Food Security (Miijim debinawewzing)

Food Sovereignty and Security

The Anishinabek Nation seeks to enhance food sovereignty and security on behalf of all Anishinabek Nation citizens by employing the following strategies and actions:

Strategies

• Provide timely and accurate information on Covid 19 supports for communities facing food emergencies.
• Identify cases where quotas and jurisdiction present challenges to Anishinabek Nation’s food sovereignty and seek cooperative solutions with the government.
• Develop a Food Sovereignty and Security Plan for the Anishinabek Nation
• Identify, quantify and address/monitor issues related to the chemical contamination of wild foods (foods from traditional lands and territories) and market-produced foods.
• Support and advocate for AN communities in re-discovering and protecting wild food sources/medicines and reinitiating traditional food collection activities such as hunting, fishing, berry picking, maple bush sap syrup making, and medicinal plant collection.
• Monitor the impacts of climate change on the AN’s ability to produce and harvest wild traditional food and modern food sources.
• Communicate the value of traditional ecological knowledge to government and industry.
• Define and clarify the wild food serving issue.
• Define and clarify issues associated with the supply management system and quotas for agricultural commodities (dairy, egg, and chicken industry) with respect to food sovereignty and security and seek cooperative solutions with the government.
• Encourage and support AN’s participation in the aquaculture and wild fisheries industries as viable activities to support food security/sovereignty.
• Encourage and support AN’s participation in trapping and hunting to secure viable wild foods.

Actions to Achieve

• Enhance food sovereignty and security in AN communities by promoting and encouraging local food production.Establish an AN seed bank and promote the use of heirloom/non-GMO seeds.
• Participate in the Indigenous Food Circle meetings and provide advice/assistance where necessary.
• Consider and promote the concept of bulk buying and community kitchen programs as a way of empowering people to maximize their limited food dollars and prepare culturally-appropriate, healthy and nutritious meals.
• Facilitate the development of workshops and sharing of knowledge on food processing and preservation and seed saving.
• Provide balcony planters and related supplies to apartment dwellers at low or no cost as a way of growing fruits and vegetables.
• Develop a library of resources for AN citizens to make accessible reports and studies on the contamination of lands, food, and territories.
• Examine and quantify fish and wild food contamination, for example, the Eagle study, and make the information available and accessible.
• Identify and map contamination in AN communities that have the potential for impacts on food production.
• Provide support to communities hoping to re-establish wild rice through the development of a wild rice growing Fact Sheet.
• Identify future threats to wild food systems that may arise from projects being proposed by the mining industry, nuclear industry, and other extractive industries and advocate for communities on their behalf.