Explanations of the socioeconomic element of the transition from foraging through mixed economies to those that take up full-time agriculture will entail not only marginal analysis and opportunity costs but also risk, discounting, economies of scale, and transaction costs. We know this because the spatial form and temporal scale of agricultural production fundamentally change the parameters of risk management; because delays between investment decisions and consumption of yields grow in duration and significance, elevating the salience of discounting; and because localization and control over property and productivity generate opportunities for specialization and economies of scale and at the same time set up the possibility of exchange among specialists and between locales with differential production advantages and consumption needs. Responses to these shifts may have been rapid or slow, depending on the case, but we should presume that they are among the set of forces shaping societal evolution and be prepared to analyze them.La Vía Campesina proposed this ideology in 1993 as a voice for peasants and small-scale farmers, who were becoming increasingly displaced by globalized agriculture and growing disparities in food access. The doctrine was also formalized in the eponymous Nyéléni Declaration, referring to “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems”.The food sovereignty movement was borne from awareness and adverse experiences stemming from neo-liberal policies that have given rise to powerful corporations that have shaped the global food system. Large volumes of agricultural products move across the globe, pricing many consumers and small-scale agricultural producers out of the market . The grassroots mobilization of activist groups, including peasants and small producers from around the world,ebb flow table led to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, or “UNDROP” in 2018 .

There is optimism that the UNDROP will advance recognition of basic human rights, including the right to food and food production, into practice .The history and definitio of “food sovereignty” is complicated . Edelman refers to food sovereignty goals as those upholding the basic tenets of La Vía Campesina, the Nyéléni Declaration, and UNDROP, while simultaneously advancing food export policies that facilitate both food sovereignty and expanded agricultural production in boreal1 ecosystems. Food sovereignty supports a key pillar of sustainability, human social sustainability, which is necessary for achieving sustainable food production. To advance adoption of UNDROP’s principles and food sovereignty in boreal regions of the world, this policy brief uses a threaded example from Atlantic Canada and specifically the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, which is co-governed by the Nunatsiavut regional Inuit government .The Nunatsiavut government represents ∼7,000 Inuit of the Labrador Inuit land claim area. Labrador residents are of mixed descent and include Innu, Inuit, Southern Inuit , and non-Aboriginal persons. Newfoundland is home to two Mi’kmaq communities, the self-governing Miawpukek Mi’kmaq First Nation, and the landless Qalipu Mi’kmaq Nation . Approximately one-fifth of Newfoundland residents have applied for Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nations Band recognition, which adds additional complexity to resource governance .Figure 1 depicts the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in eastern Canada. Colonialism and resource exploitation have resulted in a near ecosystem and economic collapse in Newfoundland and Labrador, culminating in the infamous 1992 cod fishery moratorium, and a severe decline in shrimp, snow crab, and capelin stocks in recent years . A closer look at the study area illuminates patterns that should be avoided, and cautious optimism about future agricultural expansion. Corn, legume, dairy and livestock production is projected to increase in the study region and in many parts of the global boreal belt due to rising temperatures associated with global climate change. Intensifying agricultural production in these regions without damaging the boreal forests could improve chronic food insecurity and environmental sustainability . Like the study area, the world’s boreal regions are sparsely populated with high biodiversity and natural resources, and Indigenous communities are reclaiming governance over their land and natural resources .

Newfoundland and Labrador’s long history of European colonialism and resource exploitation has perpetuated a cycle of food insecurity and export practices that are not dissimilar to extraction communities across the boreal belt with fly-in-fly-out labor forces . Parallels can be drawn to rural communities within the boreal ecosystems elsewhere that have social infrastructures similar to wealthy nations like Canada. Canada’s safety net of social programs provides many households with enough subsidized income for food and to just barely get by, but not enough security so as to regain providence over household or community food production and supply chains . In what is now Newfoundland and Labrador, sixteenth century migratory fishing and transient European settlement attracted colonization and periods of contact with Indigenous persons. This evolved into unregulated permanent English settlement that increased throughout the eighteenth century . Over centuries, settler households depended upon fish exports to provide income for purchasing grocery and household staples. As recently as the first half of the twentieth century, colonizing settlers and Indigenous communities considered themselves self sufficient.They produced critical agricultural commodities like dairy, and they self-provisioned by harvesting local plants and wild game, defined by Indigenous communities as “country foods” or “traditional foods” . However, a deeper anthropological and economic study has shown that many Indigenous communities were also dependent upon imported food for survival. Income from fish exports procured necessities like molasses, tea, and flour . Colonialization over hundreds of years assimilated non-native foods like root vegetables into many Indigenous communities in Atlantic Canada. Both settler and Indigenous communities gradually became increasingly dependent upon imports for household meals, and food exports for income to purchase basic essentials. These patterns created food systems that were adopted into cultural identities of Indigenous and settler communities over time . During the last half of the twentieth century, intensified neoliberal trade policies and global demand for cod greatly increased exports to the point where the ecological carrying capacity of cod stocks in Atlantic Canada famously “crashed” in 1992. The food that instigated colonial settlement became unattainable for many households, who resultingly became increasingly reliant upon imported food for daily meals, not just staples. Though cod has slowly recovered under close regulation, other seafood stocks present similar, disconcerting depletion trends.

