Abstract
Effective tools for retail food environments in northern and remote communities are lacking. This paper examines the challenges of conducting food environment assessments in northern and remote communities in Canada encountered during our experience with a food costing project. One of the goals of the Paying for Nutrition in the North project is to develop guidelines to improve current food costing tools for northern Canada. Paying for Nutrition illustrates the complex context of measuring food environments in northern and remote communities. Through the development of a food costing methodology guide to assess northern food environments, several contextual issues emerged, including retail store oligopolies in communities; the importance of assessing food quality; informal social food economies; and the challenge of costing the acquisition and consumption of land- and water-based foods. Food environment measures designed for northern and remote communities need to reflect the geographic context in which they are being employed and must include input from local residents.
Key words: First Nations, food supply, cost analysis, rural population
Résumé
On manque d’outils efficaces pour analyser les environnements alimentaires au détail dans les communautés nordiques et éloignées. Nous examinons les difficultés de mener des évaluations de l’environnement alimentaire dans ce type de communautés au Canada d’après notre expérience dans le cadre d’un projet de calcul des coûts des aliments. L’un des objectifs du projet Paying for Nutrition in the North est d’élaborer des lignes directrices afin d’améliorer les outils actuels de calcul des coûts des aliments dans le Nord du Canada. Paying for Nutrition illustre la complexité du contexte de mesure des environnements alimentaires dans les communautés nordiques et éloignées. Durant l’élaboration d’un guide méthodologique de calcul des coûts des aliments pour évaluer les environnements alimentaires nordiques, plusieurs problèmes contextuels se sont posés, dont la présence d’oligopoles de magasins de vente au détail dans ces communautés; l’importance d’évaluer la qualité des aliments; les économies sociales informelles de l’alimentation; et la difficulté de calculer les coûts d’acquisition et de consommation d’aliments de la terre et des cours d’eau. Les indicateurs de l’environnement alimentaire conçus pour les communautés nordiques et éloignées doivent refléter le contexte géographique où ils sont employés et doivent inclure la participation des résidents.
Mots Clés: Premières Nations, approvisionnement en nourriture, analyse des coûts, population rurale
Footnotes
Supporting Agencies: This study was funded by several sources, including Industry Canada, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant, the Lakehead University Research Chair program, and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research postdoctoral fellowship.
Conflict of Interest: None to declare.
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