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Food Security or Food Sovereignty: What Is the Main Issue in the Arctic?

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The New Arctic

Abstract

Food security and food sovereignty have been highlighted as priority issues in the Arctic, since climate change and industrial processes likely will have a severe effect on living conditions in the north in the near future. Food security can be defined as situations where people have both physical and economic access to food that meets their dietary needs as well as their food preferences. Food sovereignty describes situations when local peoples are in control of the processes leading to food security. Of 12 previously suggested measurements of food security indicators for the Arctic, three were related to food sovereignty. In this chapter we discuss the concepts of food security and food sovereignty, and their interrelations and relevance from an Arctic perspective.

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Abbreviations

AMAP:

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme within the Arctic Council

BMI:

Body mass index

FAO:

Food and Agriculture Organization

HFSSM:

Household Food Security Module

SD:

Standard deviation

SLiCA:

Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arcum, Arctic Research Centre at Umeå University, Umeå, S-90187, Sweden

    Lena Maria Nilsson PhD

  2. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Umeå University Hospital, Umeå, SE-901 85, Sweden

    Birgitta Evengård MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Lena Maria Nilsson PhD
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  2. Birgitta Evengård MD, PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lena Maria Nilsson PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Microbiology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Birgitta Evengård

  2. Stefansson Arctic Institute, Akureyri, Iceland

    Joan Nymand Larsen

  3. Department of Research Management, University of Bergen Bergen Marine Research Cluster, Bergen, Norway

    Øyvind Paasche

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Nilsson, L.M., Evengård, B. (2015). Food Security or Food Sovereignty: What Is the Main Issue in the Arctic?. In: Evengård, B., Nymand Larsen, J., Paasche, Ø. (eds) The New Arctic. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17602-4_16

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