Voir le jour: Breastfeeding and the commons

2025-03-19 22:03:41 | Article | Contributor(s): Natalie Doonan | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i1.227

Watch Voir le jour from Natalie Doonan on Vimeo This research-creation project focuses on breastfeeding in public as an act of claiming space for the common good. Its audio-visual component, “Voir le jour,” is part of a larger work that includes community screenings and locative storytelling....

Healthy Roots: Building capacity through shared stories rooted in Haudenosaunee knowledge to promote Indigenous foodways and well-being

2025-03-19 22:03:40 | Report | Contributor(s): Kelly Gordon, Adrianne Lickers Xavier, Hannah Tait Neufeld | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.210

Urban and reserve-based First Nation families in southern Ontario frequently experience food insecurity as well as more limited access to traditional, more nutrient dense foods from the local environment. Healthy Roots was initiated in the community of Six Nations to promote traditional food...

En’owkin Centre Breastfeeding Art Expo

2025-03-19 22:03:40 | Review | Contributor(s): Karen Graham, Rhonda Camille, Tracey Kim Bonneau | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.289

A unique Indigenous-focused Art Expo on the topic of breastfeeding was held at En’owkin Centre at Penticton Indian Band in October and November 2017. The En’owkin Centre is a nationally recognized Indigenous arts and training centre. This review highlights some of the art from the En’owkin...

Filling our plate: A spotlight on feminist food studies

2025-03-19 22:03:40 | Essay | Contributor(s): Jennifer Brady, Barbara Parker, Susan Belyea, Elaine Power | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i1.308

The idea for this special issue emerged from the enthusiastic response to a day-long series of sessions on feminist food studies that were held during the joint conference of the Canadian Association of Food Studies, the Association for the Study of Food and Society, and the Agriculture, Food,...

Rights for whom? Linking baby’s right to eat with economic, social, and cultural rights for women

2025-03-19 22:03:40 | Article | Contributor(s): Christina Doonan | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i1.232

Breastfeeding women are primary food producers par excellence, delivering a custom-made product to fit the exact needs of a favoured clientele. The importance of breastmilk as a first food has been acknowledged in recent years by many states, which have taken measures to protect and encourage...

Old habits die hard: The need for feminist rethinking in global food and agricultural policies

2025-03-19 22:03:40 | Article | Contributor(s): Andrea M. Collins | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i1.228

A number of global initiatives designed in recent years address global food security and aim to reduce the vulnerability of small-scale and peasant farmers in the face of expanded transnational investment in large-scale agriculture and land acquisition. While there have been efforts to...

Exploring homelessness and Indigenous food Systems in northern British Columbia

2025-03-19 22:03:39 | Article | Contributor(s): Julia Russell, Margot W. Parkes | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.212

People experiencing homelessness are known to be highly food insecure, but outside of emergency aid little is known about their overall experiences with food, particularly in Canada’s northern communities. This study examined experiences that influenced access to food for people experiencing...

“Aboriginal isn't just about what was before, it's what's happening now:” Perspectives of Indigenous peoples on the foods in their contemporary diets

2025-03-19 22:03:39 | Article | Contributor(s): Lise Luppens, Elaine Power | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.219

Health promotion materials for Indigenous peoples generally recommend that Indigenous people incorporate more “traditional” foods into their diets, referring to foods that are hunted, fished or gathered from the local environment. Little scholarly attention has focused on which foods...

Climate change, community capitals, and food security: Building a more sustainable food system in a northern Canadian boreal community

2025-03-19 22:03:39 | Article | Contributor(s): Andrew Spring, Blair Carter, Alison Blay-Palmer | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.199

Canada’s North offers unique food systems perspectives. Built on close cultural and spiritual ties to the land, the food systems within many northern communities still rely on the harvesting and gathering of traditional food and function through the sharing of food throughout the community....

Supporting Inuit food security: A synthesis of initiatives in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Northwest Territories

2025-03-19 22:03:39 | Article | Contributor(s): Tiff-Annie Kenny, Sonia D Wesche, Myriam Fillion, Jullian MacLean, Hing Man Chan | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.213

Food insecurity among Indigenous Peoples of northern Canada is a significant public health issue that is exacerbated by changing social and environmental conditions. While a patchwork of programs, strategies and polices exist, the extent to which they address all “pillars” of food security...

