Local foods are critical to the food security and health of Indigenous peoples around the world, but the importance – both monetary and environmental – of local “informal” economies is often not visible to policymakers.
In a new paper, published on the PNAS website, researchers combine data from multiple sources and use Bayesian inference techniques to estimate the carbon emissions that would be produced by market replacements for local food in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Canada.
They show that Inuit harvesting is more carbon efficient than importing market substitutes, in addition to being less reliant on vulnerable supply chains. The findings highlight the importance of place-based and culturally-informed approaches to climate policy for remote and Indigenous communities.
The paper, Indigenous food production in a carbon economy, is written by Elspeth Ready from the University of Florida, Cody T Ross and Bret Beheim from the Max Planck Institute and Jenn Parrott from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation.
The researchers say that, “The Inuvialuit Traditional Economy is an economic system based on the harvesting, sharing, and use of wildlife that has persisted despite the disruptive impact of settlement and integration into the cash economy over the last century.
“However, Inuvialuit harvesting activities today are heavily dependent on gasoline, a dependence that is rooted in colonial policies.
“Given the remote location and climate of the [Inuvialuit Settlement Region], and the needs of the current population, this dependence on gasoline cannot be easily reduced with currently available technology.
“Arctic communities, like remote communities elsewhere in the world, are much more constrained in their ability to decrease fossil fuel reliance than urban, better connected, or more densely populated regions.
“The Arctic is also at a major competitive disadvantage in the global economy, an issue which is reflected in the high cost of living, limited economic opportunities, and high rates of poverty in Inuit Nunangat.”
Indigenous communities in the North American Arctic are characterised by mixed economies that feature hunting, fishing, gathering, and trapping activities – and associated sharing practices – alongside the formal wage economy.
The region is also undergoing rapid social, economic, and climate changes, including, in Canada, carbon taxation, which is impacting the cost of fuel used in local food harvesting.
Because of the importance of local foods to nutrition, health, and well-being in Arctic Indigenous communities, there is an urgent need to better understand the sensitivity of Arctic food systems to social, economic, and climate changes and to develop plans for mitigating potential adverse effects.
The researchers said, “Our estimates suggest that under plausible scenarios, replacing locally harvested foods with imported market substitutes would cost over 3.1 million Canadian dollars per year and emit over 1,000 tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per year, regardless of the shipping scenario.
“In contrast, we estimate that gasoline inputs to harvesting cost approximately $295,000 and result in 315 to 497 tons of emissions.
“These results indicate that climate change policies that fail to account for local food production may undermine emissions targets and adversely impact food security and health in Arctic Indigenous communities, who already experience a high cost of living and high rates of food insecurity.”
Read the research, Indigenous food production in a carbon economy