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By Jesse Robichaud
Times & Transcript Staff

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FREDERICTON - With food prices rising steadily in the wake of skyrocketing gasoline prices and the emergence of bio-fuels, concerns regarding the availability and the price of food are spreading beyond the third world.

In New Brunswick -- a province that is consistently listed among the most obese in Canada -- a report released last week by a legislative committee on wellness recommended the Liberal government "investigate policies to make healthy foods more affordable."

While the committee made up of Liberal and Conservative MLAs did not suggest a direction government could follow to follow through on the recommendation, the suggestion highlights a need felt by citizens as food prices rise, explained committee president and Moncton-East Liberal MLA Chris Collins.

"As a committee what we are doing is recommending to the government to find out ways to deliver healthier foods to the people of New Brunswick, more reasonably," he said, noting that a keener emphasis on locally produced food was voiced by New Brunswickers in the public consultation process.

Gabriela Tymowski, a University of New Brunswick wellness researcher, says there are a variety of straightforward actions that can be taken by government to make local, and healthy, food more available to New Brunswickers. Whether or not healthy food is indeed more expensive than unhealthy food, Tymowski says government can partner with local growers to make healthy food more available as a means of resisting the global market issues that are driving food prices upward.

'I would suggest an example of the way government can get involved is to have local industry, to have apple growers, blueberry growers, cranberry growers in New Brunswick provide products directly into the school," she said.

"The greatest predictor of what we eat is availability. If children have apple available in the school, they will eat them."

Tymowski said that type of government action could help producers, cut down on transportation costs, and improve the health and well-being of school-aged children.

The wellness committee's report also recommends that the Graham government "build on the success of the Healthier Foods and Nutrition in Public Schools policy and enact additional policies that create healthy eating environments in other settings."

By funneling efforts through schools, the government can help reduce childhood obesity-related illnesses, and help encourage lifestyle choices, said Tymowski.

"It is the whole approach in buying locally that will help the obesity crisis," she said.

"If you eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, and you drink water, there won't be enough space left for the unhealthy options. "

Tymowski says government should invest in infrastructure such as Farmers' Markets and other field-to-table initiatives in order to help control rising prices in the global market.

"The farmers can benefit directly, families can benefit directly, without having to go through the suppliers and all that other stuff that just racks up the cost, and we see the prices getting higher and higher," she says.

Tymowski says a renewed government commitment to local food producers, which goes beyond slogans and marketing, could have a ripple effect throughout the province.

"If we worked on solutions like that that are fairly straightforward, we would solve, or at least work toward solving, a lot of those issues around increased gas prices, carbon taxes, pollution, and we would help local suppliers and producers."

"One of the big problems with obesity is that it is such a complex issue, and it requires a complex constellation of solutions, and that leaves people paralyzed with indecision."

Tymowski says direct investment in making healthier food more available would trump any awareness campaign that government could concoct.

"I don't think we need any more education, we need action. Show me somebody that doesn't know we ought to eat more fruits and vegetables. The struggle is to get it into place and having people make those necessary lifestyle changes."

Tony Grant, of Speerville Mill -- which was founded in 1982 with the goal of providing a market for grain and other organic products produced by Maritime farmers -- says local producers would love to engage with government in those types of partnerships.

"We would be very excited to see some sort of public- private partnership where the government would work together to help produce local producers who would, in turn, be feeding that locally produced healthy food in our schools and institutions. We would love to see that. That's what we're all about," he said.

Grant says a greater availability of healthy food will take a concerted effort by individuals and organizations.

"I think you'll find the institutions, the cafeterias that feed our children, they run on very slim budgets. There needs to be more consideration of what they're feeding our kids," he said.

"Changing the habits of consumers is the biggest challenge but will also have the biggest effect. The consumer needs to take responsibility for every cent he is spending, and what he is supporting especially since he is bypassing carrots that are grown in Atlantic Canada for carrots grown in California."

Grant says rethinking food sources can have a beneficial effect on the environment, wellness, and the local economy.

"There is so much energy that is consumed in shipping food 3,000 kilometres that the fuel isn't even a drop in the bucket when you consider all the infrastructure required and the environmental costs," he said.

"When we ship in carrots from California that can be sold cheaper than carrots grown here in Atlantic Canada, there is something wrong. We need to give our farmers a chance, good locally produced food should be worth more."

Grant takes issue with the statement that healthy food is necessarily more expensive than unhealthy food.

"I would agree with the idea that we should make healthy locally produced food more available, but to make it cheaper, no I don't agree with that at all. That's the reason why the average age of a farmer in Canada is 64 or 65, because we don't pay him enough money to survive," he said.

"If we want good local food, we have to support the local farmers who can grow it. When you add five dollars a week to your grocery bill it won't hurt your budget but the effects of having that extra five dollars a week in the hands of a local food producer will have big effects on your community in many ways."