General Background: Food Security in the Arctic-Barents Region

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The Arctic-Barents region is being transformed due to a number of stressors, such as climate change, economic globalization and a rapid increase in various human activities. These stressors affect the food system in the region in regard to its availability and accessibility. In addition, the affordability of food is also argued to be affected due to the disproportionate level of income of the population inhabiting the region. Availability is impacted by frequent changes in the environment and weather conditions that cause food to become unreliable and sometimes unavailable. The accessibility of food under such transformations changes dramatically, especially for those individuals who use sea ice and soft snow as a means to access and store their food. The affordability of food has changed for the better dramatically in recent years, as store-bought food has become more accessible in the Barents region due to the effect of globalization, yet it does come at a price. The prices of market foods are often dictated by supply and demand from the international market; this coupled with the changing availability and accessibility of local foods leaves the people with no choice but to rely on these store-bought foods. However, the rising cost of energy and the need to reduce fossil fuel usage to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have led to a need for lowering food miles along the food chain, which eventually offers environmental sustainability in line with food security.