Many Inuit children regularly going hungry due to food insecurity: report

Making a life in northern Canada has never been easy and it's no secret food prices are astronomical compared with south of 60.

But a study just released by the Council of Canadian Academies offers a picture of just how difficult things are for aboriginal northerners, especially Inuit people, when it comes to food security.

The study, released Thursday, looks at the state of knowledge about aboriginal food insecurity in the North among First Nations, Inuit and Metis households.

It shows that aboriginal households across Canada experience food insecurity at more than twice the rate of their non-aboriginal counterparts – 27 per cent versus 12 per cent.

[ Related: Northerners blast high prices for basic foods, including $20 for jug of milk ]

And when you move north, the problem skyrockets, especially among Inuit people.

It found almost 70 per cent of Inuit preschool-age children live in food-insecure households, with 56 per cent of living in homes with child-specific food insecurity.

As CBC News noted, the World Health Organization defines food security as everyone having access to enough safe, nutritious food to remain healthy and active. Really, food insecurity is a euphemism for hunger, or at least a person's vulnerability to it.

A quarter of Inuit preschoolers are severely food insecure and of that group, 76 per cent skip meals and 60 per cent have gone the whole day without eating, according to the report.

The data, based on a 2007-2008 survey, show Nunavut has the highest documented rate of food insecurity of any indigenous population in a developed country, the report's executive summary noted.

The panel of experts that prepared the report found there's no single solution to the problem.

“To fully understand the issue of food security, consideration must be given to the many factors that influence life in the North, such as environmental change, culture, governance, and economies,” said Dr. Harriet Kuhnlein, who chaired the panel, in a news release.

But clearly, food prices are a major factor in food insecurity. Although many aboriginal northerners still hunt, costly food from the south is a big part of their diet.

CBC News pointed out the report found the average cost of groceries for a family of four in Nunavut is $19,760 a year but almost half of Inuit adults earn less than $20,000 a year.

[ Related: Cost of living rises most in North, StatsCan finds ]

There are transportation subsidies for basic foods to help manage the cost, but you can still end up paying $32 for a box of frozen chicken burgers or $18 for a jar of peanut butter. Fresh fruits and vegetables cost the moon. A small bag of apples goes for $15 and a single head of cabbage is $20, according to a 2012 Canadian Press report.

"That's the same as it's always been here," Rus Blanchet, who works at the Iqaluit soup kitchen, told CBC News. "Food is more expensive here. There's nothing anyone can do about that. They have to ship it in by plane and boat."

But experts who worked on the council's report say a country as rich as Canada ought to be able to tackle food insecurity.

"We have the resources," University of Saskatchewan business professor David Natcher told CBC News. "We have the capacity to address these issues and we can resolve food insecurity for Northern and Inuit communities."