Food Security Status of Indigenous Peoples in Canada According to the 4 Pillars of Food Security: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Food insecurity is a significant public health problem for Indigenous peoples in Canada. A comprehensive literature review is needed to organize the evidence according to the four pillars of food security (i.e., availability, access, utilization, and stability) and identify gaps in the published literature on this topic. Therefore, this scoping review aims to summarize the published research discussing any of the four pillars of food security among Indigenous peoples in Canada. A literature search of the databases: Ovid Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science (Web of Knowledge), and CINAHL as well as Indigenous Studies Portal (up to June 19, 2021) was conducted. Population-based studies of any design were included, except for review-style articles. Articles published in other languages besides English were also excluded. Of the 4687 studies identified by the database searches, 91 met our inclusion criteria. Evidence indicates that all dimensions of food security among Indigenous peoples in Canada have been impacted. Lack of availability of both traditional and market foods is highlighted among Inuit and First Nations communities. Economic disadvantages, high food prices, and lack of access to transportation are major factors affecting the accessibility pillar of food security. Major factors affecting the utilization pillar of food security are the loss of traditional knowledge and skills, lack of knowledge on market foods, low quality of market foods, and food safety issues. Climate change has affected all four pillars of food security among Indigenous peoples. These findings suggest that resolving food insecurity issues among Indigenous peoples in Canada, especially those living in remote communities, requires a culturally specific integrated approach targeting food availability, food cost, food knowledge, food safety, and food quality.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous Peoples’ health and wellbeing: A systematic umbrella review

“…Overall, 16 published review articles (42%) focused on the Circumpolar North [ 28 – 43 ], nine of which focused specifically on Circumpolar North America, and particularly Inuit Nunangat. The range of geographic locations included Africa [ 44 – 46 ]; Asia [ 47 ]; Oceania [ 48 – 50 ]; North America (not Circumpolar) [ 51 , 52 ]; and Latin America [ 53 ] ( Table 2 ).…”

Hydrogeochemical investigation of irrigation water in the vicinity of metallic ore deposits in Kiraz‐İzmir, Turkey: Understanding the crucial nexus between “geology and food safety”

“…The emergence of many new diseases in the world has shown the importance of food safety. [2][3][4] Foodborne diseases have negative consequences on human health in both developed and developing countries. [5][6][7] The goal of food safety in the narrowest sense is that the products produced do not harm the consumers and the environment in which we live in terms of biological, physical, and chemical.…”

Diet change and sustainability in Indigenous areas: Characteristics, drivers, and impacts of diet change in Gunayala, Panama

“…In particular, scholars have identified a large variety of factors driving these diet changes including globalization, climate change, industry and technology growth, land use changes, and other anthropogenic factors (Gómez et al, 2013;Keleman Saxena et al, 2016;Winson, 2014Rowley et al 2000Kuhnlein et al 2004). Similarly, diet changes in Indigenous contexts tend to be accompanied by very diverse negative sustainability impacts such as, among others, (a) landscape, agrarian and livelihood transformation (Niragira et al, 2021;Crittenden & Schnorr, 2016), (b) loss of agro-diversity and dietary diversity (Conelly and Chaiken, 2000;Vogliano et al, 2021), (c) pollution from the packaging of processed food (He et al, 2018), (d) rise in obesity and non-communicable diseases (Johnson-Down and Egeland, 2013;Sharma et al, 2013;Sheehy et al, 2013), (e) increased food insecurity (Shafiee et al, 2022), (f) increased economic burden through reliance on purchased food (Gao & Erokhin, 2020), and (f) loss of ILK and traditional values (Kuhnlein and Receveur, 1996;Sarkar et al, 2020), with subsequent effects on the broader culture and society (Dounias et al, 2007). However, most of these studies tend to focus on specific aspects of such diet changes, whether its characteristics (i.e.…”