Aboriginal perspective

In the past, First Nations and Inuit obtained all of their food from the land and water around them. Traditional food was central to the culture and the way of life. As long as there was enough to eat, traditional food gave everyone all the nutrition they needed to stay strong and healthy. Most people now eat a mix of traditional and store-bought food. For some First Nations and Inuit groups, this shift to more commercial foods has happened very quickly. Reasons for this change in dietary patterns include, but are not limited to, relocation into settlements, decreased access to land, less time and energy and fewer skills for harvesting due to employment, depletion of game, concern for environmental contaminants, and costs of or restrictions on hunting. At the same time, the geographic isolation of many First Nations and Inuit communities is such that nutritious store-bought foods, especially perishable items, are expensive and sometimes difficult or impossible to obtain. The Government of Canada, through the Food Mail program, subsidizes the cost of transporting nutritious foods to remote, isolated communities, but even with such a subsidy, market foods are often much more expensive than they would be in southern urban centres. In some communities, virtuall