’t quite as definitive.

She can’t determine whether inflation and high interest rates contributed to a softer position, but intends to find out through further research.

“With earlier years, I can get a very direct connection between their concerns about water quality and quantity available as being something they recognize is going to trigger higher beef prices.”

However, Goddard suspects that if people had the choice to divert water away from irrigation and toward industrial uses such as mining, irrigation would undoubtedly win.

“They understand that irrigation is for farming. If you ask them to rank mining or this or that or the other thing, they would probably say ‘shut off the water to some of those other uses before you do irrigation, even if I can’t water my lawn’.”

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The Forces Impacting Animal Agriculture In Canada: A Synthesis report delves into the issues surrounding cattle, dairy and poultry production in the country and how they are interconnected within various factors in day-to-day life.

Al Mussell, CAPI’s director of research, said the report draws from a lengthy technical report. Both that report and the synthesis document conclude that animal agriculture is important, though its economic impact may not be so clear to the less informed.

“It makes the point, and really drives home, that animal agriculture is extremely important in Canada. It’s extremely important from an economic growth perspective but it is particularly important regionally in rural areas that otherwise would not have the same levels of employment, levels of income in local communities,” said Mussell.

It’s also an industry built on use of farming byproducts to increase the value of animals.

The report notes that Canada has some of the lowest carbon dioxide emissions from production of pork and beef, lower than those in Western Europe, South America and Australia.

As well, it highlights that farmers are the most trusted people in the Canadian food system and that animal agriculture produces $90 billion in sales, 164,000 direct jobs and roughly two-and-a-half times that in indirect jobs.

Animal agriculture provides options to farmers whose crops are lost to hail, drought or other factors, and it enhances pasture lands through grazing.

Mussell said such points can get lost in the complexity of the agricultural food production system.

“The motivation for writing this report, this major initiative on our part, comes out of the concern there are quite a number of people who need to be involved in decisions that relate to animal agriculture but don’t bring particular expertise to it,” said Mussell.

“Those people are in a difficult spot because there is always a tendency to fall into a subset of isolated facts that might take you in a particular direction when in fact this is a much more complicated type of a system.”

The report is designed to provide perspective to decision makers by offering a balanced understanding of the value of animal agriculture and its importance to many communities.

“In Canada, we have an excellent animal agriculture system,” Mussell said. “It’s not perfect. There are problems. There are challenges and they need supportive policy to make headway on those challenges.”

One is the continuously diminishing cattle inventory over the past two decades.

On the other side, the industry’s preservation and improvement of biodiversity through responsible grazing techniques might not be fully understood, Mussell said.

“You look at what we are able to do today to make better use of grasslands, lighten up the footprint of animal agriculture within that — pretty impressive and that’s over and above the basic conversion efficiency of animal agriculture.”

Conversion efficiency refers to land not suitable for crop production that would otherwise be unproductive if it were not used to feed livestock, said Mussell.

The report can be found on the CAPI website at capi-icpa.ca.

– Alex McCuaig is a reporter for The Western Producer.

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“Food costs have become an increasingly acute issue,” said the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity in a report on its 2023 public trust research.  

The organization released the report, which gives insights into Canadian’s thoughts and feelings about the country’s agri-food system, on Oct. 17. 

When asked which life issues they were most concerned about, 54 per cent flagged the cost of food as a top concern—up from 51 per cent last year, the report said.

Cost of food has been the top concern for five consecutive years. It’s the only issue of high concern among more than half of Canadians and sits six points above the next-highest concern—inflation. 

The affordability of healthy food was of high concern to 47 per cent of respondents, eight points higher than last year, and a “staggering” nineteen points higher compared to 2020, when 28 per cent were very concerned, the report said. 

Grocery shopping behaviours have shifted accordingly. Forty-five per cent said they were reducing food waste at home, a full ten per cent higher than last year. More shoppers were opting for bulk and frozen foods over last year. Forty-two per cent were eating out less—the same as last year. The number of people who said they were eating less meat remained at 26 per cent. 

However, those who were buying less food overall increased to 37 per cent from 33 per cent. Fifteen per cent said they were skipping meals—the same percentage as 2022. 

Consumer perceptions on why food prices are high have shifted since 2022. This year, 41 per cent of those surveyed said supply chain costs were to blame for prices, down from 56 per cent last year. Thirty-four per cent said high prices were because businesses wanted to raise profits, up from 20 per cent in 2022. 

Overall, CCFI said perceptions of the Canadian food system have levelled off after steady decline from a 2020 high. Thirty-four per cent said the Canadian food system was headed in the right direction, one per cent up from 2022; 41 per cent were unsure, down from 43 per cent; and 26 per cent said the system is headed in the wrong direction, up from 24 per cent in 2022. 

Farmers maintained a high level of public trust, with 65 per cent of Canadians scoring them from seven to ten on trustworthiness—for comparison, 85 per cent of Canadians rated politicians below six on the trustworthiness scale. 

Scientists and university researchers rounded out the top three trusted groups. “Canadian agriculture overall” rated fourth, with 54 per cent of respondents rating as trustworthy or very trustworthy. 

Consumers also have high regard for farmers’ transparency, defined as “providing the type and amount of information, using language and terms that are easily understood, that helps you make informed decisions about food for you and/or your family,” according to the report. 

Forty-seven per cent of respondents said farmers were doing well or very well at providing transparency. Scientists and Canadian agriculture overall rounded out the top three. 

Sixty-two per cent of respondents said they were concerned about misleading food labels and descriptions; 58 per cent were concerned about misinformation about food; and 54 per cent were worried about misinformation about how food is produced in Canada. 

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