Last week, the Food Insecurity Working Group that Food First NL co-chairs with the Government of N.L. received a presentation by David Herle. Herle leads the Gandalf Group, a public opinion research firm. For the second year in a row, the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security contracted the group to research public attitudes about the policies needed to reduce food insecurity in Canada.
This year, the poll over-sampled here in Newfoundland and Labrador. This gives us a rare look at more reliable provincial-level data.
The Public Opinion Data for N.L.
The big story: there is incredibly high public support in Canada for policies to address poverty and food insecurity, and support is even higher in Newfoundland and Labrador.
This story is laid out in the following charts and data from the Gandalf Group.
Policy Support
This chart by Gandalf Group shows the public opinion responses for various policy interventions that could reduce poverty and food insecurity for Canadians (top) and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians (below).
A few things to note about this chart:
Support for a basic income (or a minimum income floor) is high across the country (75%) but much higher in N.L. (90%), with many more people seeing it as “very desirable”
The same is true for improving income support for people with disabilities — and for almost every other intervention listed here.
This poll went into an unusual level of depth about policy options, so there’s another slide with additional policies to look at:
This chart by Gandalf Group shows the public opinion responses for an additional set of policy interventions for Canadians (top) and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians (below).
Some things worth highlighting here as well:
Extremely strong support for a national school food program, especially in N.L.
A much higher level of support in N.L. for raising the minimum wage (and less opposition to it)
Strong support for “food prescription” programs in N.L.
Once again, N.L. stands out for our support of policy interventions that would move the needle on food insecurity
The outlier here is on climate change — we’re a bit less likely to prioritize policies to combat climate change than the rest of the country.
Choosing the “most Important” Initiative
To try and get a sense of how much people prioritize these issues, the Gandalf Group also did a series of “forced choice” questions that made people pick between two options. Poverty reduction won out every time.
This chart shows that respondents in N.L. consistently chose initiatives to reduce poverty and food insecurity across all four forced-choice questions.
A Food Security Agenda for Canada
Pulling it all together, there is a pretty clear outline of what kind of policy agenda both Canadians and NLers strongly support:
This chart shows a clear food security agenda based on the values-based questions asked above. N.L.ers (bottom half) overwhelmingly agreed with arguments for action to reduce poverty.
What This Data Tells Us
The content in the Food Insecurity Agenda slide should look familiar if you follow Food First NL or any of our national partners (e.g. Community Food Centres Canada, Food Banks Canada, the Coalition for Healthy School Food). Right now, there’s a remarkable level of agreement amongst organizations working on food systems. This public opinion data shows that the general public also largely agrees.
This data also reminds us that Newfoundland and Labrador continues to be an outlier — in a good way. We see just how much public support there is for using policies to shift the reality of food insecurity on the ground.
A Higher Level of Support in N.L.
Why does N.L. have this higher level of support than the national data? The polling data doesn’t tell us but there are a few likely causes.
First, things are hard on the ground here in Newfoundland and Labrador and have been for a long time. More than a quarter of N.L.ers are experiencing food insecurity. That means that almost everyone knows someone who’s struggling to access food. Unemployment is still stubbornly high and minimum wages are stubbornly low. Most people understand the experience or threat of economic precarity.
Additionally, this might be a reflection of another place we are an outlier: social solidarity. N.L.ers generally report having the strongest sense of community and belonging of any province in Canada. It seems likely that this sense of community translates to a stronger base of support for universal social supports.
Acting on Food Insecurity
To some degree, we are seeing that reflected in action. To be clear, no province in Canada is doing enough to fight poverty and food insecurity. Anyone with lived experience will tell you that loud and clear. That said, N.L. is doing more than most.
The initiatives rolling out through the Poverty Reduction Plan and the new disability benefit do have the potential for impact. This impact would grow significantly if the initiatives are scaled-up and scaled-out. We’re hopeful that the All-Party Committee on Basic Income’s forthcoming report will also result in positive actions.
What Needs to Happen Next
We need to see more progress on all of these initiatives if we want to reduce food insecurity. The initiatives need to be expanded to reach more people. Wages need to increase. Food insecurity and poverty reduction targets need to be set. The data above confirms just how much support this agenda would receive. Let’s hope that gets noticed.
Data and slides courtesy of the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security and the Gandalf Group.
