Northern food security key to Canada’s future

True or False: The Arctic is thawing, uncovering land that can grow food and eventually feed the world. Answer: both. Another answer: We don’t know—because so much is changing. And it has serious implications for food security in the north. What we do know is that permafrost—ground that remains at or below zero degrees for at least two consecutive years—is diminishing, with losses of about 30 to 70 per cent through the next century. Permafrost holds a huge amount of carbon, which might be good. For example, plants use carbon to grow faster and produce more. Carbon also contributes to global warming, which makes for a longer growing season in the north. The warming air speeds the rate at which permafrost is thawing, and the effect it has on the environment. At the same time, the negative impact of global warming may make it too hot to grow crops in the global south, particularly near the equator, which currently yields abundant crops. However, measurements taken over three to seven years found that Arctic plants are growing faster and better, but only to a point: they can’t use all the carbon released from the permafrost and so the remainder becomes greenhouse gas, contributing to global warming. This has implications for the potential future of Arctic food production. Permafrost thawing changes the land’s shape. Since ice is solid, permafrost provides a firm foundation for the surface. Also, ice takes up more space than water. Therefore, melting permafrost can cause catastrophic sink holes and land cave-ins. Of course, that only occurs where there is reasonable depth of soil or other loose material. Where Canadian Shield underlies the northern landscape, thawing permafrost doesn’t cause sink holes—but you can’t grow crops on rock! Arctic food production requires decent quality soil. Good agricultural soil is rich in micro-organisms and nutrients. Yet we have little reliable information about the land’s physical characteristics across the vast Arctic geography—and we don’t know how thawing changes those factors. What we do know is that only a limited variety of soil microbes survive in permafrost. University of Saskatchewan scientists Siciliano and Lamb have found, surprisingly, that the microbes have changed only slightly due to global warming. Plant growth has increased, but the microbes haven’t caught up and aren’t helping plant growth and diversity as much as the richer microbial ecosystems of established agricultural areas. To manage these emerging soils, we need knowledge, and people who know how to manage these soils. Before we lose the permafrost’s unique ecosystems, the world can benefit from our Arctic peoples’ ancestral knowledge of the properties and abilities of the land and its botanical inhabitants. Working together, perhaps we can preserve crucial features, species, and the knowledge of how such harsh, spare ecosystems have survived and thrived and supported diversity. Academic and Indigenous partnerships share different knowledge, skills and ways of learning in programs like Yukon College/Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation’s joint Teaching and Working Farm and Saskatchewan’s Kanawayihetaytan Askiy—"Let Us Take Care of the Land," helping adapt and prosper in the changing environment. These are a start, but we need policies and resources to encourage this critical ‘people power’. These potential solutions for the future food security of our world must be initiated, but we must also address the immediate severe food insecurity that exists in our northern and remote communities. Last year, Statistics Canada released an analysis of 2012 information: between 33 and 55 per cent of Nunavut residents over the age of 25 had experienced food insecurity in the previous 12 months. Furthermore, 30 per cent of children aged six to 14 said they had been hungry at some time because their family couldn’t afford food, and a quarter of those hungry kids said that happened at least once a month. For the sake of our global future, food security in the North is an issue requiring thoughtful investment now. Mary Buhr is dean of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan. The Hill Times