The Politics of Food Insecurity in Canada and the United Kingdom [Hardcover]

Addressing a neglected area in academic research, media coverage and public understanding, this book takes a critical political economy approach to understanding food insecurity in Canada and the UK.

It examines how current economic and political systems create food insecurity and why food charity does little to address the problem, diverting the attention of policy makers, the media and the public from the sources of food insecurity.

This book provides a vision of a future whereby public control over the distribution of resources including food  will eliminate food insecurity and other conditions that threaten health.

Zsofia Mendly-Zambo is a PhD candidate in Health Policy and Equity at the School of Health Policy and Management at York University, Toronto. Her research areas include food insecurity and farmer mental health.

Dennis Raphael, PhD, is a Professor at the School of Health Policy and Management at York University in Toronto. He works in the area of the political economy of health.

This book identifies the societal forces behind food insecurity;

It details the extent of food insecurity in Canada and the UK;

It shows the shortcomings of charitable approaches to reducing food poverty;

It identifies how the corporate and business sector has taken control of the charitable sector using the smokescreen of corporate social responsibility;

It points the way forward to reduce food insecurity in Canada and the UK.

A powerful call to action that demonstrates the need for transformation of the economic system if we are to move away from relying on corporate-backed charity as a failed response to poverty. Kayleigh Garthwaite, University of Birmingham

1. Introducing the politics ofls