MONTREAL – A food security and nutrition crisis could be looming in Canada’s Arctic as climate change threatens traditional food sources for the Innu, says a McGill University researcher.
Grace Egeland, Canada Research Chair in environment, nutrition and health at McGill, told a conference on global food security Oct. 20 that a survey in Nunavut found that 70 percent of homes with pre-school children met the definition of “food insecure” developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
However, many of those families had access to more protein than the urban-oriented survey suggested because they supplemented their diet during parts of the year with traditional food including seal and caribou.
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But Egeland said the early and obvious impacts of climate change in the Arctic could spell disaster, including softening ice and changes in animal migratory practices.
“I believe we are at the brink of a crisis in the Arctic,” she said.
While much of the discussion was about food insecurity in the developing world, where an estimated 925 million people are chronically hungry, her presentation on malnutrition in northern Canada added a rare domestic glimpse into a worldwide problem.
“Climate change will have a profound impact on the availability of traditional food,” she said. “So we would expect to see a decline in protein consumption in the Arctic.”
An estimated 55,000 Innu live in Canada’s North.
Their traditional life as nomads following their food sources ended in the 1950s as the Canadian government relocated them to permanent settlements.
“They were forced resettlements,” Egeland said.
It was a time of famine in the North, both before and after the resettlements.
The traditional diet was suddenly replaced by food flown in from the south, and many Innu became dependent.
Egeland said the Canadian government spends tens of millions of dollars to subsidize food shipments north through the “food mail program,” and yet a typical northern food basket costs twice as much as the same food basket in southern Canada.
For many Innu, the ability to earn money for the high-priced food is limited.
She said the survey showed that in most households with pre-school children, parents and children skipped meals, sometimes for a day, because there was not enough money to buy food.
Typically, adults reported more missed meals as they tried to provide for their children.
It is a classic measure of a food vulnerable family.
In an interview after her speech, Egeland said she was not suggesting northern residents will return to the days of famine, which would be unacceptable in modern Canada.
And she said Innu do not want to return to the old days of living off the land and being nomads following their food.
“But I believe we will see a decline in the northern diet and nutrition when traditional food sources are affected by climate change,” she said.
“Southern protein sources could replace them, but they are very expensive. I would expect more sugar and carbohydrates in the diet for energy and that has problems.”
