Is Community Economic Development Putting Healthy Food On The Table? Food Sovereignty in Northern Manitoba’s Aboriginal Communities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/jaed301Keywords:
Access, Business And Economics, Climate change, Colonial government, Colonialism, Community, Economic development, Ethnic Interests, Fish, Fishing, Food prices, Food security, Gardens & gardening, Harvest, Healthy food, Hunting, Indigenous peoples, Insecurity, Livelihood, Native peoples, Northern communities, Nutrition, Poverty, Self sufficiency, Sovereignty, SustainabilityAbstract
Food-related community economic development (CED) is making a difference in northern communities where food insecurity rates are very high at 75% (n=534). People in northern Manitoba reported in interviews that hunting, fishing, berry-picking and gardening made them self-sufficient, in the recent past (25 to 50 years ago), but now many children and adults cannot afford to eat healthy. Presently many financial and regulatory barriers to country foods exist, which severely curtails food sovereignty and sustainable livelihood, while increasing food insecurity. The Nelson House Country Foods Program, which employs people to hunt and fish to feed the community, is related to better food security rates (p<0.001). The Northern Healthy Food Initiatives (NHFI) application of a CED approach is having an impact on community building according to observations which found 33 new gardens in 2009 alone, as well as 7 new greenhouses and hundreds of new freezers in the 14 communities studied. Northern Aboriginal communities were found to have unique food access issues that resulted in a new Aboriginal food access model to show the factors, including CED, that impact food access and food sovereignty. As well, Aboriginal food sovereignty and sustainable livelihoods model was developed to show how the vulnerability context created by colonial government and climate change has impacted community assets and food security, requiring CED to reestablish sustainable livelihoods and food sovereignty.
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