'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Food prices in Canada are continuing to climb and one expert says increases are starting to impact pantry staples that haven't risen in cost for decades, such as peanut butter.
Since the beginning of the year, certain food items have risen dramatically in price. Meats are the main culprit, with the price of chicken rising about eight per cent, and pork and beef increasing about five per cent.
According to Statistics Canada data, the cost of staples like coffee and peanut butter has also increased since January, rising by 17 per cent and six per cent, respectively.
Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, told CTV's Your Morning on Friday this is due to inflation and pandemic-related complications on the food production chain.
"Peanut butter has been priced the same over the last 20 years. From 2000 to 2020, peanut butter is the same price, except for this year; it's up six per cent," Charlebois said. "So it tells you how inflation is impacting the entire grocery store."
While experts predicted that food prices would rise in 2021, Charlebois noted that the impact on products that were not affected for the last 20 years is concerning for those trying to obtain affordable food.
"There's not a whole lot of safe places for consumers on a tight budget right now," he said.
According to Canada's Food Price Report 2021, which was released in December, grocery bills are increasing due to border, plant and distribution centre closures, labour shortages, logistics disruptions, unemployment, shifts in consumer demand, modifications in production, manufacturing, distribution, and retailing practices to enhance safety.
Charlebois, who led the project for the report with the support from colleagues at the University of Guelph, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of British Columbia, said they were expecting in December that overall food prices would go up by three to five per cent in 2021.
Now, he says that is "exactly" what happened.
"Chicken is like the tide. If chicken goes up, everything else goes up -- beef and pork as well. So that's why a lot of people are seeing higher prices at the meat counter, bakery same thing," Charlebois said.
While a five per cent cost increase for groceries may not sound like a major jump, it can add up. The report estimated that Canadian families could be paying as much as $695 more for food in 2021 -- the highest increase ever predicted by an annual food price report.
Charlebois says climate change is also a major factor in food price increases, as rising temperatures have made it harder and more expensive to grow certain crops in Canada.
"We all know about what went on in B.C. a few weeks ago with temperatures of almost 50 degrees... that makes raspberries cook on plants literally, and so you're seeing a lot of crops being ruined and scrapped as a result of climate change," Charlebois said.
However, he says there are technical advances in agricultural practices that could be adopted more widely in Canada to help lower food production costs and grocery bills.
Charlebois says this includes the use of GPS-controlled smart tractors to optimize route planning in fields that minimize soil erosion and reduce fuel costs, as well as building more vertical greenhouses.
He said farmers can also use higher-quality seeds to help crops withstand droughts, and lead to a better and higher-quality crop yield, instead of relying on seeds from the previous year’s harvest.
"We saw McCain announced recently that they're building vertical farms in Calgary, New Brunswick and in Ontario, so those are good things but we need more of these projects," Charlebois said.
While these practices would help mitigate increasing food prices, Charlebois acknowledged that more investments in the agriculture sector are needed for farmers to implement them.
"Farmers are very much aware of what's going on with climate change and they're becoming more strategic about how to mitigate risks," he said. "But more importantly, you need more investments in control environment agriculture projects."
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.