ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF FOOD SECURITY IN NORTHWEST TERRITORIES (NWT), CANADA
Date
2024-08-23
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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ORCID
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
ABSTRACT
In recent years, food insecurity, specifically food access and food availability has deteriorated in many parts of the world, including the Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada. Food insecurity is associated with adverse mental health, obesity, chronic illnesses, and poor academic out-comes. Recent research in NWT aimed at understanding the determinants of food insecurity suggests that high transportation costs, food spoilage, inadequate distribution, and the lack of sales alternatives result in severe food insecurity. These studies, however, are based on small sample sizes from selected communities.
This thesis studies the current trends of food insecurity and its correlation with socioeconomic factors across NWT’s six regions and 34 communities. To do so, I gathered secondary data at community level from various sources, including the NWT Bureau of Statistics and Statistics Canada over different time periods. The measurement of food insecurity rests on the indication of what percentage of households per community were worried about not having enough money to buy food in 2018. This indicator reflects food insecurity in the sense of a lack of financial resources to access food and relates to the demand side. The socioeconomic factors considered relate to both the demand side and the supply side as they can affect the percentage of house-holds worried of not having enough money to buy food through factors that affect households’ ability to access food and factors that affect food availability, respectively.
The results indicate a north-south divide: In northern regions such as Beaufort Delta, Sahtu, Thcho, and Dehcho, 31%, 31.2%, 55.1%, and 31.5% of households, respectively, are concerned about not having enough money to buy food, while in southern regions such as South Slave and Yellowknife, the percentages are 18% and 17%, respectively. On average, the four northern regions are more than twice as likely to be food insecure as the two southern regions. Also, the results of the descriptive analysis show that regions with more dispersed households, no active mines, and only a few small-sized grocery stores are associated with higher levels of food insecurity. Furthermore, the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) results show that communities with higher population densities, and a higher percentage of its population participating in tradition-al activities are associated with higher food insecurity. Also, communities that benefit from Nutrition North Canada’s (NNC) food subsidy, as well as communities that have a more educated population, or better transportation facilities such as all-weather roads and airport facilities are associated with lower food insecurity.
Description
Keywords
Northwest Territories (NWT), Ordinary Least Square, Spatial distribution of food insecurity, Multi-level regression analysis. community and regional level analysis of food insecurity, Nutrition North Canada.
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Agricultural and Resource Economics
Program
Agricultural Economics