So, remember back when I complained about that guy that stole my blog's name (See Day 42)? Actually, to be honest, I think I may have stolen his. I am still trying to figure out a better name for the blog, I just haven't had time to mess around with it yet. You may recall, when I was talking about the other Weighty Matter's blog, I said the thing that bugged me the most was that I actually kind of liked his blog. Well, I still do, and I periodically read it.
Yoni (who writes this other Weighty Matters blog) is Canadian. The other day, I read this interesting entry about food in Canada on his blog. Apparently, it costs a lot of money to ship food to the northernmost parts of the Canadian wilderness. As a result, Canada spends tax dollars to subsidize the shipping of food to places such as Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. (Did you even know that Nunavut was a province? Well, it is, and frankly, if I had to choose between living in Nunavut or the Northwest Territories, I would choose Nunavut. Whomever named the Northwest Territories had about as much creativity as a guy who names his barber shop "Barber." I mean, come on, they couldn't come up with anything better than Northwest Territories? That is like naming Florida (which is a pretty good name, if you think about it) Southeastern Peninsula.)
Subsidizing food to these areas only kind of makes sense in my mind. It seems simpler to incentivize people to live in civilization. Anyway, as part of Canada's austerity measures or healthy living measures or some other measures, the government has stopped subsidizing shipping--but only for food that is bad for you. Reading the Indian and Northern Affiairs Canada's website (this must be the government agency in charge of the program) is actually kind of funny. The website explains that "the current Food Mail Program will be replaced by Nutrition North Canada (NNC) as of April 1, 2011. The new program is a cost-effective, market driven model, designed to ensure that healthy foods are more accessible to Canadians living in isolated Northern communities."
The reason this is funny is not because this "cost-effective, market driven model" will make healthy foods more accessible, but because it has actually made unhealthy foods far less accessible. Without the subsidy, grocery stores are simply passing the cost of goods on to consumers. Thus, it currently costs about $25 to buy a small tub of margerine in Iqaluit, Nunavet, Canada. Interested in Cheez Whiz? Believe me, it is probably out of your price range.
Based on this informaiton, I have been trying to get my wife to move with me to Nunavet so I am never tempted by bad food again. One real estate website informed me that there is a "huge" real estate market there. This is not an understatement, as there are about 800,000 square miles of unused land there (roughly the size of western Europe). While the opportunity in Nunavet may be huge, one thing is for sure, its people will not be!
1 comment:
Ha, Ha, Ha! I think this sounds like a great plan. Except rather than move, perhaps I will just try to add a household tax to certain foods. Charging you and the kids a tax for unhealthy foods may discourage consumption.
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