USC Opinion Poll Shows Canadians Care About Food Sources

USC Canada, a not-for-profit organization that promotes family farms, rural communities, and healthy ecosystems around the world, has just released the results of a national opinion poll about food issues conducted by Nanos Research.

They asked 1,001 Canadians to rate their response to six statements about the sources of their own food and the availability of food in general. The responses show that Canadians are fairly passionate about the right for all people to have nourishing and sustainable food. They also show a preference to have the food supply managed by farmers rather than food companies. However, many still have faith in food companies to protect the welfare of consumers.

Here are the mean responses, where respondents were told that an answer of 1 meant "strongly disagree" and 5 meant "strongly agree".

• Every person in the world has the right to sufficient, healthy food: 4.60, with 80% indicating that they “strongly agree”.
• I would like the farmers who grow our food to have more influence on the food system: 4.02
• I'm concerned about the loss of diversity in plants and animals on our planet: 4.00
• I trust the experience and knowledge of farmers who grow food over the experience and knowledge of large agricultural corporations: 3.98
• I'm willing to pay more for foods that don't harm the environment: 3.88
• When purchasing food, it is important to think about the person who grew the food: 3.87
• I do not trust companies to have the best interests of consumers when it comes to food: 3.59 (19% of respondents said they disagreed or disagreed strongly with this statement.)

Photo by Niamh Malcolm.