Indigenous Food Security is Dependent on Food Sovereignty.
About Food Sovereignty. Throughout Indian Country, Native “food sovereignty” describes a myriad of local efforts to transform and reclaim local food systems, from combating hunger, increasing access to healthy and traditional foods, enhancing community health, and creating food policies, to targeting food as a mechanism for entrepreneurship and economic development.
The United States polices lead to the Native American’s fight for sovereignty during the American Civil War. Bradley Clampitt eloquently states, “a war within a war” (Reese and Loughlin, 10). The larger struggle, between the Union and Confederacy, allowed the unique opportunity for the Indian Nations within Indian Territory to fight for their survival.
This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. For thousands of years Native Americans thrived in self-sustaining communities. Now, many have to make do with whatever food and basic goods can be hauled in by truck.
The Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance (NAFSA) is a 501 c3 non-profit organization that was officially incorporated in 2014 following two years of efforts to develop an organization and mission with input from hundreds of Native food producers and organizations.
Once the 1870s began, federal policy on Native American relations began to be enacted in a more organized manner, which created less personal disputes among the Natives and the settlers. This was the start of a period of around 100 years with many different policies and practices regarding the Native Americans in Utah and across the country.
Indigenous peoples have embraced food sovereignty not only in the means of dietary self-sufficiency, but as a tool for cultural revitalization and political resurgence, particularly in communities that were nearly destroyed by colonialism (Desmarais and Wittman 2014). Food sovereignty in this context is harness. middle of paper.
With increasing rates of diabetes, obesity, and cancer in Native American communities, strengthening Native food systems offers an opportunity to improve Native economies, health, and culture. This course is meant to give an overview of how health departments and public health workers can help strengthen Native food sovereignty, for the purpose of improving Native health and revitalizing.