Canada pouring $35.5 million into Canadian Foodgrains Bank new food security program

Today, the federal government announced $35.5 million will be going to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) over the next three years to help tackle food insecurity.

Canada’s minister of international development, Ahmed Hussen, said food insecurity is rampant globally.

“One in nine people — some almost 800 million people — do not have enough food to lead a healthy and active life,” he said, adding the consequences can be steep.

“Global food insecurity not only leads to hunger, famine, and death, (but) it can also lead to instability, conflict and war.”

Kenneth Kim, board chair of the CFGB, said the hefty grant will fund a new program called Nature Positive Food Systems for Climate Change Adaptation in East Africa, also known as: “Nature Positive Plus.”

The multi-year program is focused on helping those living in the rural areas of Ethipoia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, adapt to climate change for better food security, Kim said.

Barbara MacDonald, director of international programs with CFGB, said climate change is one of the key drivers of hunger globally.

“I think you can imagine that producing enough food for your family and your community becomes significantly more difficult when dealing with unpredictable rainfall, historical levels of drought, floods. And this is especially true when farming and agriculture is your livelihood,'” she said.

MacDonald said biodiversity loss and degraded soils, products of climate change, have made farming vastly harder.

Hussen said the way food is produced around the world has been a factor in “driving climate change, pollution, and diversity loss,” and in order to produce food that works with nature, soil must be kept healthy “and the water flowing.”

He said it also means “to help store carbon and provide homes for a wide range of diversity, biodiversity, and to generate food security for generations to come.”

Ultimately, the goal is to “restore ecological health. It is to increase the ability of landscapes to absorb the stressors caused by climate change, and enhance the well-being of communities who live there,” Hussen said.

“We’ve all seen here in Canada, and around the world, the rise in food costs, people struggling to have enough food to eat. Many, many people around the world, including Canadians, are struggling to put food on the table.”

He said world events have drastically lowered grain stocks, “like the pandemic, and war in Ukraine.” Hussen added that supply chains are also fragile, under pressure, and rising costs threaten agricultural productivity.

Kim said the new program is built on teamwork.

He said Nature Positive Plus is a collaboration “across multiple sectors and countries, all working together with the hope, a positive impact of what this can do for people living with hunger in these areas.”

Fifteen members of the CFGB are participating, and 12 locally-based partners are working with communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, Kim said.

Terry Duguid, member of parliament for Winnipeg South, said, “We know that Canada must continue to step up and do our part, both as a leading agricultural producer and as a longtime international assistance partner.”

Hussen agrees.

“We in Canada have the means and the moral responsibility to invest in domestic and international initiatives that fight climate change and bolster international food security at the same time,” he said.

MacDonald said the new venture will take decades to restore pinpointed landscapes back to health, “but we are really focusing now on setting up a strong foundation for that work.”

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