Food Security:

“exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”(1).

Food Sovereignty:

“is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems”(2).

Within an Indigenous context, food sovereignty is described:

“As Indigenous People we understand that food is a gift and that we have a sacred responsibility to nurture healthy, interdependent relationships with the land, water, plants and animals that provide us with our food. This also means, having the ability to respond to our own needs for safe, healthy, culturally relevant indigenous foods with the ability to make decisions over the amount and quality of food we hunt, fish, gather, grow and eat. These rights are asserted on a daily basis for the benefit of present and future generations.” (3).

For more about food security and the linkages with health, please visit: http://proof.utoronto.ca/resources/fact-sheets/#health

Sustainable food systems:

A food system has many parts. In general, the food system refers to the path food takes from the land to our stomachs. It includes everything from growing and harvesting, processing, transporting, storing, managing/marketing, paying for, eating and how we handle food scraps and packaging.  

A sustainable community/regional food system is a collaborative network that integrates sustainable food production, processing, distribution, consumption and waste management to enhance the environmental, economic and social health of a particular place. It must be informed by community identified values and principles and requires people from all aspects of the system to work together now and in the future. As our climate changes, we have more to consider at every point in the system.

Food security and food sovereignty are pressing issues across the Yukon and the North and have been identified as priority concerns for the health and well-being of northern residents, and particularly for Indigenous citizens. The ability to access sufficient amounts of nutritious and safe foods affects northerners in different ways. For example, accessing foods harvested from the land can be challenging with changing land conditions, high fuel and equipment costs, and changes to wild. Food insecurity is serious public health problem because when individuals are food insecure they are not getting enough of the right nutrients to be able to lead a healthy, active life. The stress of not having enough food to feed yourself and your family deeply affects a person's wellbeing. When children grow up hungry they are more likely to experience poor health conditions later in life, particularly depression and asthma; adults living in food insecure households have higher rates of depression, diabetes and heart disease (source). Food security is linked to environmental, economic and social health of a particular place and the wellbeing of its people. When people are food insecure, they are less likely to be able to live a fulfilled, balanced and productive life. Long-term food insecurity not only affects the individual but affects the population as a whole.

In 2017-18, Food insecurity affected 1 in 8 Canadians (4.4 million Canadians) (4). In Yukon, 16.9% of Yukon was food insecure.

Food security and food sovereignty are pressing issues across the Yukon and the North and have been identified as priority concerns for the health and well-being of northern residents, and particularly for Indigenous citizens. The ability to access sufficient amounts of nutritious and safe foods affects northerners in different ways. For example, accessing foods harvested from the land can be challenging with changing land conditions, high fuel and equipment costs, and changes to wildlife health and migration patterns. Store-bought foods can be very expensive, of poor quality and poor selection and are also vulnerable to climate change because of transportation and supply routes from the South to changing environment.

The Council of Canadian Academies published a landmark report earlier this year titled Aboriginal Food Security in Northern Canada: An Assessment of the State of Knowledge (5). This report emphasizes the serious challenges northern communities are facing with respect to food security. The Report also notes that “...the Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research...[is an] important resource for current and future research and policy development related to food security and northern Aboriginal peoples” (ibid. p.xxi).

sources:

1. Federal Agricultural Organization of the United States (FAO). (2009). Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security. World Summit on Food Security Rome, Italy: 16‐18 November 2009.

2. La Via Campesina. International Peasants Movement. www.viacampesina.org

3. First Nations Health Council. (2009). Healthy Food Guidelines for First Nations Communities. First Nations Health Council, British Columbia.

4. Tarasuk V, Mitchell A. (2020) Household food insecurity in Canada, 2017-18. Toronto: Research to identify policy options to reduce food insecurity (PROOF). [Free full report]

5. Council of Canadian Academies (2014) Aboriginal Food Security in Northern Canada: An Assessment of the State of Knowledge, Ottawa, ON. The Expert Panel on the State of Knowledge of Food Security in Northern Canada, Council of Canadian Academies.