Forum to Cover Right to Food and What it Means in Kodiak

Rhubarb, a popular plant in Kodiak. Jessica Quinn / Flickr

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Local gardeners who grow their own produce are generally trying to achieve the same thing as people behind community projects like the Kodiak Harvest Food Cooperative: ready access to local foods.

It can be a challenge for city residents to buy fresh, affordable fruits and vegetables, and even more so for village residents, who often need to fly into the city to shop.

That’s part of what the Kodiak Area Native Association wants people to talk about at its upcoming forum on local food.

Alaska Pacific University Professor Rachael Miller, who researches food systems and related business models, will facilitate. She says attendees will talk about the concept of food sovereignty.

“Food sovereignty is the right that people have to food, so it’s declaring it a right and then declaring ways in which to ensure access to food, and each community from a very local level to a national level can define that differently and so what I’m doing with KANA and with the greater Kodiak area is we’re working on defining what food sovereignty means for them.”

Miller says the conversations at the forum will help her write a food sovereignty assessment which future food project organizers could use to develop sustainable food systems.

The forum, which is part of a project funded by the First Nations Development Institute, will begin at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday in the Koniag Corporation Building.

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