The high cost of cheap food
Margaret Wente takes issue with current efforts by food activists to encourage poor people to eat healthy food (Let Them Eat Carrots! – July 15). She raises some good points about drawbacks with these initiatives. Yet in recommending we “send them straight to a Loblaws,” she forgets that it’s more than just “nice to keep farmers employed.” Local farmers are our food security and vital to the future health of any region. However (un)prepared for crises we are, we need local support in case of disruptions to the fragile just-in-time delivery system used by supermarkets.
Also, in lavishing praise on supermarkets and Loblaws, she neglects to mention some of the hidden costs of our “bargain” supermarket food that is often supplied by industrial farms. Industrially produced food typically means high fossil-fuel use and pollution, massive fresh-water use and waste, health risks for underpaid (mostly) immigrant workers, and factory-farmed meat pumped with hormones and antibiotics.
So let’s be smart about how best to feed the poor and encourage them to make healthy choices, and also be realistic about what we are actually paying for our cheap, abundant food.
Chris Bocking, Peterborough, Ont.
The right to good data
I share William Robson’s concerns about deleting the long-form census (Knowledge Comes At A Price – July 13). In “Count Me In,” our new guide to collecting human-rights-based data, we identify this information as a vital starting point for organizations working to eliminate barriers for their workers and their customers. It is hard to solve problems or run a successful business or make a good policy without all of the information – yet that is exactly what is being proposed with these changes.
Under Canada’s human-rights legislation, there is a legal duty to offer inclusive and equitable opportunities for everyone in areas like education, employment, housing, health care, etc. Without good data, we can’t measure how well we are doing or how we can improve. Canada needs the data that the mandatory long-form census provides.
Barbara Hall, Chief Commissioner, Ontario Human Rights Commission, Toronto
TV trivia
I like Neil Macdonald. He is a unique and polished journalist. He also has a funny brother. But I was surprised to read that he is not fully informed about Canada’s female network anchors (May The Best Anchor Win – July 15). Perhaps he was too young to remember Jan Tennant, the first woman to host CBC’s The National. Our CBC French network has been well-served by not only an outstanding field journalist but a professional anchor. I speak of Céline Galipeau.
Let’s not get overexcited about these new appointments of female anchors by CTV and Global Television. Time will tell if they have the special skills to deal with major news events, especially live breaking news, where some journalists have failed miserably and others have shown they are gifted.
Ian Fleming, Toronto
In need of a facelift
The phenomenon of non-trained physicians performing cosmetic procedures beyond their scope of practice extends well beyond the medical profession (Complaint Against Liposuction Doctor Was A Perceptive Warning – July 14). Cosmetic clinics, spas and laser centres are popping up across Ontario promising the public access to the elusive fountain of youth. Oftentimes these aggressively advertised facilities are only supervised by non-medical personnel.
As a board-certified dermatologist, not a day goes by when I don’t see a patient who has had some form of cosmetic procedure performed elsewhere by a non-qualified individual that has resulted in an adverse outcome. Patients have little recourse with non-physician-supervised cosmetic clinics should something go wrong and their grievances are often unreported because they are cosmetic in nature and do not result in death.
