Unlocking the Potential of Local Food: Saving Costs and Emissions in the Canadian Arctic

Emphasizing local food production over imported substitutes can lead to significant cost and carbon savings, according to data from the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Canadian Arctic. The research, conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, highlights the importance of climate change policies that account for local food systems, as weakening these systems could increase emissions and jeopardize the health and food security of remote communities.

Empowering Indigenous Communities through Sustainable Food Solutions

Uncovering the Hidden Value of Local Food Systems

Local foods are critical to the food security and health of Indigenous peoples around the world, but these "informal" economies are often overlooked in official economic statistics. Consequently, they may be neglected in policies designed to combat climate change. The Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Canadian Arctic is characterized by a mixed economy, featuring traditional hunting, fishing, gathering, and trapping activities alongside a formal wage economy. Understanding the significance of these local food systems is crucial for developing effective climate change policies that support remote communities.

Quantifying the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Local Food Production

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in collaboration with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, set out to estimate the economic and environmental importance of local food production in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. By analyzing data from a regional study of harvesting conducted in 2018, they calculated the total edible weight of food produced by Inuit harvesters within a one-year timeframe. They then compared the costs and carbon emissions associated with replacing these locally-harvested foods with market substitutes, such as beef, pork, chicken, or farmed fish.

Challenging Assumptions: Local Food Harvesting Outperforms Industrial Production

The study's findings challenge conventional assumptions about the efficiency and sustainability of industrial food production. The researchers estimate that replacing locally-harvested foods in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region with imported market substitutes would cost over 3.1 million Canadian dollars per year and emit over 1,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions per year. In contrast, the gasoline inputs to local harvesting cost approximately 295,000 Canadian dollars and result in 317 to 496 tonnes of emissions, less than half of what would be emitted by market substitutes.

Recognizing the Resilience of Local Food Systems

"Our findings illustrate how local food harvesting, even when reliant on fossil fuels—as is the case in Canadian Arctic communities—are more economically-efficient and less carbon intensive than industrial food production," says first author Elspeth Ready, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. "Local food harvesting also reduces reliance on supply chains that are vulnerable to climate change."

Implications for Climate Change Policies: Adapting to Local Realities

The study's findings have significant implications for climate change policies. The results indicate that policies that fail to account for local food production may undermine emission targets and adversely impact food security and health in remote communities, which face heightened economic and logistical constraints relative to more populated regions. This illustrates that while climate change is a global crisis, successfully reducing emissions requires locally-adapted policy solutions.The statistical modeling approach developed in the paper lays a foundation for similar studies in other regions, highlighting the need for a nuanced understanding of local food systems and their role in addressing the global challenge of climate change.