Growing food in nunavut

GROWING FOOD IN NUNAVUT

Growing Food in Nunavut

Marina S. Koval

Technology Access Foundation Academy

Introduction

Canada is one of the countries in the arctic zone. This means that it is very cold even during the summer. This kind of climate is hard to survive for humans and animals. Nunavut is one of the provinces of Canada; most of Nunavut is in the Arctic Circle, this makes growing food a problem. Plants need sunlight, water, and soil to grow, and you can say that Nunavut doesn’t have any of these, because there is not much sunlight, and most of the water is frozen or cold, and the soil is just not for growing plants. If our solution is to create greenhouses, then we have to create a design that can stand the cold, and produce plant life. Before I started my research I knew a couple things about Canada because it was our country’s neighbor but not enough to be able to know the difference between them. Canada is made of ten Provinces; Canada is the second largest country. Canada is an interesting place because it is very similar to the United States, but there are also small differences. I would like to learn more about Canada so I can be able to compare it with United States, and see the difference between the country I live in, and the country that is right above it.

The Search Story

To start my research our group stated by looking for a specific place in Canada that had an agricultural issue. We knew to look up North because Canada was already in the Arctic, and the more North the colder. We found a country which the agricultural issue is there is no agriculture-Nunavut, Nunavut is largest Provence in Canada (land area) yet it has the lowest population. Our research from their separated and we researched more about importing and growing food there. Right away we knew we were going to design some sort of green houses to solve the problem of producing food on their own land. I didn’t know how to connect my topic to the first source we had but I ended up finding a quote that supported our solution to no agriculture. “Agriculture supported larger populations, and with better food supplies and a more settled existence, agriculture peoples could afford to build houses and villages”( Stearns, N., Peter Adas. Michael, Schwartz B, Gilbert, J., Marco., 2004) If agriculture were to existAs I was researching, I found in every acritical I looked at, they didn’t really mention anything about food except that most people hunted and fished for food. “Trapping of small animals, fishing, and hunting of sea mammals supplement imported food for some Inuit” ( Nunavut, 2011) I was struggling with finding sources that were specifically talking about the issue of agriculture, it took me a really long time to find it and when I did have one, I wasn’t even the one who found it. When I finally got this article, there was a ton of information that I really needed. Papatsie has quoted as saying “’This is one of Canada’ best-kept secrets.’”(Stale Food, Rotten Food, Overpriced Food or Nothing at all, 2015, 07) as she refers to Canadians having enough access to healthy and affordable food. Leesee Papatsie lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut. “There are three hotels, two supermarkets, a few churches and schools, a hospital and a grocery store” (Stale Food, Rotten Food, Overpriced Food or Nothing at all, 2015, 07)

The Results

North America is made of two regions, United States and Canada, they are quite similar in culture, you can’t really tell apart which people are from where, if you don’t already know because they are very similar socially. U.S and Canada have quite different governing systems, which is one of the bigger differences between the two. Canada is colder because it is up north, and is closer to the Arctic zone. Canada is made of provinces, it is like states in the U.S., Canada has to ship food from other countries to many places that are cold and can’t grow their own food. Nunavut is one of the provinces in Canada; it has the most Canadian land in the Arctic Circle, and coldest climate in Canada. Eighty-three percent of Nunavut’s people are called Inuit. The official language of Nunavut is Inuktitut. it is spoken by about eighty-three percent of the population, and the word Nunavut is translated as “Our Land” in Inuktitut, If you do not speak Inuktitut then most people also speak English and/or French. Nunavut is a Province located North of Canada, most of Nunavut is part of the “Arctic Zone” where the temperature doesn’t rise above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Not very many plants can survive this climate. This weather is not only bad for the people but it also harms the animals. Nunavut struggles with plant growth which both humans and animals need, the plants and animals need to be able to survive this type of climate and the weather. Agriculture does not really exist in Nunavut most people are just hunter/gatherers so they depend on the plants and animals to be there because they can’t really grow their own food. Nunavut makes home to very many arctic animals, all of the animals in Nunavut are mammals, but they need to be able to generate more heat than most animals to survive the weather. The Agricultural story can’t really help solve this problem because agriculture hasn’t really formed in Nunavut. The story relates to current agriculture of Nunavut because both in the story of agriculture and in Nunavut, they star as hunter/gathers, only in the story agriculture has actually developed but in Nunavut, agriculture has not yet developed. Knowing the story is not helpful because the climate was not the same and they can’t make the food grow the way they did in the story, but they can develop agriculture by using greenhouses to grow their food. I think I have discovered more about this issue in this region.

Reflection

It was definitely a struggle finding sources that said anything about the issue directly, but the last article I got was very helpful, it really combined the other articles and I had all the information that I needed to fully understand the issue. It had many useful information and interesting facts that helped me with this paper

References

Nunavut (2011). Compton’s by Britannica. Retrieved from

http://discover.prod.sirs.com

Nunavut: Climate (2015). ProQuest. CultureGrams Online Edition. Retrieved from

http://online.culturegrams.com/secure/provinces/section.php?pid=10&hid=20066&oid=7

Nunavut: Environmental issues (2015). ProQuest. CultureGrams Online Edition. Retrieved from

http://online.culturegrams.com/secure/provinces/section.php?pid=10&hid=20066&oid=1

1

Nunavut: Geography (2015). ProQuest. CultureGrams Online Edition. Retrieved from

http://online.culturegrams.com/secure/provinces/section.php?pid=10&hid=20066&oid=8

Nunavut: Wildlife (2015). ProQuest. CultureGrams Online Edition. Retrieved from

http://online.culturegrams.com/secure/provinces/section.php?pid=10&hid=20066&oid=9

Stale Food, Rotten Food, Overpriced Food or Nothing at all. (2015, 07). Chatelaine, 88, 99-102.

Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.spl.org:2048/docveiw/168599653?accountid=1135

Stearns, N., Peter Adas. Michael, Schwartz B, Gilbert, J., Marco. (2004) “The Rise of

Agriculture and Agriculture Civilization the Global Experience (pp. 8-13) San Francisco

Pearson Education, Inc.