This lecture explores food sovereignty and the right to food. It also looks at country foods and regulation by Health Canada of country foods. The impact of climate change on subsistence hunting and fishing and gathering for indigenous people in Canada.

2. Presents an alternative to existing system
dominated by large scale, high input production
and liberal/global trade.
Draws attention to tensions between corporate,
global and local systems.
Emphasizes the importance
of human and social dimensions.
Grass roots movement seeking
solutions to poverty and hunger.
Broad constituency: indigenous
peoples, rural landless, small
holder farmers in rich and
poor countries.

6. Against: large scale, capital intensive, high
input, industrial production and liberal/global
trade, that harms environment.
For: Community-controlled, small-scale
agroproduction and research
Q: Can low input systems ensure local and
global food security?
Q: Is proposed system more environmentally
sustainable than existing system?

7. The Three Sisters
Using the companion planting
technique, the three crops are planted
close together and benefit each other.
- Maize provides a structure for the
beans to climb, eliminating the need
for poles.
-Beans fixes nitrogen to the soil for
other plants.
-Squash covers the ground to prevent
weeds by monopolizing the sunlight
and acts as a "living mulch," creating a
microclimate to retain moisture in the
soil, and the prickly hairs of the vine
deter pests.
Photocredit: http://www.kidsgardening.com/growingideas/projects/march02/mar02-pg1.htm

8. Food, either plant or animal, that is harvested
from local environment and is culturally
accepted (Receveur, Boulay & Kuhnlein,
1997).
Geographically and culturally specific food
often applied to Aboriginal people but has
international use for both indigenous and
non-indigenous peoples (Kuhlein, Receveur,
Soueida & Egeland, 2004).

9. Country foods are the product of a social system
and spiritual relations connected with being on
the land and hunting, representing far more than
a meal, but rather a healthy culture (Usher et al,
1995).
Among Aboriginal peoples of the Canadian North,
the integration of the body (i.e., physical activity
and functionality of the human body), and the soul
(i.e., spirit, mind, emotional state or even the
expression of consciousness) (Borre, 1994) is
accomplished through capturing, sharing and
consuming country foods.

10. “Inuit foods give us health, well-being and
identity. Inuit foods are our way of life... Total
health includes spiritual well-being. For us to
be fully healthy, we must have our foods,
recognizing the benefits they bring.
Contaminants do not affect our souls.
Avoiding our food from fear does” (Edge,
1995, 2)

12. Health Canada, 2010

16. Source: Health
Canada, 2010
Source: Health Canada, 2010

17. Key elements:

18. “Everyone has the right to a standard of living
adequate for the health and well-being of himself &
of his family…including food…”
---The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

19. “…In no case may
a people be
deprived of its
own means of
subsistence.”
-- Article 1 in Common,
International Covenants
on Civil and Political
Rights and on Economic,
Rio Yaqui, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Alex Sando.
Social and Cultural
Rights

20. “…for Indigenous Peoples, the rights to land, water,
and territory, as well as the right to self-
determination, are essential for the full realization of
our Food Security and Food Sovereignty.”
--The Declaration of Atitlan, Guatemala, 2002.
Indigenous peoples’ consultation on the right to food.

21. “Our ancestors in some areas have secured our traditional ways and food systems in
Treaties. These international agreements were signed for “so long as the grass
grows, the rivers flow and the sun shines” .
--- Chief Wilton Littlechild, Ermineskin Cree Nation,
Treaty No. 6 Territory, Canada, addressing the United Nations
World Food Summit, Rome, November 1996
http://www.otc.ca/
“The Privilege of hunting, fishing, and gathering the wild rice upon the lands the rivers
and the lakes including in the territory ceded, is guaranteed to the Indians”
---1837 US Treaty with the Chippewa Nation
“The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams, where running through or
bordering said reservation, is further secured to said confederated tribes and bands
of Indians” - ---1855 US Treaty with the Yakima Nation

22. http://trcm.ca/treaty5.php
Photo Credit: The Archives of Manitoba

23. R. v. Marshall [1999] 3 SCR, 456 (http://
1 h
www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/ The September 17, 1999
pub/1999/vol3/html/ Acquittal
1999scr3_0456.html)
R. v. Marshall [1999] 3 SCR, 533
1
(Rehearing and Stay of Implementation) The Court acquitted Marshall of
(http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-
h charges arising out of catching
scc/en/pub/1999/vol3/html/ 463 pounds of eel and selling
1999scr3_0533.html) them for $787.10.
Indians -- Treaty rights -- Fishing
rights -- Accused, a Mi'kmaq Indian, The acquittal was based on a
fishing with prohibited net during close treaty made with the British in
period and selling fish caught without a 1760 that permits the Mi’kmaq
licence in violation of federal fishery community to work for a living
regulations -- Whether accused through continuing access to
possessed treaty right to catch and sell
fish that exempted him from fish and wildlife to trade for
compliance with regulations -- Mi'kmaq “necessaries”, which a majority
Treaties of 1760-61 -- Maritime of the Court interpreted as
Provinces Fishery Regulations, SOR/ “food, clothing and housing,
93-55, ss. 4(1)(a), 20 -- Fishery supplemented by a few
(General) Regulations, SOR/92-53, s. amenities”.
35(2).

