When food is too cheap, people waste it

        Read the recent Maclean's article "One colossal waste" online or in the October 12 issue. Canadians, the article says, don't pay the true cost of water, electricity or food — and as a result, we waste way too much of all three.

I've heard before that Canadians use way more energy than people in other developed countries, let alone the rest of the world. My reaction to that has been: "We need furnaces running eight months of the year to live up here." Turns out that most of us also pay electric rates that don't come close to matching the cost of production. The argument in favour of low electricity rates is that these are Crown corporations, in most provinces, and as owners, citizens deserve low rates. But if we used less, we'd have more to export. And, we wouldn't have to build more dams, more coal-generating stations, wind farms and nuclear power plants.

Pay more. Use less. Save ourselves a bundle in future infrastructure costs. That's the argument the Maclean's article makes. Makes sense to me.

On that same vein, many Canadians do not pay per volume of water consumed. Canadians who play flat monthly rates — Montrealers who pay for water through property tax and Vancouverites who pay a flat monthly fee — are the biggest water wasters. Pay for the water you use, and you'll probably use less. Again, makes sense. Any farmer who has to haul water knows the value in this statement. Come on cities, figure it out.

The argument eventually comes around to food. As farmers all know, the percentage of income Canadians spend on food is low and keeps getting lower. The Maclean's article makes the point that subsidies (in Canada, the U.S., EU and elsewhere) that encourage overproduction are what have dropped food prices relative to income. End the subsidies, production drops, prices rise. If people have to pay more for food, they might also waste less. The article mentions a new book by Tristam Stuart called "Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal," which brings to light the amount of food waste globally. About one third of all food in U.K. homes is eventually thrown away. In Toronto, the article says, the average household throws away one out of every four food purchases.

Many of the western world's — especially Canada's — environmental challenges can be greatly reduced by getting people to stop wasting so much. As for me personally, I can only finish off so many kids' meals without jeopardizing my own health. I try to ignore best before dates as much as I can — without jeopardizing my own health. And I'm prepared to pay the true cost of water and electricity. That's probably one of the cheapest ways to make a real difference for the environment. As for food and farmers and excessive production incentives, if reduced subsidies are the goal, we face an uphill battle at WTO talks — man, do we ever — but that's where the negotiation has to start.