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BackgroundCommunity members, Aboriginal organizations, public servants and academics have long been describing a desperate situation of food insecurity in the Eastern Canadian Arctic.ObjectiveThe Nunavut Food Security Coalition, a partnership of Inuit Organizations and the Government of Nunavut, is collaborating to develop a territorial food security strategy to address pervasive food insecurity in the context of poverty reduction.DesignThe Nunavut Food Security Coalition has carried out this work using a community consultation model. The research was collected through community visits, stakeholder consultation and member checking at the Nunavut Food Security Symposium.ResultsIn this paper, we describe a continuous course of action, based on community engagement and collective action, that has led to sustained political interest in and public mobilization around the issue of food insecurity in Nunavut.ConclusionsThe process described in this article is a unique collaboration between multiple organizations that has led to the development of a sustainable partnership that will inform policy development while representing the voice of Nunavummiut.

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This chapter serves as an introduction to the concepts of dairy herd health. Topics discussed include the reasons for improving the health of farmed livestock, definition of herd health, practical implementation of herd health (appreciating client aspirations, establishing farm-specific goals, measuring performance and setting targets, importance of data recording and analysis, structure of the herd health visit and charging for herd health) and other factors to consider for successful implementation of a herd health programme (training of farm staff, cow's environment and relevance of genetics in herd health).

This study examines how climatic extremes during winter 2010–2011 affected the traditional food system in Iqaluit, Nunavut. This winter was anomalous throughout the Canadian Arctic, and manifested itself locally by warmer temperatures and decreased ice coverage. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with hunters (n = 25), a fixed question survey with public housing residents (n = 100), as well as analysis of remotely sensed sea-ice charts and temperature data from the Iqaluit weather station, this work identifies and characterises the extreme climatic conditions experienced, their subsequent effects on Iqaluit's traditional food system, and coping strategies used for dealing with food-related stresses. The results show increased environmental stress on the traditional food system compared to previous years. Freeze up occurred 59 days later than the average for the 1982–2010 period, while mean annual temperatures were 4.9ºC higher than the climatological mean, which negatively impacted hunters’ harvests and residents’ food supplies. Coping strategies alleviated some stresses, but adaptability was limited for financially insecure households reliant on income support. The study shows that when challenging socioeconomic conditions, such as those associated with public housing, are coupled with significant environmental stress, such as experienced during that winter, the vulnerability of the traditional food system is exacerbated. We suggest that winter 2010–2011 can be used as an analogue for exploring future food system vulnerabilities, with climate models projecting similar conditions in the coming decades.