Developing community frameworks for improving food security in Greenland through fermented foods
Abstract
Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. The Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security, and resilience of the Nation, the larger region, and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by addressing interactions among social systems, natural environments, and the built environment in the following NNA focus areas: Arctic Residents and Education.
Inuit communities have sustained themselves in the Arctic for millennia through systematic knowledge about the ecosystem of which they are a part. There is a growing lack of access to affordable, culturally significant, and nutritious food in these Arctic communities. This food insecurity stems from multiple factors, including an increasing reliance on global industrial food systems, and the loss of Inuit knowledge regarding traditional food production. The latter has resulted in part due to negative stereotypes that label traditional foods as unsafe or unappetizing. Fermented foods are among those traditional foods that have been the most criticized, despite the fact that they provide a valuable source of nutrition and health benefits. The goal of this project is to support the resurgence of Inuit fermented foods by generating positive, factual outreach that recognizes and values the knowledge of Indigenous fermenters. This research will develop an Inuit-led, self-sustaining, and collaborative network in Greenland to promote Inuit fermented foods and food safety. Successful completion of these efforts will lead to improved scientific understanding of food security in Arctic communities from an Indigenous perspective.
The long-term goal of this research is to improve food security in Inuit communities. This goal will be accomplished by reversing negative narratives about Inuit fermented foods by creating positive, factual, desire-based feedback loops rooted in Inuit knowledge. The specific objective of this project is to record the Indigenous knowledge of Southern Greenland fermenters. These efforts will identify community food security concerns, engage stakeholders to bring together perspectives from Inuit fermenters and other Greenlandic food authorities, and integrate different forms of knowledge to identify critical research needs in Greenland and the Arctic more broadly. Successful completion of this project will benefit society by i) developing a foundation to address food insecurity in Inuit communities by understanding traditional Inuit fermentation practices; and ii) evaluating community fermentation practices that have become over reliant on non-Inuit infrastructure for food supply in recent generations. This research will center Inuit social networks and practices that sustain knowledge and interest in fermented foods as a means to secure safe inclusion of these culturally significant foods in local food systems.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Logistics Summary
The long-term goal of this planning grant is to reverse negative scientific narratives about Inuit fermented foods by promoting positive feedback loops rooted in Inuit knowledges so that these foods are understood as safe and therefore able to play a larger role in Inuit food security. This goal is rooted in a NSF NNA convergent approach that seeks to (i) understand traditional Inuit fermentation practices in relation to specific Arctic environmental conditions required to transform the foods (natural environment), (ii) evaluate community practices that have undergone changes in recent generations, especially an increased reliance on non-Inuit infrastructures, technologies, and materials including plastic (built environment), and (iii) uplift Inuit social networks and practices that sustain the knowledge and interest in preparing and eating fermented foods as a means to secure safe and culturally-appropriate inclusion of these foods in local food systems (social systems). This goal is rooted in a NSF NNA convergent approach that seeks to (i) understand traditional Inuit fermentation practices in relation to specific Arctic environmental conditions required to transform the foods (natural environment), (ii) evaluate community practices that have undergone changes in recent generations, especially an increased reliance on non-Inuit infrastructures, technologies, and materials including plastic (built environment), and (iii) uplift Inuit social networks and practices that sustain the knowledge and interest in preparing and eating fermented foods as a means to secure safe and culturally-appropriate inclusion of these foods in local food systems (social systems). During the spring of 2022, one team member will travel to the western and southern regions of Greenland including Narsarsuaq and Nanortalik to conduct interviews and build relationships with individuals and their communities through interviews and knowledge sharing with Inuit fermentation practitioners. This trip will lead to hold a stakeholder workshop to identify shared research questions on fermented foods. This workshop will be planned for December 2022.
Publications
Project Outcomes
Increasingly, there is a demand for long-term engagement with Indigenous communities prior to initiating research activities. The primary outcome of this planning grant was to identify opportunities for addressing how Inuit fermented foods can support food security in Greenland and the critical needs and activities required to sustain traditional food fermentation practices. Inuit communities have the highest rates of food insecurity among Indigenous peoples living in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries worldwide. This reality is further compounded by negative stereotypes about Arctic fermented foods, which have historically informed scientific assessments of Inuit fermented foods. This negative feedback loop threatens systematic knowledge on how to make Inuit fermented foods, ultimately resulting in their exclusion from sustained food security in the Arctic. To ensure meaningful research on this topic, the priorities, concerns, and interests of stakeholders in Greenland need to inform the research. In this project, scholars in fermented foods, microbiology, Native American studies, and the social studies of science engaged with stakeholders in Greenland with expertise on fermented foods, including community members, gastronomic experts, and food authorities to ask about priorities, concerns, and interests of stakeholders on the topic of fermented foods in Greenland.
Through repeated visits to Greenland, the research collaborators established relations with knowledge holders, and led interviews on priorities, concerns, and interests around fermented foods. An approach to community peer-review was developed to ensure that the conclusions that were drawn from the interviews represented the community members correctly. Interviews and community peer review protocol are integrated into a forthcoming PhD-thesis by Inuk graduate student Vivi Vold.
The project also allowed Greenlandic scholars to gain experience from a US academic environment, supporting their individual development as well as the development of longer-term course activities for graduate students at US and Greenland universities. Joint webinars, training of graduate and postdoctoral scholars, and new transdisciplinary courses were developed as part of the planning grant. These activities were all focused on the importance of centering Arctic Indigenous community perspectives in research. Through these exchanges the research team developed a manuscript currently in review.
We believe these activities will ultimately support the development of appropriate research frameworks for achieving the long-term goal of reversing negative scientific narratives about Inuit fermented foods by promoting positive feedback loops rooted in Inuit knowledges so that these foods are understood as safe and therefore able to play a larger role in Inuit food security.
Project Website
Project PI(s)
Funded Institutions
University of California-Davis
Other Research Location(s)
Nanortalik, Greenland
Narsarsuaq, Greenland
Project Start Date
Dec 2021
Award Year
FY21
Award Number(s)
Funding Track