Research v. Politics

Does politics and personal gain get in the way?

"Food insecurity affects ~800 million people" - Schmeer & Piperata (2016)


There has been a lot of government attention and action across the globe due to food prices, extreme weather changes, economic crises and backlashes against food production - Leroy, Ruel, Frongillo, Harris & Ballard (2015)

In countries including Canada, there was a huge political swing in the 1980s towards social policy reforms that resulted in less benefits with more requirements needed - Tarasuk, Dachner, & Loopstra, (2014)

A lot of data collected by academics has gone against what politicians and initiative leaders have been promoting. Policy makers have claimed that being located in food deserts are the cause of food insecurity and the resulting obesity epidemic, but there have only been mixed results from the little research that has been done so far and just because healthy food is available, doesn’t mean that people can, or are, going to eat it - Cummins, Flint & Matthews (2014)