ABSTRACT
People living in remote Arctic communities have limited places to buy food, and often no roads in or out of their communities to travel to other areas for food. Have you thought about what someone living in the Arctic might eat, or how someone might get food? Inuit living in the Canadian Arctic have historically relied on country foods (hunted or trapped animals, other foods gathered from the land) in the extreme conditions in the north. However, recent changes, including moving into permanent settlements, the introduction of formal education, participation in the wage economy, mechanization of hunting and travel, and increased consumption of store-bought foods, has changed the diets of Inuit with consequences to food security. While country foods continue to be important in the lives of many Inuit for food security, fewer people are hunting full-time, and some households are without an active hunter. This shift has increased people’s reliance on processed foods purchased at the store to meet their daily food needs. These foods are often expensive, less nutritious, highly processed to endure long shelf lives, less desirable than country foods, and lack cultural relevance. As such, local and culturally relevant solutions are needed to improve food security and food sovereignty in Canadian Arctic communities. We suggest supporting culturally relevant solutions such as a) the transmission of environmental knowledge and land skills important for subsistence among generations, b) providing harvesters with access to necessary resources, c) securing reliable cold storage in communities (e.g. community freezers) to preserve country foods during increasingly warmer summer months, as well as d) non-country-food related initiatives. Lastly, we offer examples of up and coming opportunities to assist in food security.
