Eating in Place: Mapping Alternative Food Procurement in Canadian Indigenous Communities

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2019.09B.016

Keywords:

Colonially Structured Food Deserts, Food Procurement, Indigenous Communities, Nutrition Transition, Place-Based Food Systems, Social Economy

Abstract

This paper reports on alternative food procure­ment initiatives in Canadian Indigenous commu­nities. Like many communities around the world, they have experienced the ‘nutrition transition’ toward nutritionally compromised industrial food, with debilitating results. Much of this change in nutritional status has been created by a lethal com­bination of self-serving government policy and predatory corporate practice that ghettoizes Indige­nous communities within a for-profit pseudo-food system. To find solutions to the colonially struc­tured food deserts imposed on them, many Indige­nous communities have turned to the social econ­omy, initiating projects such as community gar­dens, greenhouses, and co-operatives. While largely unrecognized in the wider world, these initiatives are created and managed by communities, for the benefit of communities, giving us a deeper under­standing of what place-based food systems can accomplish.

Note: This paper is also part of the proceedings of the Place-Based Food Systems Conference, published as JAFSCD volume 9, supplement 1.

See the press release for this article. 

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Author Biographies

Jennifer Sumner, University of Toronto

Lecturer, Adult Education and Community Development Program, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

M. Derya Tarhan, University of Toronto

PhD Candidate, Adult Education and Community Development Program, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

J. J. McMurtry, York University

Dean, Liberal Arts and Professional Studies

Logo of the Swette Center at Arizona State University

Published

2019-12-17

How to Cite

Sumner, J., Tarhan, M. D., & McMurtry, J. J. (2019). Eating in Place: Mapping Alternative Food Procurement in Canadian Indigenous Communities. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 9(B), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2019.09B.016

Issue

Section

Indigenous Food Sovereignty Peer-Reviewed Papers