24. With regard to the exercise of cultural rights
protected under Article 27, the committee observes
that culture manifests itself in many forms,
including a particular way of life associated with the
use of land resources, especially in the case of
Indigenous peoples. That right may include such
traditional activities such as fishing or hunting or
the right to live in reserves protected by law. The
enjoyment of those rights may require positive legal
measures of protection and measures to ensure the
effective participation of members of minority
communities in decisions that affect them.
ICCPR, Comment 23.

25. History is Made for Indigenous Peoples: UN
General Assembly Adopts the Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Photocredit: UN News Service Photo
Geneva, 1977 New York
September 13th, 2007

26. The Right to Food for Indigenous Peoples is a collective right
Based on our special spiritual relationship with Mother Earth
Based on our lands and territories, environment, and natural
resources that provide our traditional nutrition
Nourishes our cultures, languages, social life, worldview and
relationship with Mother Earth;
The denial of the Right to Food denies us our physical survival,
social organization, cultures, traditions, languages, spirituality,
sovereignty, and total identity;
The denial of the Right to Food it is a denial of our collective
indigenous existence”
-- The “Declaration of Atitlan”
1st Indigenous Peoples’ Global
Consultation on the Right to Food and
Food Sovereignty, Guatemala, 2002

27. What kinds of food are available in your
community?
Who decides what foods are available in your
community?
Who decides what you eat?
Who decides what is grown in your community?
Do people in your community rely on others to
provide their food?
Is food healthy?
What role does government play?
ETC…

28. • Article 3 - Right to Self-Determination
• Article 8 - Right to not be subjected to forced assimilation or
destruction of culture
• Article 10 – Right to not be forcibly relocated from lands and
territories
• Article 20 - Right to be secure in subsistence and development
• Article 24 - Right to health and conservation of vital plants and
animals
• Article 26 – Right to traditional lands, territories and resources
• Article 29 - Right to conservation and protection of environment
and productive capacity of lands, territories and resources
• Article 31 - Right to maintain, control, protect and develop
cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and cultural expressions
including genetic resources, seeds and medicines
• Article 32 - Right to determine and develop priorities and
strategies for development including the right to free, prior and
informed consent
• Article 37 – Treaty Rights

29. Continued practice of ceremonies, dances, prayers, songs and
stories and other cultural traditions related to the use of
traditional foods and subsistence practices.
Adaptability, resilience, resistance and/or restoration of
traditional food use and production in response to changing
conditions. (indicator areas 4 & 10, “Cultural Indicators for
Food Security, Food Sovereignty and Sustainable
Development”)
Traditional Prayer Stick guards the crops
Rio Yaqui, Sonora Mexico
photo by Alex Sando

30. “The polar regions are now experiencing some of the most rapid and severe
climate change on earth…Indigenous peoples, their culture and the whole
ecosystem that they interact with is very much dependent on the cold and the
extreme physical conditions of the Arctic region. Indigenous peoples depend
on hunting for polar bears, walrus, seals and caribou, herding reindeer,
fishing and gathering not only for food to support the local
economy, but also as the basis for their cultural and social identity”
-- “CLIMATE CHANGE, AN OVERVIEW”

31. “Pacific Islands such as
Tuvalu are sinking and
the coast is eroding.
On other islands in the
Pacific and the
Caribbean, food
security is threatened
by soil erosion and an
accelerated
disappearance of the
rain forests.”
-- Oral Intervention,
UNPFII7, April 2008
Palua

32. “In the tropical rainforests of
Asia, temperatures are expected
to rise 2-8 degree Celcius and
further climatic variation will
include decrease in rainfall,
crop failures and forest fires.
Tropical rainforests are the
haven for biodiversity, as well
as indigenous peoples’ cultural
diversity and forest fires will
threaten this heritage of
biodiversity”
Traditional Rice terraces, Philippines
photo courtesy of Tebtebba
-- “CLIMATE CHANGE, AN OVERVIEW”, November, 2007
Secretariat, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

33. Photo courtesy of Tebtebba Photo Courtesy of Ben Powless
“As their traditional resource base diminishes, the traditional
practices of cattle and goat farming will no longer survive. There
are already areas where indigenous peoples are forced to live
around government drilled bores for water and depend on
government support for their survival. Food security is a major
issue for indigenous peoples residing in the deserts and they are
on the frontline of global climate change.”
-- “CLIMATE CHANGE, AN OVERVIEW”, UNPFII