Abstract
Climate change driven food insecurity has emerged as a topic of special concern in the Canadian Arctic. Inuit communities in this region rely heavily on subsistence; however, access to traditional food sources may have been compromised due to climate change. Drawing from a total of 25 interviews among Inuit elders and experienced hunters from Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk in Nunavut, Canada, this research examines how climate change is impacting food sovereignty and health. Our results show that reports of food insecurity were more pronounced in Kugluktuk than Cambridge Bay. Participants in Kugluktuk consistently noted declining availability of preferred fish and game species (e.g., caribou, Arctic char), a decline in participation of sharing networks, and overall increased difficulty accessing traditional foods. Respondents in both communities presented a consistent picture of climate change compounding existing socio-economic (e.g., poverty, disconnect between elders and youth) and health stressors affecting multiple aspects of food sovereignty. This article presents a situated understanding of how climate change as well as other sociocultural factors are eroding food sovereignty at the community-scale in the Arctic. We argue that a communal focus is required to address resilience and adaptation at the local level through programs that protect the local cultural knowledge, traditional ways of life, and indigenous sovereignty to reduce the severities of food insecurity in the Arctic stemming from climate change.
Highlights
Food sovereignty in the Arctic is deeply tied to an ethic of subsistence, of being able to harvest fresh food from the immediate environment year-round [1,2]
We argue that a communal focus is required to address resilience and adaptation at the local level through programs that protect the local cultural knowledge, traditional ways of life, and indigenous sovereignty to reduce the severities of food insecurity in the Arctic stemming from climate change
We argue that climate change threatens food sovereignty and increases structural inequities in the Arctic
Summary
Food sovereignty in the Arctic is deeply tied to an ethic of subsistence, of being able to harvest fresh food from the immediate environment year-round [1,2]. The Inuit have provided for themselves through hard work and ingenuity for centuries directly from the land and sea with knowledge passed down to them through generations [3,4]. While the practice of subsistence has suffered many setbacks by colonization, assimilation, and globalization over the years, it has carried through to this day to face yet another challenge of an environment that is changing too fast [3,6]. Parts of the Arctic are warming twice as fast as the global average [7,8,9], with the most dramatic changes occurring in the winter seasons [9]. The sea ice that the Inuit travel over and where they hunt has generally become thinner, recedes faster in the spring, and arrives
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