Milk Insecurity: Accounts of a Food Insecurity Phenomenon in Canada and Its Relation to Public Policy
Williams PL, McIntyre L, and Glanville T. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, 2010, 5(2): 142-157
We investigated the phenomenon of milk insecurity among low-income lone mothers in Nova Scotia, Canada. Focus group and in-depth interviews were conducted and analyzed to assess challenges mothers faced in accessing milk for their families and the ways in which they coped with milk scarcity. Milk insecurity is a distinct feature of food insecurity for this population, with potentially serious health implications. Just as food insecurity is structurally determined through inadequate income, so too is milk insecurity. However, in Canada it is further exacerbated by public policy that sets the price of this staple too high relative to the purchasing power of the poor.