Environmental for Food Justice

Illustration 1. Winter hunting lodge All images courtesy of Choctaw Nation Moderator’s Note: In our continuing series on indigenous food and seed sovereignty we present a contribution drawn from a larger series by the Choctaw Nation on indigenous foods and foodways. We thank our colleague Brit Reed for bringing this work to our attention. The original can be found at Choctaw Nation . One lesson I draw from this wisdom is the resilience built into foodways that are adapted to seasonal and other ecological changes, including those introduced by contact and exchanges with settler colonial forces. Deep food rooted in land, water, and vibrant matter INDIGENOUS ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT Choctaw Nation | Durant, OK | January 20, 2016 [this post] Choctaw society developed out of a long and intimate relationship with the plants, animals, soil, and water of our homeland in the southeast. Through this relationship, Choctaw ancestors engineered a food way that minimized their risk of going hungry by re...

New law affirms rights to native foods and foodways ORDINANCE IS FIRST TO ADDRESS GE SALMON Moderator’s Note: In what is sure to become a widely replicated action, The Yurok Tribe of California has just announced the adoption of an ordinance supporting indigenous food sovereignty while banning the use of genetically engineered organisms (GEOs), including both plant and, in a first, animal species. The ordinance specifically establishes a ban on AquaBounty’s transgenic salmon  (trademarked as AquAdvantage salmon), which was recently approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and earlier by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The inclusion of GE salmon is especially important and speaks to the cultural, economic, and ecological significance of wild salmon to the Yurok. The Yurok Tribe ordinance joins a growing list of tribes, municipalities, and counties endorsing resolutions or adopting ordinances that ban GEOs to protect indigenous, other traditional, and organic fa...