Abstract

Located in Minnesota’s “North Country”, the Headwaters Food Sovereignty Council is a 12-county collaboration of the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Harmony Food Cooperative, area farmers, Anishinaabe tribal representatives from three Native American reservations, and technical experts associated with two state universities. Home also to a significant proportion of the Scandinavian-American community and cross-border ties with Canada given its northern location, the region is noted not only for its cultural diversity but also for considerable poverty. Paradoxically, while Minnesota leads the country in output of major agricultural products, most of this is destined for sale outside the state, raising serious questions about the differential impacts of food imports on the economic, nutritional, and medical well-being of North Country populations. This report is an initial assessment of the lack of food-systems planning for the needs of native peoples and remote populations in general, while focusing especially on the distribution of organic food producers, major retail food outlets, and other elements necessary for a “food miles” analysis of the region in particular.