Our study examined food, water, and energy security in remote, indigenous communities in rural Alaska and Baffin Island, Canada. We wanted to better understand what limits and what enhances these securities, and especially to look into how they affect one another. For example, electrical power generation and water and sewer treatment both require a lot of fuel or other energy, so high demands by water treatment can affect the ability of local power plants to serve the entire community. High costs to consumers can force them to make difficult choices with scarce funds, which can affect the foods they buy and thus their food security.

We found that, indeed, food, water, and energy security are connected in rural Arctic communities, and also that rural residents develop a number of strategies for dealing with difficult choices and changes to environmental and economic conditions. Intellectually, we were able to show the significance of the social system in shaping what happens when a community faces a sharp rise in fuel prices, as one example, or the threat of severe coastal erosion, as another. One surprise was that the population size of rural Alaska communities does not appear to be affected by these kinds of shocks to the system. Population levels are always fluctuating, and there is persistent migration away from small, remote communities, but these patterns do not change despite many major changes.  This is in contrast to findings from the North Atlantic Region and elsewhere, where for example changes in fish catches led to a quick population response in fishing communities. 

In terms of broader impacts, our findings point to the importance of human resources in rural communities. Having skilled power plant operators or water treatment plan operators is essential to keeping these vital systems running. This may seem obvious, but technology and equipment seem to get most of the attention when it comes to designing such systems. Training for the operators, and helping them reach one another for help when needed, could help improve their abilities to provide the services their communities need. Also, these jobs often require 24/7 availability, which limits the amount of time the operators can spend pursuing subsistence hunting and fishing or other cultural and social needs. Job sharing programs or cross-training between powerplant and waterplant operators could offer some relief from  these high pressure demands, which often translate into high job turnover.

We also found that rural residents are adept at using available resources and programs, leading to some complicated interactions among various governmental and commercial services. As one example, the  postal subsidy system for rural Alaska provides access to cheap freight. Signing up for Amazon Prime means free shipping, which is only possible thanks to the postal subsidy. Thus, rural Alaska residents can enhance their food security by ordering from Amazon at lower-48 prices. By contrast, the Canadian mail system does not have this form of subsidy.  As a result, Amazon does not offer Amazon Prime services to the Canadian North. The idea that postal subsidies affect food security was not obvioius to us when we started our project, and it underscores how many features of the overall social system are involved in the well-being of the Arctic's indigenous communities. Decisions that affect on piece of the system, for example the bypass mail service offered by the US Postal Service, can have large and likely unintended consequences.

Last Modified: 09/14/2017
Modified by: Henry P Huntington