Elements of sustainable Canadian food consumption: measuring self-sufficiency

One aspect of sustainable agriculture development in industrial nations is a move towards national self-sufficiency in food production. A self-sufficiency indicator (SSI) that complements the Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development's driving force-state-response framework on which Canada's agri-environmental indicators are based is proposed and demonstrated. A 2001 survey of Canadian household food consumption is analysed to estimate the areal measure of land required for its satisfaction exclusively by domestically produced primary agriculture. Canada is self-sufficient in field crops, which reflects its comparative advantage on the global market. The nation would require about five times the area currently under cultivation to be self-sufficient in fruit production. Vegetables consumed domestically account for just under half the area under cultivation.