Bridging Western and Indigenous epistemologies in an opaque world

Food security and food sovereignty as climate adaptation

Abstract

Food security and food sovereignty represent two similar but distinct pathways for community-led climate adaptation. This study examines how two North American organizations—The Kake Tribal Heritage Foundation (Alaska) and La Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Ecológica (Puerto Rico)—integrate Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and Western Science (WS) to strengthen food systems against climate-related challenges such as extreme weather, supply chain disruptions, and socio-economic inequities. Kake focuses on food security, while Organización Boricuá focuses on food sovereignty. We explore how these community organizations leverage sustainable practices, culturally rooted knowledge, and community engagement to build resilience by integrating IK and WS through these differing approaches. While both groups integrate IK and WS, tensions persist between IK’s empha­sis on relational, long-term stewardship and WS’s empirical, replicable methods. However, these case studies illustrate how food systems initiatives serve as adaptable climate strategies through integrating local and Indigenous knowledge with broader Western scientific environmental frameworks.