R E S E A R C H
Off-reserve Aboriginal households at greater risk
Family members in 14 per cent of Canadian Aboriginal households located off-reserve are either eating less or simply going hungry while 33 per cent of the same households have unsatisfactory access to enough food, a new University of Alberta study has found. “Off-reserve Aboriginal households
H I G H L I G H T S
merit special attention for income security and poverty alleviation programs to prevent food insecurity,” said Noreen Willows, an associate professor of agricultural, food and nutritional science and the lead researcher on the study. She said federal funding for off-reserve Aboriginal families who are struggling below the poverty line should be increased while provinces shouldn’t claw back other social assistance when supplemental federal funding is provided. Willows added the study revealed that Aboriginal single-parent families with three or more children, of which the majority are headed by women, were shown to be especially vulnerable. “In these types of households, mothers tend to sacrifice their own diet so that the children won’t go hungry,” said Willows. “However, given the level of poverty in some off-reserve Aboriginal households, children are surely going hungry.” Willows and fellow researchers from the U of A School of Public Health used data drawn from a national survey on nutrition and reviewed 1,528 Aboriginal and 33,579 nonAboriginal households to conduct the study, which was published in Public Health Nutrition.
Improving water quality not economically profitable Beneficial management practices (BMPs) to improve water quality are not economically profitable for agricultural producers, according to Scott Jeffrey and Jim Unterschultz of the Department of Rural Economy. Jeffrey and Unterschultz conducted research associated with BMP implementation in the Lower Little Bow watershed in southern Alberta as part of the Watershed Evaluation of Beneficial Management Practices (WEBs), a national research program sponsored by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The program examines both the biophysical and economic impacts of implementing BMPs at seven different watershed sites throughout the country. The researchers’ preliminary findings suggest that since producers don’t have a financial incentive to implement BMPs, policy-makers will have to decide how to encourage adoption. “Are we going to regulate so that producers
WEBs research in the Lower Little Bow
have to (use BMPs) and they simply have to deal with lower profits, or are we going to provide positive incentives either through subsidies or other sorts of programs?” Jeffrey asked. As it stands now, the hydrological and economic research within WEBs is incomplete so the benefits of BMPs are not yet fully quantified. Jeffrey and Unterschultz will continue research in the Lower Little Bow with phase II of WEBs and will expand their research to include irrigation production systems.
Support system for seniors not a given in rural communities Rural communities may not be as tight-knit and supportive of the elderly as is commonly thought, a University of Alberta study has found. Jennifer Swindle, a U of A researcher who conducted the study for her PhD thesis under the supervision of Norah Keating, noted that rural communities vary in the services they offer seniors, and that some would benefit from adding more support for their elderly citizens. Swindle surveyed 1,312 adults aged 65 and older across rural Canada, and discovered that 15 per cent of people received no support, while up to nine per cent of seniors who received support had a few people who provided help with tasks like housework, shopping and transportation. “People can be well-connected socially in a community, but that doesn’t mean they are receiving support. On average, the social networks in the study were comprised of 10 people, but the support networks only averaged three people,” Swindle said. With government cuts in services and the closure of some rural hospitals, a lack of homegrown support is worrisome for seniors living in rural areas. “This research makes it clear that there is a place for formal services in rural Canada, because support for older adults can’t lie solely on the shoulders of families and friends,” said Swindle. discoveries
• summer
2010