Joe Ferretti takes an emotional walk through his peach orchard, with trees fully in bloom on May 6, as he prepares to bulldoze or chainsaw the fruit trees on his property in wake of the closure of the Can-Gro canning plant.

Starving people in Haiti forced to eat patties made with mud. Clashes over food in Honduras. A growing number of families in China sitting down for a steak dinner.

A harried mom at a Niagara supermarket ticking off her shopping list, in between various errands.

At first blush, they seem like very unconnected events. But what’s being described as a perfect storm of unrelated factors that the United Nations says have created an international food crisis and local shopping habits at supermarkets may be tied together more than you think.

And the crisis, which has led to rioting in Haiti, long lineups for rice in Bangladesh and protests in Indonesia and Mexico, may well play a part in what some see as a renewed interest among Ontario consumers to buy locally produced agricultural products.

Ultimately, whether or not future generations of Ontario residents have the collective clout to force supermarkets to put more emphasis on locally produced food may well be a tipping point in the viability of farming here — and whether we will have a secure source of food or be willing to risk depending on farmers elsewhere in the world to put food on our tables.

Soaring fuel prices, more and more crops such as corn being diverted to producing bio-fuel such as ethanol, climate change which has hurt crop production through floods and droughts, rapidly rising fertilizer prices and a growing middle class in China and India — who are eating more Western-style diets higher in protein — have sent prices of many foods soaring.

Prices for rice along with corn, wheat and other basics has surged by 40 to 80 per cent in the last three years.

That’s translating into higher prices on supermarket shelves here and full-scale rioting in many poor nations, where rice is a staple and where even modest price hikes mean bellies are empty.

News footage of Haitians sprinkling salt and oil on mud patties to eat has been a sobering symbol of the crisis.

Cecilia Rocha, an associate professor in the school of nutrition and director of the Centre for Studies in Food Security at Ryerson University, said the crisis has been brewing for some time and many of the factors contributing to it — oil prices, droughts and floods — aren’t going away any time soon. CIBC World Markets predicted last month that oil prices will nearly double to $200 a barrel over the next five years.

And with the United Nations projecting the world’s population will increase from about 6.5 billion now to at least 9.2 billion by 2050, the possibility of wide-spread shortages becomes more plausible.

“The whole food system has been in trouble for awhile,” said Rocha. “The crisis is just a manifestation of it.”

Some are saying we may be witnessing the end of a 30-year period of artificially low food prices in Canada and steps by India and Brazil recently to temporarily ban some rice exports to safeguard domestic supplies and contain pressure on food prices are to some a wake-up call that by relying too heavily on foreign produced food we may be putting our own food security at risk.

Last month, Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores in the United States, and another major retailer announced some limits on the amount of bulk rice people could buy to prevent hoarding.

Ken Durham, a West Lincoln dairy farmer and member of the Niagara North Federation of Agriculture, said chocolate milk from China is now appearing on some big-box grocery shelves here.

He blames short-sighted government policies for decades that have promoted a “cheap food policy” without regard for food security.

Durham said consumers here may finally be starting to realize that world trends and events, such as more Chinese being able to afford pork, can put our food security at risk. A single hog affects the price of grains, he said, because it takes so much to raise one hog.

“A pig is nothing but 10 bushels of corn with legs on it.”

Durham said while the volume of milk production in Ontario has remained steady since 1988, we’re relying more and more on foreign produced milk as our population grows. Supermarkets get two messages: one from consumers who say they want to support locally produced farm products, but also the fact shoppers are penny pinchers when it comes to food.

Grocery giant Loblaw Companies Ltd. has been cutting prices to compete with discount rivals such as Wal-Mart Canada, which is expanding its grocery offerings at many stores. Yet the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation released a study last year that found the “vast majority” of Ontario residents are concerned about food security, and eight in 10 prefer to buy locally grown produce.

“The support for local food in the Greenbelt is coming through loud and clear,” said Burkhard Mausberg, president of the foundation.

Kim McKinnon, Ontario vice-president for the Canadian Council on Food Distributors, which represents major supermarkets, said large grocers make every effort to stock locally grown fruit and produce. Ultimately, it will be consumers who will decide whether to put their money where their mouths are and will be willing to pay a little more for locally produced food products rather than food from countries where costs such as labour are only a fraction of what they are here. If they do, “we will stock it,” she said.

The recent food price increases come after years of what many say are artificially low food prices in Canada.

Statistics Canada says Canadians pay only 11 per cent of their national income on food, far less than many nations. The B.C.-based Fraser Institute think tank said in a report last month that while incomes in Canada rose 1,230 per cent from 1961 to 2007, food prices only rose 505 per cent.

Ryerson’s Rocha said Canadians need to pressure government to make policy changes if our farms are to remain viable. For instance, at present federal rules say products such as canned fruit can say “Product of Canada” as long as 51 per cent of the production costs occur here.

Those rules allow companies such as CanGro, which is shutting down its St. Davids cannery, eliminating the market for 150 tender fruit growers here, to buy peaches and pears abroad while still indicating on the labelling that it’s a product of Canada.

“We have not paid attention to local food production,” said Rocha. “We’ve relied too much on being able to bring food from far-away places.

“We have not made the right decisions.”

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture released a study last year that found 95 per cent of respondents are willing to support Canadian agriculture though their purchases and that they are willing to pay a “small” premium for quality.

The federation envisions a new label on food indicating that it was produced and processed here, that the product was produced with the Canadian safety and environmental standards, and that the farmer who produced it received a fair return.

Thomas Axworthy, chair for the Study at Democracy at Queen’s University, told the Toronto Star last month that Denmark is going a step further and is experimenting with a barcode that can tell consumers about the history of produce. The irony of what’s being called a “world food crisis,” at a time when farmers here are being paid by the government to rip out juice grape vines and chainsaw tender fruit trees with the looming closure of CanGro, hasn’t been lost on West Lincoln’s Durham.

“We’re playing politics with our food,” he said, “and we’re going to pay for it.”