There are reverberating concerns about the impact of harvest quota restrictions on local employment and household income, and indirectly, household food security.4 The loss of land-based knowledge has forced Northern Indigenous communities to rely upon expensive imported food due to reduced access to local, healthy, and culturally appropriate foods . Approximately 25% of Indigenous households across Canada are food insecure, approximately double the rate of non-Indigenous households, and 62%-83% of households in Labrador are food insecure . Chronic food insecurity has led to nutrient deficiencies in Indigenous communities that have been measured in biomarkers over time . New found landers are also chronically food insecure, though food insecurity among the lowest income households has shown improvement as a result of targeted intervention programs, down from 60% of low income households in 2007 to 34% in 2012 . If agricultural production expands within Newfoundland and Labrador as predicted , residents will ostensibly become less reliant upon imported food. To put this into practice, locally grown food needs to be locally processed and distributed, rather than exported. Thus,there needs to be sufficient household income to purchase locally grown foods that would face world price pressures, unless government price supports are imposed. If the past is a predictor of the future, arguably, the region’s sparsely populated, rural areas may not have the population and income base to make local production enterprises profitable, unless the food is exported. Hence, without careful planning and deliberation, cycles similar to the North American cod and seafood fisheries and processing plants may extend to new agricultural enterprises, wherein nutritious, locally produced food is exported away from nearby communities,hydroponic grow table and corporate profits aren’t reinvested into communities and local supply chains . Some Indigenous communities have shown interest and ownership in self-production to improve self-sufficiency and subsistence,though this may be difficult without supplemental household income . Wilson et al. observe that “. . . agriculture in the North requires a modified conceptualization of commercial scale. The distinctions between commercial, community, and subsistence production are much more fluid than in other parts of Canada.” Food sovereignty can be viewed as a precursor to food security.However, the study region is chronically food insecure. According to Cordeiro et al. , Newfoundland is at the upper northern limit of crop production, with ∼64 growing degree days and 1% of the land being arable. Excessive precipitation makes planting tenuous. Rocky and sandy soils will impede future agricultural production in many areas, even if temperatures rise as expected from global climate change . Home gardening and home food production for self-sufficiency is time consuming, and involves commitment that is colligated against twenty first century lifestyles . When opportunity cost is considered, it is unlikely that home food production will again reach the necessary scale to achieve the World Food Summit’s definitio of food security, particularly when technological advancement and efficient transport allows for clear comparative advantage of food production, like garden vegetables, in more temperate climates. Food sovereignty is most likely to be achieved through initiatives that ensure that locally grown food remains within the region. This requires local governance of food resources and the supply chain.

There are no straightforward answers to addressing the conundrum between the basic right to food that is juxtaposed against global, neo-liberal market forces that have improved food access for many, but not all. However, if the right to food under the Nyéléni Declaration is prioritized in boreal food system production at community, provincial, and national levels, then progress can be made to achieving food security and food sovereignty. In 2019 Canada instituted its first national food policy, “Everyone at the Table” that addresses the social and environmental pillars of sustainability. The policy promotes inclusivity, diversity, and culturally appropriate food; lowering environmental impacts, such as reduced greenhouse gas reduction and waste; infrastructure investment to increase nutritious food production; and strong Indigenous food systems. Indigenous communities provide nuanced differentiation that there is community responsibility to provide food . This is embedded in hunter traditions of sharing meat and filling community freezers in the modern day . Canada’s federal policy orients the principles promulgated by UNDROP and the basic tenants of La Vía Campesina and the Nyéléni Declaration. This is a good first step. Implementation must align at the community level . It will take time to evaluate impacts of national policy on remote, rural communities, and to develop provincial and community policies. Over millennia, Indigenous persons hunted and gathered food within the regenerative capacity of the land and sea, in an environmentally and culturally sustainable manner that was synonymous with their self-identity . However, Indigenous food pathways are now also inextricably linked to the global economy. Regaining food sovereignty involves reducing dependence upon the colonialized global food system, upon which Indigenous peoples are paradoxically reliant, and in which they participate. Supplemental income is necessary to purchase fuel for hunting expeditions and grocery staples . Colonial policies that reduce income to Indigenous communities intersects their food sovereignty. The displacement of Indigenous food pathways by colonial values needs to be acknowledged, and policies need to be reframed to uphold food sovereignty. The Inuit seal hunt serves a thought-provoking example of how colonial values have upended Inuit food sovereignty and food security. Seal hunting is universally recognized as a culturally appropriate, nutritious food source for Canada’s Inuit. The international community is slowing becoming aware of how policies such as the EU’s ban on the trade of seal products exacerbated food insecurity among Indigenous persons. Income from the sale of seal pelts for clothing is vital to the Inuit for purchasing fuel and household supplies . Without supplemental household income, would-be hunters seek employment outside of the community, perpetuating the cycle of reliance upon imported and commercialized food and community marginalization .