Outcomes Under the Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative

• Main Author: Raymond Foxworth
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: First Nations Development Institute 2018
• Subjects: Agriculture and Food; First Nations
• Online Access: https://issuelab.org/resources/36703/36703.pdf; https://issuelab.org/permalink/resource/36703

A local food system includes all actions involved in the production, processing, transport, consumption and regulation of food. It also includes perceptions, understandings and values assigned to food within a given community. Prior to contact with Europeans, Native peoples had self-sufficient and sustainable food systems that persisted since time immemorial. Over time, removal from traditional homelands, limited access to traditional food sources, transitions to cash economies, and language loss, among other things, weakened tribal food systems. Today, many Native communities and households are food insecure, dependent on outside food sources, and maintain a diet of Western foodstuffs that are often linked to negative and deteriorating health, community and economic outcomes.Recognizing that the loss of self-sufficient food systems is a contributing factor to the myriad of issues Native communities face today, First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) works with and supports Native American communities in reclaiming local food-system control. Local food-system control is foundational to reversing years of colonization that aimed to destroy cultural and traditional belief systems and dismantle Native social and economic systems that were intricately connected to local food systems. If Native communities can control local food systems, food can become a driver for cultural revitalization, improving community health and well-being, and economic development.