What do we recommend? Policies and programs should stress the unique role that food plays in facilitating health for indigenous communities. Policies need to acknowledge the indigenous perspective and recognize the enshrinement of local food pathways, including a recognition of the supportive place of traditional food.
Specific recommendations are to engage with communities to define agriculture and agri-food needs and solutions locally; to respect, reinforce and protect the sacred relationship that indigenous food systems hold within indigenous communities; to promote local community eating guides; to create local and regional food distribution hubs; to address food-related deficits in the current food policy; to facilitate inter-agency co-operation among indigenous agriculture, agri-food production and indigenous services to build a supply chain to indigenous and non-indigenous markets; and, finally, to recognize and reinforce the ultimate goal of indigenous food sovereignty.