Greening Canada’s Arctic food system: Local food procurement strategies for combating food insecurity

Abstract

Across northern Canada community gardens and greenhouses are being used as alternatives to imported foods that are often unaffordable, are of compromised quality, or simply unavailable in local retail outlets. Community gardens and greenhouses are seen as part of the solution to lessen local reliance on costly nutrient-poor market foods imported from the south. In spite of their acknowledged benefits, research on community gardens and greenhouses in northern Canada, including their numbers and locations, remains sparse and anecdotal. The objectives of this research were to inventory and map community gardens and greenhouses in northern Canada, encompassing Labrador, Nunavik, Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories.  This inventory represents an initial stage of research that will determine the extent to which community gardens and greenhouses, as local procurement strategies, are meeting the food needs of northern residents. This research is part of a circumpolar research project supported by the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group, which is examining the opportunities for the Arctic to become a self-sustaining food-producing region.