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This article analyses wild food consumption in urban areas of Cameroon. Building upon findings from Cameroon's Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) this case study presents empirical data collected from 371 household and market surveys in Cameroonian cities. It employs the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food's framework for understanding challenges related to the availability, accessibility, and adequacy of food. The survey data suggest that many wild/traditional foods are physically available in Cameroonian cities most of the time, including fruits, vegetables, spices, and insects. Cameroonians spend considerable sums of their food budget on wild foods. However, low wages and the high cost of city living constrain the social and economic access most people have to these foods. The data also suggest that imports of non-traditional staple foods, such as low cost rice, have increasingly priced potentially more nutritious or safe traditional local foods out of markets after the 2008 food price crisis. As a result, diets are changing in Cameroon as the resource-constrained population continues to resort to the coping strategy of eating cheaper imported foods such as refined rice or to eating less frequently. Cameroon's nutrition transition continues to be driven by need and not necessarily by the preferences of Cameroonian consumers. The implications of this reality for sustainability are troubling.

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Food security is political. The identification of food insecurity and the development and implementation of responses to it are enveloped in layers of politics and power. This politics might not be as readily apparent in emergency situations where broad agreement on the need for a response is evident. But in the everyday governance of food it must not be forgotten that food security is a contested concept.

This paper analyses the factors affecting food security in Yukon Territory. It was written for the Yukon Field School on Food Security offered at the University of Guelph in 2019. It utilizes Olivier De Schutter’s Right to Food Framework to examine elements of food availability, accessibility, and adequacy. Different perspectives from various stakeholder participants in the field school were gathered during guest lectures and on site visits and were cross-referenced with peer-reviewed sources to formulate conclusions on the right to food in Canada’s North. These perspectives suggest that the northern food supply is threatened by the effect of climate change on country food availability, the feasibility of local agriculture, and the provision of imported food. Additionally, the social barriers to country food and local food access in the context of high poverty rates also contribute to food insecurity. The implications of insufficient food availability and accessibility culminate in food inadequacy with notable consequences for physical, mental, and cultural health. Overall, a move towards a locally-sourced diet will likely play a key role in achieving sustainable food security in the north.

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