# A food economist’s case against public grocery stores

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-decibel-3326560/a-food-economist-s-case-against-public-grocery-stores
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-decibel-3326560/a-food-economist-s-case-against-public-grocery-stores.md
Podcast: [The Decibel](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-decibel-3326560)
Published: 2026-05-01T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/the-decibel/
Audio file: https://afp-119681-injected.calisto.simplecastaudio.com/8b638145-9d42-4003-985c-054905c039a5/episodes/37f77657-dad5-486b-8b3b-d608c1fa931d/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=8b638145-9d42-4003-985c-054905c039a5&awEpisodeId=37f77657-dad5-486b-8b3b-d608c1fa931d&feed=TGclX98p
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Duration seconds: 1183

## Resource

Food affordability remains a priority for many Canadians. This week, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government unveiled the spring economic update. It included some already announced measures aimed to make groceries more affordable. But some people are considering others measures to make food cheaper: public grocery stores. Federal NDP leader, Avi Lewis, has been talking about establishing a network of public grocery stores across Canada and municipalities like Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver are also considering the concept. Mike von Massow is a food economist at the University of Guelph. He joins us today to stress-test the concept of public grocery stores and whether they could make food more affordable in Canada.

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## Transcript

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