Ethnocultural Vegetables In Ontario: A Case Study

Canadian Agriculture experienced a distinct development in each region. Varying climate and geography being responsible for it. As a result, each region settled at different periods in politics and economics. Either way, from the colonial era to the modern day, agriculture is now a subordinate industry. Canada having a well-established individual agricultural industry alongside it. An example documented in the overwhelming success in the global marketplace. Even so, Canada prides itself on its systems and policies ensuring high standards. The industry’s best practices, besides reputation establishing a cornerstone. Canada’s economy and international trade thriving on it. For this reason, the historical significance of agriculture through history

Produce procurement, a long-studied topic in cultural anthropology, defines the everyday interactions relating to values and norms as well as power through a simple outlet: food. For this ethnographic observation: produce procurement, I decided to observe one of the bigger grocery store chains, Jewel. It was here, where I observed different views and concepts relating to food venues, specifically grocery stores, that are important to both producer and consumer in aesthetic, type of produce, demographic, and communication.

What difference does it make to shop at a grocery store vs a farmer’s market, for fruits and vegetables? Likewise, the grocery store and the farmers market have a diversity of produce at a comparable price. Yet, most people prefer to purchase at the grocery store chains, for example, HEB, Kroger, Albertsons, and Walmart. These stores are accessible every day making it easy and convenient for the buyer, unlike the farmer’s market that is only available once or twice per week. The local farmer's markets are making a comeback across communities and the battle between the two has begun. Grocery stores and farmers market sell fruits and vegetables similar on the surface, but, the farmers market offers a stronger quality and promotes the local economy.

The Canada’s Food Guide has been in place since 1942, and nearly a decade has passed since the release of the current Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide (EWCFG) (Mortillaro, 2016). Critics believe that the time has come for the revision of the second-most downloaded document in Canada – in the interest of reflecting the changing lifestyles of Canadians (Mortillaro, 2016). At the time of its launch during World War II, male-female roles differed vastly, with stay-at-home moms preparing home cooked meals. However, according to latest information provided by Statistics Canada, 69% of households with families are dual-earners today (Statistics Canada, 2015). The effect of dual earning has taken its toll on Canadian food consumption patterns (Mortillaro, 2016). Consequently, the existing food guide has received mixed reviews and immense criticism by several researchers, and has even been declared “obesogenic” (Corby, 2007; Kondro, 2006; L’Abbe & Mahsa, 2015). This is particularly disturbing because according to the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey, 59% of the adult population is overweight and 1 in 4 is obese; the numbers are even more alarming regarding children and adolescents (Karmali et al., 2010). The cause of the obesity epidemic might be right at our fingertips with the “Unhealthy Food Guide” that is imposed on Canadians. One strict change that must occur to the food guide includes disassociating 100% fruit juices as vegetable and fruit sources, and thereby removing

Prairie Foods’ “Complete Blueberry Pomegranate” cereal packaging violates California’s “false or misleading” advertising ban, so Prairie Foods’ motion to dismiss Sabach v. Prairie Foods, Inc. (S.D. Cal. 2016) should be denied.

Sociocultural factors influence and restrict consumption ideas, needs, desires and purchase behavior. People from different countries and different regions have different life patterns and different sociocultures. These differences directly influence the products that industries want to produce because people may even have different attitudes and value toward the same product due to different sociocultural factors. With the rapid development of modern society and the continuous improvement of living standards, the degree of attention paid to health has increased. “Franchise businesses continue to pay close attention to their customers' need for convenience, new flavors and, yes,

For this analysis of food markets across different cultures, I decided to choose the food market the people in my community shop at most and an ethnic food market that is connected to my boyfriend’s culture. For my family personally, we usually shop at ethnic food markets, such as Hmart, Great Wall Supermarket, and Mabuhay Filipino Mart. Being part of a mixed race family has created a melting pot when it comes to what cultures I experience and has given me an appreciation for the differences in those cultures. However, there are many cultures that I haven’t fully experienced, such as the Hmong culture. My boyfriend is Hmong, and his family is culturally traditional so I thought that analyzing

The total sample size would be 300 including vegetable growers (community gardens and allotment gardens), policy makers, managers/owners of ethnic stores, formal seed stores and the planned sample size would be 168 at 2% significance level. However, the sample size could be varied due to some restrictions such as limited amount of time and the unavailability of stakeholders and natural calamities. The findings from this sample, therefore, will be generalized to the population.

Ethnic consumers prefer fresh over frozen, bulk over packaged and familiar brands versus new brands.

Nowadays, Americans are facing the danger of being overweight. The article Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables written by Mark Bittman highlights that “one third of all Americans either have diabetes or are pre-diabetic.” The fat in our body cannot be formed in one day or two. Instead, it is the result of constantly unhealthy eating habit. The author of Obesity Epidemic by First Figuring Out Its Cause stated that “Energy intake rose because of environmental push factors, i.e., increasing available, cheap, tasty, highly promoted obesogenic foods.” Additionally, according to Bittman, “The average American consumes 44.7 gallons of soft drink；s annually.” The fact that Americans like soft drinks and food that are high in calories is irreversible, but we can do something to change this situation.

Ethnic diversity is a key driver for global market change. In 2015, Canada imported vegetables that worth approximately $851 million (Statistics Canada 2015). In the GTA alone, ethnic consumers are buying around $400 million ethnic vegetables per year (Harris, 2017). So the market demand of ethnic vegetables creates a niche market in the GTA (Nawaratne and Filson, 2012). The North American ethnic food market is growing by around 5% yearly. In 2010, over 1500 ethnic food products launched in the US which worth about $63 billion (AAFC, 2017). From 2012, annual import of okra is about 3,515 tons which worth $7,758,562 (Elford, 2013). Canada’s internal halal market is about $12 million and globally $580 million per year (AAFC, 2017). The Vineland

Studies have shown that women, especially from a different ethnicity or race, are more likely to continue preparing the typical traditional unhealthy foods to please their family, especially their husband (Allen 11). Nevertheless, even though race and ethnicity play a crucial part in a women’s meal, due to the raise in women’s participation in agriculture and food movement, a noticeable change in the food system will be

Due to the mass production of cheap corn and soy in America, other food industries that produce healthier fruits and vegetables decrease in number. Importing healthy fruits and vegetables from other countries is unnecessarily expensive and that raises the prices of healthy foods in the market, which discourages many lower class families from eating the recommended daily fruit and

Dairy farming is one of the most important sectors of Canadian agriculture. It is ranked in third place after grains and beef. The country´s 12.234 farms recorded total farm revenue of $5.92 billion in 2013. The 474 dairy plants located all over the country had estimated sales of $15.7 billion in 2013, accounting for the 16% of the value of manufactured shipments of food and beverages (Statics of the Canadian Dairy Industry 2014 Edition, 2014).

According to the available data, it was found that around 10% of the produces are consumed at grower level, 30% at local level, 30% at district level and remaining 30% at distant markets. The vegetable movement map derived from analyzing primary and secondary data is as follows: