An Evaluation of Household Country Food Use in Makkovik, Labrador, July 1980-June 1981

Inuit from communities across the Arctic are still existing in subsistence living. Hunting, fishing and gathering is an important part of the culture and the harvested 'country food' provides sources of nutrients invaluable to maintaining the health of the populations. However, Inuit are voicing their concerns on how observed climate change is impacting on their traditional life. The objective of this study was to report on observed climate changes and how they affect the country food harvest in two communities in the Canadian Arctic. The nutritional implications of these changes are discussed and also how the communities need to plan for adaptations. A total of 17 adult participants from Repulse Bay and Kugaaruk, Nunavut were invited to participate. Participants were selected using purposeful sampling methods selecting the most knowledgeable community members for the study. Inuit Elders, hunters, processors of the animals, and other community members above the age of 18 years were selected for their knowledge of harvesting and the environment. Two-day bilingual focus groups using semi-directed, unstructured questions were held in each community to discuss perceived climate changes related to the access and availability of key species. Key topics of focus included ice, snow, weather, marine mammals, land mammals, fish, species ranges, migration patterns, and quality and quantity of animal populations. Maps were used to pinpoint harvesting locations. A qualitative analysis categorizing strategy was used for analysis of data. This strategy involves coding data in order to form themes and to allow for cross-comparison analysis between communities. Each major animal represented a category; other categories included land, sea, and weather. Results were verified by the participants and community leaders. Three themes emerged from the observations: (1) ice/snow/water; (2) weather; and (3) changes in species. Climate change can affect the accessibility and availability of the key species of country foods including caribou, marine mammals, fish, birds and plants. Various observations on relationship between weather and population health and distributions of the animal/plant species were reported. While many of the observations were common between the two communities, many were community specific and inconsistent. Participants from both communities found that climate change was affecting the country food harvest in both positive and negative ways. Key nutrients that could be affected are protein, iron, zinc, n-3 fatty acids, selenium and vitamins D and A. Community members from Repulse Bay and Kugaaruk have confirmed that climate change is affecting their traditional food system. Local and regional efforts are needed to plan for food security and health promotion in the region, and global actions are needed to slow down the process of climate change.

Access to and availability of food harvested from the land (called traditional food, country food, or wild food) are critical to food security and food sovereignty of Indigenous People. These foods can be particularly difficult to access for those living in urban environments. We ask: what policies are involved in the regulation of traditional/country foods and how do these policies affect access to traditional/country food for Indigenous Peoples living in urban centers? Which policies act as barriers? This paper provides a comparative policy analysis of wild food policies across Ontario, the Northwest Territories (NWT), and the Yukon Territory, Canada, by examining and making comparisons between various pieces of legislation, such as fish and wildlife acts, hunting regulations, food premises legislation, and meat inspection regulations. We provide examples of how some programs serving Indigenous Peoples have managed to provide wild foods, using creative ways to operate within the existing system. While there is overwhelming evidence that traditional/country food plays a critical role for the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples within Canada, Indigenous food systems are often undermined by provincial and territorial wild food policies. Provinces like Ontario with more restrictive policies may be able to learn from the policies in the Territories. We found that on a system level, there are significant constraints on the accessibility of wild foods in urban spaces because the regulatory food environment is designed to manage a colonial market-based system that devalues Indigenous values of sharing and reciprocity and Indigenous food systems, particularly for traditional/country foods. Dismantling the barriers to traditional/country food access in that system can be an important way forward.

Country foods (i.e. wild traditional food) are associated with improved nutrition for northern populations. In response to community concerns, a project was implemented from 2019 to 2021 in the Sahtú region, Northwest Territories, Canada, to: 1) analyse nutrition biomarkers (vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, D, E, folate, P, Na) in blood samples, in order to assess nutritional status and identify nutrient deficiencies, and 2) use a survey to document how access to country foods may improve food security in the community of Tulı́t’a. Findings from the nutritional biomarker assessments (n = 128) indicated that 94% of participants experienced clinical vitamin D deficiency (<20 ng/L of plasma 25-hydroxy-vitamin D3) and 9% had folate deficiency (<8.7 nmol/L total folate). In the previous 12 months, 71% of participants did not always have money to get more food when needed, but 92% of participants said they were not left hungry. Country foods were used to increase the quality or quantity of the diet. Increasing country food consumption, such as fatty fish and large game meat and organs could mitigate the vitamin D and folate deficiencies. Policies should be implemented to improve food security in the North by facilitating access to country food.

Bones or skeletal remains can be used to answer a number of questions related to species, sex, age or cause of death. However, studies involving vertebrae have been limited as most were performed on skulls or long bones. Here, we have stated the hypothesis that the morphometry of cervical vertebrae can be used for species identification and body size estimation among marine and land mammals. The cervical vertebrae from eight and 14 species of marine and land mammals were used to collect morphometric data. Cluster dendrogram, principal component analysis, discriminant analysis and linear regression were used to analyse the data. The results indicate that, based on an index of C4 to C7, there were 13 out of 22 species for which identity could be correctly predicted in 100% of the cases. The correlations between cervical vertebrae parameters (height, width and length of centrum) in marine (average R2= 0.87, p<.01) and land (average R2= 0.51, p<.01) mammals were observed. These results indicate that vertebral morphometrics could be used for species prediction and verification of body weight in both marine and land mammals.

This study examined food consumption patterns of native (Indian and Metis) Canadians living in a boreal forest area with good access to both store-bought and country foods (traditional foods from the land, such as wild animals, birds, fish and berries). Frequency of use by season of 48 country foods by 120 households was examined by interview with the female household head. Twenty-four-hour recalls of individual food consumption on four separate days over two seasons were obtained by interview with 178 persons (71 males, 107 females) age 13-86 years, and the mean values per person were used to represent their usual intakes. The mean reported household frequency of use (number of occasions per year) was as follows: all country foods 319, including large mammals 128, berries 63, fish 62, birds 32, and small mammals 27. The upper quintile of households used country food two and one-half times more often than the sample as a whole. Recalls of individual food consumption showed that country food was consumed on average 4.2 times per week and averaged 0.5 kg per week. Country meat, birds and fish accounted for one-third of the total consumption of meat, birds and fish. Young people consumed less country food than did their elders. Thus, country food constitutes an important part of the food supply, especially of meat and fish of many native people of this region.Key words: country food, food consumption patterns, Indians, Metis, native Canadians

The destruction of Indigenous food systems is a direct consequence of the settler-colonial project within Canada and has led to decreasing access to Indigenous foods, disproportionate rates of food insecurity and disconnection from Indigenous food systems and environments. We interviewed Indigenous women, non-Indigenous staff of Indigenous-serving organizations, and policymakers (i.e., those who develop, interpret, or implement wild food policy) to explore how the policy context has impacted Indigenous women and their communities’ experiences of accessing Indigenous foods in urban northwestern Ontario. We applied an Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis (IBPA) Framework to shape our research questions and guide the thematic analysis of the data. We found that stakeholder groups had differing understandings of the issue of accessing wild foods and Indigenous food security and their actions either supported or disrupted efforts for access to wild food to promote food security or Indigenous Food Sovereignty. Policymakers cited necessary barriers to promote food safety and support conservation of wildlife. Staff of Indigenous-serving organizations approached the issue with consideration of both Western and Indigenous worldviews, while Indigenous women spoke about the ongoing impacts of colonial policy and government control over their lands and territories. The main policy areas discussed included residential school policy, food regulation, and natural resource regulation. We also investigated community-level strategies for improvement, such as a wild game license. Throughout, we tied the colonial control over ‘wildlife’ and the Western food safety discourse, with infringements on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, experiences of racism in food settings and on the land, as well as with broad control over Indigenous sovereignty in Ontario. This work contributes to an increased understanding of how Western discourses about health, food, and the environment are perpetuated through systemic racism in government policy and reiterated through policymakers' views and interpretations or actions. Government institutions must develop culturally safe partnerships with Indigenous leaders and organizations to facilitate a transfer of power that can support Indigenous Food Sovereignty.

The contribution of country food to the diets of residents of Makkovik, Labrador, reflects the seasonal availability of different species on the northern Labrador coast. The nutrient density of the wild food component of the food supply varies from season to season according to the relative contribution of the various species harvested. In the summer, the level of calcium is somewhat higher than in most other seasons, reflecting the large contribution of fish. In early fall, the nutrient density for iron is the lowest for all seasons, and the level of calcium decreases to about half of that of summer. In late fall, the nutrient density of the country food harvested for household use has the highest density of thiamin, reflecting the contribution from the migratory birds, and the second highest density of iron, reflecting the increase in percentage contribution of seals. In winter the iron density is approximately twice that of other seasons. The level of calcium increases, reflecting the contribution from partridge and ptarmigan. In early spring the large contribution of caribou provides a high protein content, while for riboflavin it is the highest of any season. In late spring the nutrient density reflects the large percentage of fish. Dietary patterns of a population depending on country food for much of its food supply change from one season to another, and nutrient intakes also vary from season to season. These factors must be considered when evaluating dietary intakes and making nutritional inferences.Key words: country food, nutrient density, nutrition, Subarctic, Labrador

Chapter 24 - Climate change, contaminants, and country food: collaborating with communities to promote food security in the Arctic

USE OF ANTI-CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN THE COUNTRY'S FOOD SUPPLY

Wild foods as drivers of blood ergothioneine and selenoneine concentrations among Inuit living in Nunavik: results from the cross-sectional Qanuilirpitaa? 2017 survey

To environmental toxicologists, the Arctic by the 1990s was becoming known as the final destination for a number of manufactured poisons, including, most notably, dioxins and polyvinyl biphenyls (PCBs), which accumulate in the body fat of large aquatic and land mammals (including human beings), sometimes reaching levels that imperil their survival. Thus the Arctic, which seems so clean on the surface, has become one of the most contaminated places on Earth—a place where Inuit mothers think twice before breast-feeding their babies because high levels of dioxins and other industrial chemicals are being detected in their breast milk and where a traditional diet of "country food" has become dangerous to the Inuit's health. The toxicological due bills for modern industry at the lower latitudes are being left on the Inuit's table in Nunavut. Native people whose diets consist largely of sea animals (whales, polar bears, fish, and seals) have been consuming a concentrated, toxic chemical cocktail. Most of the chemicals that now afflict the Inuit are synthetic compounds of chlorine, and some of them are incredibly toxic. For example, one millionth of a gram of dioxin will kill a guinea pig. 1 To a tourist with no interest in environmental toxicology, the Inuit's Arctic homeland may seem as pristine as ever during its long, snow-swept winters. Many Inuit still guide dogsleds onto the packed ice surrounding their Arctic-island homelands to hunt polar bears and seals. Such a scene may seem pristine, until one realizes that the polar bears' and seals' body fats are laced with dioxins and PCBs. "As we put our babies to our breasts we are feeding them a noxious, toxic cocktail," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a grandmother who also serves as president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference ICC. "When women have to think twice about breast-feeding their babies, surely that must be a wake-up call to the world." 2 Watt-Cloutier was raised in an Inuit community in remote northern Quebec. Unknown to her at the time, toxic chemicals were being absorbed by her body and those of other Inuit in the Arctic. As an adult Watt-Cloutier ranged between her home in Iqaluit (pronounced "Eehalooeet," capital of the new [End Page 479] semisovereign Nunavut Territory) to Montreal, New York City, and other southern points, doing her best to alert the world to toxic poisoning and other perils faced by her people. The ICC represents the interests of roughly 140,000 Inuit living around the North Pole from Nunavut (which means "our home" in the Inuktitut language) to Alaska and Russia. Nunavut itself, a territory four times the size of France, has a population of roughly 25,000, 85 percent of whom are Inuit. Some elders and hunters in Iqaluit have reported physical abnormalities afflicting the seals they catch, including some seals without hair "and seals and walruses with burn-like holes in their skin[s]." 3 Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been linked to cancer, birth defects, and other neurological, reproductive, and immune system damage in people and animals. At high levels, these chemicals also damage the central nervous system. Many of them also act as endocrine disrupters, causing deformities in sex organs as well as long-term dysfunction of reproductive systems. POPs also can interfere with the function of the brain and endocrine system by penetrating the placental barrier and scrambling the instructions of naturally produced chemical messengers. The latter tell a fetus how to develop in the womb and postnatally through puberty; should interference occur, immune, nervous, and reproductive systems may not develop as programmed by the genes inherited by the embryo. Pesticide residues in the Arctic today may include some pesticides used decades ago in the southern United States. The Arctic's cold climate slows the natural decomposition of these toxins, so they persist in the Arctic environment longer than at lower latitudes. The...

The article presents the criteria and indicators that characterize the country's food security. The foreign experience in the regulation of food security is considered, the use of which in the Republic of Kazakhstan will create conditions for the sustainable development of production, increasing the competitiveness of domestic products, and the formation of an efficiently functioning food market. At the initial stage, the evaluation criteria were the per capita incomes of the population and the carryover stocks of food grains (first at the level of 20% and then 16% of the total annual consumption), now the evaluation criteria are expanding and becoming more complex. The criteria for food security include: the sustainability of the development of the agro-industrial complex (APC), fisheries and forestry, which increases the production of food to increase inventories and in the event of food aid to other countries that have suffered natural disasters or wars; A high level of scientific achievements, increasing technical and technological equipment, improving the gene pool of livestock and crop production; Environmental and nature conservation policies and practices that ensure the conservation and improvement of soil fertility, yield, etc. When establishing the criteria for national food security, it is necessary to take into account that they should characterize the level of satisfaction of the population’s food needs, as well as the degree of sustainability of the country’s food supply. The economic basis of national security in the food sector is the provision of basic food for the population of the country. This means that if an uninterrupted supply of basic foodstuffs is sufficient for medical purposes, the country’s food security can be considered guaranteed.

Environmental contaminants and human health in the Canadian Arctic

Rapid urbanisation and food system transformation in Africa have been accompanied by growing food insecurity, reduced dietary diversity, and an epidemic of non-communicable disease. While the contribution of wild and indigenous foods (WIF) to the quality of rural household diets has been the subject of longstanding attention, research on their consumption and role among urban households is more recent. This paper provides a case study of the consumption of WIF in the urban corridor of northern Namibia with close ties to the surrounding rural agricultural areas. The research methodology involved a representative household food security survey of 851 urban households using tablets and ODK Collect. The key methods for data analysis included descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regression. The main findings of the analysis included the fact that WIFs are consumed by most households, but with markedly different frequencies. Frequent consumers of WIF are most likely to be female-centred households, in the lowest income quintiles, and with the highest lived poverty. Frequent consumption is not related to food security, but is higher in households with low dietary diversity. Infrequent or occasional consumers tend to be higher-income households with low lived poverty and higher levels of food security. We conclude that frequent consumers use WIF to diversify their diets and that occasional consumers eat WIF more for reasons of cultural preference and taste than necessity. Recommendations for future research include the nature of the supply chains that bring WIF to urban consumers, intra-household consumption of WIF, and in-depth interviews about the reasons for household consumption of WIF and preferences for certain types of wild food.

The pervasive and persistent impact of agricultural de-development is a common thread through the agrarian south. Until about two generations ago, Yemen had been agriculturally self-sufficient owing to its fabled systems of agriculture. However, bad policy, bad evidence, bad governance, and constant warfare have each played their respective part in forging the country's food crisis, rural impoverishment, and ecological distress. To address these root causes of Yemen's social dislocation and dismantling of its indigenous agroecological practices and self-sufficient food economy, I bring into focus the fundamental question of Yemen's national development by way of posing the agrarian question in Yemen as a question of independence and autonomy. I argue for sensible, inward-looking, and pro-production policy action that not only promotes durable growth but also progressively restores Yemenis' sovereignty as well as security.