The Impact of Climate Change on Traditional Food Systems

Over the course of millennia, Indigenous peoples in Canada have nurtured a deep connection with their lands and traditional food systems, fostering collective food security and sustainable stewardship practices. However, in the modern day, many factors have negatively impacted Indigenous communities and their traditional way of life. The cumulative impacts of climate change, combined with challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, increasing food prices, industrial impacts, and the encroachment of government and industry on traditional lands have escalated food insecurity and diminished food sovereignty for Indigenous communities. In this context, climate change stands out as a major disruptor affecting Indigenous traditional food systems and the intricate web of interconnected food sources.

In Canada, three distinct Indigenous groups or identities exist: First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

First Nations is a collective term for a diverse group of more than 630 communities, representing more than 50 First Nations and speaking more than 50 languages across Canada.  ^[1]   They are the largest group of Indigenous people in Canada, numbering over 1,000,000.  ^[2]  

The Inuit are an Indigenous people who live primarily within four Inuit regions in Canada, collectively known as Inuit Nunangat. These regions encompass the land, water, and ice stretching from the westernmost Arctic, across Nunavut and northern Québec, to the eastern shores of Newfoundland and Labrador.  ^[3]  

The Métis are a distinct Indigenous people with a unique culture, history, language, and territory that includes the waterways of Ontario, surrounds the Great Lakes, and covers what was previously known as the historic Northwest. The Métis Nation is comprised of descendants of people born of unions between First Nations women and European men.  ^[4]  

Before we talk about climate change, we first need to understand the meaning of traditional food systems and food sovereignty in Indigenous communities.

For countless generations, traditional food systems have played a crucial role in the identity, culture, and health of Indigenous peoples. Traditional foods are those harvested from the land and water. Harvesting activities not only sustain their livelihoods but carry a deep cultural significance, fostering a sense of belonging and connection to ancestral lands and linking them to their heritage and traditions.  ^[6]  

Indigenous communities rely on a variety of traditional food sources that are native to their territories. Their traditional diets vary considerably; meat and fish are prominent in nearly all Indigenous diets, while edible plants vary from nation to nation.

Some examples include wild game (e.g. caribou, moose, deer, and small mammals such as rabbits, ground squirrels and beaver), birds, seafood, fish (e.g. arctic char, salmon, herring), water mammals (e.g. seals, whales, narwhal), and plants (e.g. berries and other wild growing fruits, vegetables, and medicines).  ^[6]   There are many other examples, and each community has their own distinct harvesting techniques, traditions, and locations. As a whole, traditional foods are more nutritious and cost-effective than conventional, market-based foods produced within the industrial food system.  ^[6]  

Note: Various terms exist (traditional food, country food, wild food, cultural food) to describe food that has been harvested from the land, air, and water. The term used depends on the context. For example, in provincial acts and legislation in Canada, they are referred to as wild foods or wild game. Traditional food is the term often preferred by First Nations peoples and country food is the term often preferred by Inuit.  ^[6]  

First defined by La Vía Campesina, a movement in Latin America, food sovereignty is the “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.”   ^[5]  

As the effects of climate change continue to exacerbate the issue of food insecurity in remote northern Indigenous communities across Canada  ^[7]  , food sovereignty has been increasingly brought forward as a potential solution.  ^[8]   Indigenous peoples have emphasized the important connection between food sovereignty and community resiliency to climate change, highlighting the need to support traditional harvesting and local food production.  ^[5]  

As defined by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food insecurity is the inability to access food to meet dietary needs and food preferences. It is also defined by the BC Centre for Disease Control in the following way: Food insecurity exists when factors outside an individual’s control (economic, social, environmental, and geographical) negatively impact their access to enough foods that promote well-being.  ^[9]  

Across Canada, Indigenous families are much more likely to be food insecure, largely as a result of historic marginalization and the impacts of colonialism.  ^[5]   A multitude of factors including low income, high housing and energy costs, transportation challenges, high market food costs, high fuel costs, and lack of access or declining access to traditional foods present barriers to food security in the North. Among the general population in 2023, nearly half (48%) of people who are Indigenous reported having gone hungry in the previous 12 months due to lack of money for food, compared to 15% of the white population. Food insecurity rates during the pre-pandemic era have been recorded as high as 50% for people living on reserve, and up to 76% among Inuit living in Inuit Nunangat.  ^[10]  