Access and affordability of "healthy" foods in northern Manitoba? The need for Indigenous food sovereignty

2025-03-19 22:03:39 | Article | Contributor(s): Mengistu Assefa Wendimu, Annette Aurélie Desmarais, Tabitha Robin Martens | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.302

Despite widespread concerns about household food insecurity experienced by Indigenous peoples, there is limited empirical evidence about the availability and prices of healthy foods in First Nations rural communities located in northern Manitoba, Canada. To fill this research gap, this study...

First foods as Indigenous food sovereignty: Country foods and breastfeeding practices in a Manitoban First Nations community

2025-03-19 22:03:38 | Article | Contributor(s): Jaime Cidro, Tabitha Robin Martens, Lynelle Zahayko, Herenia P. Lawrence | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.249

As a concept and in practice, Indigenous food sovereignty (IFS) offers insights into the social, cultural, and environmental challenges of a deficient food system. The associated poor health outcomes of this system include infant and child health issues such as early childhood caries and...

Toward anti-colonial food policy in Canada? (Im)possibilities within the settler state

2025-03-19 22:03:38 | Article | Contributor(s): Lauren Kepkiewicz, Sarah Rotz | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.202

This perspective piece teases out some of the tensions between the development of a national food policy, which has gained significant traction in Canada over the past few years, and Indigenous food sovereignty, which long predates the Canadian government and its policies and has a rich...

Responsibilities and reflections: Indigenous food, culture, and relationships

2025-03-19 22:03:38 | Article | Contributor(s): Tabitha Robin Martens | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.216

Understanding Indigenous food systems requires positioning ourselves in our own understanding of Indigenous food, culture, and place. The resurgence of Indigenous culture occurring around food, and the protection and revitalization of Indigenous food systems must be documented with a...

From bitter to sweet: Continuing the conversation on Indigenous food sovereignty through sharing stories, engaging communities, and embracing culture

2025-03-19 22:03:38 | Essay | Contributor(s): Kelly Skinner, Tabitha Robin Martens, Jaime Cidro, Kristin Burnett | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.323

The desire to undertake a special issue on Indigenous Food arose during a conversation that took place between the co-editors following a panel on the same topic at the annual conference of the Native American Indigenous Studies Association in 2015. The panel contained a mixture of...

Special issue on Indigenous Food

2025-03-19 22:03:38 | Essay | Contributor(s): Ellen Desjardins | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i2.324

In the spring of 2016, I had a conversation with Dr. Kelly Skinner at the University of Waterloo that led to the mutual decision that we work towards a special issue of Canadian Food Studies on Indigenous Food. She was well connected with Canadian researchers, writers, activists, and artists...

What about the other 50 percent of the Canadian population? Food allergies ignored in national policy plan

2025-03-19 22:03:37 | Article | Contributor(s): Susan Elliott, Francesca Cardwell | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.326

Food allergy is a growing public health epidemic in Canada, affecting 50 percent of Canadian households either directly or indirectly. Despite the physical, psychosocial and quality of life impacts to those affected, food allergy has recently been ignored in the Canadian policy context. While...

A food policy for Canada, but not just for Canadians: Reaping justice for migrant farm workers

2025-03-19 22:03:37 | Article | Contributor(s): Anelyse M. Weiler | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.312

In this policy commentary, I highlight opportunities to advance equity and dignity for racialized migrant workers from less affluent countries who are hired through low-wage agricultural streams of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Core features of the program such as 'tied' work...

Closing the loop on Canada's National Food Policy: A food waste agenda

2025-03-19 22:03:37 | Article | Contributor(s): Tammara Soma | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.314

In the near future, Canada will be implementing a national food policy; in doing so, it will be joining a growing number of countries with policies and strategies that address the growing problem of food waste. Food waste is a major economic drain estimated to cost Canada $31 billion dollars...

The need for contextual, place-based food policies: Lessons from Northwestern Ontario

2025-03-19 22:03:37 | Article | Contributor(s): Connie Nelson, Charles Z. Levkoe, Rachel Kakegamic | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i3.327

In recent years, several reports have highlighted the need for a national food policy that takes a comprehensive approach to addressing food systems (CAC, 2014; Levkoe & Sheedy, 2017; Martorell, 2017; UNGA, 2012). These findings suggest that, at the core, resilient food systems must be...