Food security and poor eating choices are huge issues in northern communities and a new report aims to curb these problems.
Guidelines for Establishing a Northern Greenhouse Project, released by the International Centre for Northern Governance and Development at the University of Saskatchewan, looks at the feasibility of building greenhouses to grow fruits and vegetables in northern communities.
Heather Exner-Pirot, one of the co-chairs of a workshop that produced the report, says poor eating choices in northern communities are having catastrophic effects.
“Problems of food insecurity in the north are exhibited in very high levels of obesity and diabetes,” she says. “The costs of these chronic illnesses to the system are so expensive – costs on families, on ability to work, ability to educate yourself and just to overall well being are tremendous.”
She says one study found that on average a family of six living in a northern community spent as much as $15,000 per year on food of no nutritional value.
Exner-Pirot adds technological advances in the past few years have made it much more feasible to operate a year round greenhouse in northern communities.