As a response to growing food insecurity in northern communities, the Government of Canada established the  Nutrition North Canada  program in 2011 to help make perishable, nutritious food more accessible and affordable than it would otherwise be to residents of eligible isolated northern communities without year-round surface (road, rail or marine) access. However, in the 2023 HungerCount report, Food Banks Canada put forward a recommendation that the government must continue to review Nutrition North Canada to determine why the program is only minimally achieving its objectives of reducing the cost of food in the North and work toward exploring innovative ways the program can better support communities.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, the costs of basic needs such as food, transportation, and fuel were already pronounced in remote and northern regions. These costs were greatly exacerbated by the pandemic and the rapid inflation that occurred in Canada over the past two years. According to Canadian Feed the Children, a 9% increase in food prices will have the same effect as a 20% increase for remote Indigenous communities.  ^[10]  

In recent decades, the percentage of food harvested from traditional sources in Indigenous diets has declined as a result of decreased access to land, loss of harvesting skills, increasing costs or restrictions on hunting, and increased access to store-bought foods. However, many Indigenous communities continue to rely on traditional foods as a significant component of their overall diet.  ^[5]   As food insecurity has risen, many communities have tried to facilitate greater access to traditional foods, which have historically been more nutritious, less expensive and more culturally significant than market (store-bought) foods. However, this is becoming increasingly difficult due to the effects of climate change.

Climate change is significantly impacting Indigenous peoples across Canada and has been a driving disruptor to Indigenous food systems and the interconnected food web.  ^[7]   Even though Indigenous peoples in Canada are among the lowest contributors to greenhouse emissions, academic research shows they are among the most exposed to climate change impacts.  ^[5]   Canada is warming by approximately twice the global average, and northern Canada, where many Indigenous communities are situated, is warming even faster.

In 2019, the federal climate ministry commissioned a  report  projecting shorter snow and ice cover seasons, increasingly warmer temperatures, and thawing permafrost across the country. To emphasize the severity of these trends, climate change-induced permafrost thaw and increased forest fires are pushing historic carbon sinks such as Canada’s vast northern boreal forests to the brink, causing them to become net carbon contributors. Several key sub-Arctic ecosystems, which sustain numerous traditional food sources, are already at risk of reaching climate tipping points. If they exceed these tipping points, they will be unable to recover from the consequences of rapid warming.  ^[5]  

We'll explore more effects of climate change on traditional food sources in the following section.

Communities have observed significant declines in the quantity of animals and plants available for harvesting as a result of climate change. Changing ice and permafrost, wildfires, warming water temperatures, and unpredictable weather are some of the many factors that have influenced species availability near Indigenous communities.

The ability of harvesters to access traditional food sources in a safe, timely, and cost-effective manner is influenced by changing weather, ice conditions, wildfires, and water levels.  ^[5]   Some communities have adjusted their hunting and fishing methods and moved their camps to follow the migration of the animals, with the hopes of providing their families and communities with traditional country foods along with the teachings and knowledge to pass on to the future generations.  ^[11]    The impacts of climate change are leading to increasingly extreme and unpredictable weather patterns, posing greater difficulty and danger for Indigenous peoples to engage in harvesting activities. These challenges are expected to intensify with further warming of the climate.  ^[5]  

Fuel and hunting supplies are critical for communities to be able to hunt on their land. However, harvesting is expensive, requiring individuals to purchase and maintain equipment, transportation, fuel, and provisions for hunting, trapping, or fishing. To accommodate for unpredictable weather, additional food, fuel, and supplies are necessary. Changes in snow and ice conditions may necessitate altering traditional travel routes, potentially leading to increased fuel expenses and longer trips. Moreover, changes in animal migration patterns raise the probability of needing to undertake multiple trips.  ^[5]   As community members need to spend longer periods of time to harvest species that are further away or in unfamiliar locations, the cost of harvesting also extends to lost work and school time.

