Eating in Place: Mapping Alternative Food Procurement in Canadian Indigenous Communities

Abstract

This paper reports on alternative food procurement initiatives in Canadian Indigenous communities. Like many communities around the world, they have experienced the 'nutrition transition' toward nutritionally compromised industrial food, with debilitating results. Much of this change in nutritional status has been created by a lethal combination of self-serving government policy and predatory corporate practice that ghettoizes Indigenous communities within a for-profit pseudo-food system. To find solutions to the colonially structured food deserts imposed on them, many Indigenous communities have turned to the social economy, initiating projects such as community gardens, greenhouses, and cooperatives. While largely unrecognized in the wider world, these initiatives are created and managed by communities, for the benefit of communities, giving us a deeper understanding of what place-based food systems can accomplish.

The Retail Food Sector and Indigenous Peoples in High-Income Countries: A Systematic Scoping Review

“…A total of nine articles mapped and/or inventoried the number/density, type, and/or location of food stores in (or in proximity to) Indigenous communities [65][66][67][68][69][70] (Table 1). These were based on both empirical (e.g., existing data sources, on-site observations) and respondent-based methods involving community knowledge/perceptions (e.g., asset mapping).…”

“…An additional attribute of local stores which may impact local food supplies involves store operating practices/philosophies, community governance, and involvement of the health sector in defining retail practices and policies-all of which vary markedly across stores and regions. The need to include Indigenous priorities in store management and operations is highlighted in several studies-including the need for ongoing communication between stores and communities, community co-operatives, and Indigenous-owned businesses [56,63,70]. Many stores in Indigenous communities, however, are associated with corporate chains and/or are managed by non-Indigenous people [71,76].…”

“…While these issues are recognized to affect retailing operations across remote Indigenous communities-from the Arctic to Australia, including the potential for similar dynamics in the Pacific Islands-their impact on food supply and community health remains limitedly examined in the literature. Despite successful examples in the literatures of alternative food supply streams (e.g., direct exchanges between northern fishers and southern farmers [148], bulk ordering for community [70,142], and sourcing food from local producers [161,202], there are considerable challenges to practical implementation. Furthermore, there may be community concern that such initiatives undermine more locally controlled food systems [148].…”

Native and Indigenous Populations and Gastric Cancer: A Worldwide Review

“…Throughout the history of colonialism, tribal lands have been seized and populations removed onto land not conducive to farming or sustainable food sources [12]. Indigenous populations throughout the world have been stripped of their resources with many Indigenous people living in areas that are classified as 'food deserts' [13]. Indigenous populations are more likely to be food insecure compared to the general population of their country [14][15][16].…”

The study of life and food systems for Native Hawaiians based on their environment

“…Even after controlling for geographic location, Indigenous Peoples experience greater rates of health disparities and lower mortality compared to non-Indigenous Peoples (Damman et al, 2008;King et al, 2009;Stephens et al, 2006). These health inequities have been linked to socio-cultural determinants of health, such as historical trauma and food insecurity stemming from environmental changes that result from climate change, modernization, and colonization (Evans-Campbell, 2008;Ingram, 2011;Mohatt et al, 2014;Sproat, 2016;Sumner et al, 2019).…”