As grocery prices continue to skyrocket, more Canadians are cutting back on food essentials like produce and meats to reduce their grocery bill, but these changes are coming with a steeper price to the overall health of Canadians. Those most affected are also scrambling for solutions to address escalating insecurity, turning to whatever resources available at their disposal.

With food insecurity at all-time high, Canadian doctors are also warning the public about the health consequences of these compromises, as scurvy becomes a more prevalent issue because of widespread malnutrition. 

However, doctors have also noticed more than just growing vitamin C deficiency. A report from a group of concerned doctors and primary caregivers alerts the Canadian public to a variety of diseases and infections also seeing increase as food insecurity grips the country’s most vulnerable. 

“We’ve been receiving more data on ailments like botulism and lead poisoning affecting a disproportionate number of Canadians,” says Dr. Henry Goodsir, one of the co-authors of the report. “This is likely due to dietary changes doctors are seeing as a result of financial restrictions, like relying on tinned provisions instead of fresh meat.” 

Food-borne botulism occurs when contaminated food allows botulism spores to grow in low-oxygen environments, often seen in improperly canned or fermented foods. Heavy metal leaching from cans can also gradually lead to severe lead poisoning, creating a fatal combination of severe illness. 

Although Health Canada is currently not tracking statistics on these diseases, concerned researchers warn the public to curb consumption of tinned soup and vegetables, salt-cured meats, and pemmican, especially from amateur provisioners, who have been noted to use lead to hastily seal cans. 

Canadian consumers are unlikely to abandon their bargain-hunting and cost-reducing habits, yet some feel that it’s not enough, turning to more drastic, alternative lifestyle changes to both save money and mitigate their risk of disease, like cannibalism. 

“While A human cadaver can provide up to around 75 pounds of edible meat, Health Canada condemns the consumption of human beings as a solution to food insecurity,” a statement from the Office of the Minister of Health reads. 

Not outright illegal, Section 182 of the Canadian Criminal Code outlines that an individual participating in improper or indecent interference with “any indignity to a dead human body or human remains, whether buried or not” will be liable for up to five years in jail. 

Obtaining consent for harvesting one’s meat, however, has proven to be a legal loophole and an economically sound solution to rising meat prices for some Canadians. A self-proclaimed purveyor of “ethical red meat” since the COVID-19 pandemic, Corneilius Hickey continues to honour the wishes of his late husband, which was to “upcycle” his remains.

“I don’t have to go to the grocery store as often,” Hickey told Arthur. “It’s drastically reduced my grocery budget for a couple of years now, and I've never been healthier.”

As meat sees a monthly price increase in Canadian grocery stores, this kind of meat sourcing and cannibalism are becoming more commonplace, especially through the rise of Facebook groups encouraging the practice of consensual body harvesting. 

“Ethical cannibalization is the future of how we approach the ethics of fresh meat,” Hickey says. “It’s far better than the bugs Trudeau’s Liberals want us to eat when we all live in pods.”

In correspondence with Arthur, Hickey gradually started to tremble, concluding the interview as he began to babble incoherently of a “demonic” creature that “looked like a polar bear, had the face of a man, but with a really long neck.” According to Hickey, it had started aggressively stalking him after he switched to solely eating human meat. 

“Yeah, no, that’s definitely a hallucination based on chronic wasting disease,” Dr. Goodsir confirmed via email. “I’m no veterinarian, but these symptoms are typical to patients with very similar lifestyle changes, namely seen in deer.”

 Some doctors are not so persuaded, however, like medical researcher Dr. John Franklin, who reassures that “there is nothing to worry about.”

“It may be alarming to hear of such drastic lifestyle changes, the market will eventually sort itself out,” Dr. Franklin told journalists at a press conference in October. 

“Canadian grocery outlets need competition for food prices to even out, but for the time being, we understand how dietary changes may be necessary to mitigate the current cost of living,” Dr. Franklin states.

Certainly Canadians are feeling the squeeze from their grocery shop, but healthcare professionals are reassuring the public that despite higher degrees of food insecurity leading to chronic illness, the ancient seafaring disease comeback is of little concern.