The impacts of climate change on Indigenous peoples’ ability to access traditional foods are compounded by the limited availability of affordable, nutritious alternatives. Market (grocery) foods are the main alternative to traditional foods and have historically been disproportionately expensive in remote and northern communities due to numerous factors such as high transportation and operating costs.  ^[5]  

Many communities in the North have limited or no road access, with some communities having developed winter road and ice road systems. They typically only have a three-to-four-month timeframe to transport goods, including items that are large enough that the cost of air freight would be worth more than the items themselves. Those ice road systems are the main source for delivering goods and products, including food. However, climate change has affected the stability and availability of winter roads. As they become less reliable in the winter due to warming, communities increasingly rely on more expensive air transport to deliver food, driving up the cost of purchased foods.  ^[5]  

The high costs of transport significantly affects the accessibility of nutritious food, particularly produce. In northern markets, fruits and vegetables (whether fresh, frozen, or canned) tend to be considerably more costly than low-nutrient, processed store-bought foods, such as items rich in sugar, fat, and starch (e.g., cereal, grains, potato chips, and candy). This price discrepancy can be attributed to produce being more susceptible to spoilage during shipment, possessing shorter shelf lives, and requiring controlled temperatures during transportation and storage. In contrast, less nutritious, processed foods are typically dry, resistant to spoilage, and boast stable shelf lives.  ^[5]   Therefore, for many communities, the most economical way to obtain nutritious food is often through traditional foods.

Climate change has forced Indigenous communities to adapt. Many have been moving forward with initiatives to assist with traditional food gathering and retrofitting their communities to deal with climate change. Several communities advocating for more access to high quality, fresh foods, traditional foods, or goods they could grow themselves. Ideal food situations at the community level are holistic and multi-layered. Greenhouses, food literacy programs, meal supports, small scale farming, and food hubs could all play a role. ^[12] 

In Old Crow, a remote Indigenous community in the Yukon, community members have noticed significant changes in the landscape and animal/plant behaviours due to effects of climate change. This short video explains more about their situation and how they are addressing these challenges.

Since time immemorial, the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation people in northern Alberta have used Gipsy Lake to gather fish as a healthy source of food in the winter. However, following the creation of the reserve system, the administrative base for the Nation became Janvier 194, which is located about 50 kilometres southwest of Gipsy Lake. Another body of water called Winefred Lake, located closer to Janvier 194, gained popularity as the primary source of fish for the community, and traditional food gathering from Gipsy Lake was gradually curtailed. Due to a lack of use over the decades, the trail to Gipsy Lake was overtaken by vegetation.

Last year, to improve access to an alternate fish source for the remote and underserved community, Food Banks Canada provided funding to the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation to restore the historic trail to Gipsy Lake. With a grant made possible through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Emergency Food Security Fund, the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation hired local labourers and rented equipment to clear roughly 25 kilometres of road and restore much-needed traditional fishing access to the lake.

Due to the increased cost of housing and food, along with the ongoing impacts of climate change, the issue of northern food insecurity will likely worsen over the coming months and years. Measures announced by the Nutrition North program in 2018, such as new supports for traditional hunting and gathering programs (a measure that Food Banks Canada has advocated for), and a new Inuit-Crown working group to address future challenges, are welcomed, but they are unlikely to be adequate to address the multiple challenges facing the North. This is all made worse by the recent surge in food inflation and the cost of living.

Food Banks Canada, along with many food banks in the food banking network, are doing what they can to support struggling northern communities, but high shipping costs are stretching already limited funding to its limit, especially with recent inflationary pressures. Addressing food prices and implementing food-driven solutions can only do so much. The federal government must also review its entire approach to the long-term root causes of food insecurity in the North if significant progress is to be achieved.

Overall, Food Banks Canada is investing 1 million dollars per year for 3 years toward northern capacity and food security initiatives as part of its ongoing work to improve access to food in all parts of the country.

Food Banks Canada would like to thank the Walmart Foundation for funding this StoryMap initiative.