Indigenous & BIPOC Perspectives on Environment, Climate and Health and Sustainable Food Systems

The below articles emphasize how many indigenous and BIMPOC communities (Black, Indigenous, Multiracial People of Color, also known as “PGM”- People of the Global Majority)  have been approaching nature-friendly farming practices and the importance of honoring and learning from this experience and wisdom.  Some also address how reducing cultural connections with food can have adverse health effects.  Other papers emphasize issues of food justice and food sovereignty. You will find articles below on agroecology, which may also be featured in other pages related to the benefits of regenerative agriculture.  Those with *** are ones that are either particularly relevant/powerful in my opinions, or which are most recent.

This page also includes papers/research on the importance of including the “Lived Experience” and “Community- Based Knowledge” and recognizing that there are a myriad “Ways of Knowing” that may not always be included in academic settings that prioritize more western notions of what constitutes “research”.    You can easily find those by searching for the symbol ^^ 

Please note that this page is a work in progress and  has been updated as of July 2026

  • Antonelli A. Indigenous knowledge is key to sustainable food systems. Nature News. Published January 10, 2023 ***.
    • Today, food production is the biggest driver of biodiversity loss and contributes heavily to climate change and pollution — the three components of the ‘triple planetary crisis’ recognized by the United Nations as requiring resolution if humanity is to create a viable future on this planet. As such, there has never been more need to establish how Indigenous and local knowledge can contribute to the building of resilient, sustainable and nutritious food systems in a way that is equitable
    • Indigenous peoples and other local communities, who might have lived in a region for thousands or hundreds of years, respectively, have long acted as foragers, growers and shapers of nature1. 
    • Agricultural sciences have for too long ignored traditional and local knowledge about crop plants and how best to grow them. That must change if the world is to ensure future food security.
    • There are huge power imbalances between the wealthy countries and large corporations seeking the products, and the biodiversity-rich but economically and technologically deprived countries and communities providing them. In practice, the benefits rarely reach the people who are the knowledge holders and guardians of biodiversity and agrobiodiversity3.
  • Brand G, Wise S, Bedi G, Kickett R. Embedding Indigenous knowledges and voices in planetary health education. Lancet Planet Health. 2023;7(1):e97-e102. doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00308-4
    • It is imperative to incorporate Indigenous knowledge and voices into planetary health education. This integration is a crucial step in decolonizing health professional education and addressing the complex interdependence between ecosystems and human health.
    • The study presents a case study utilizing Indigenous health humanities and arts-based education strategies. These approaches offer alternative ways of understanding planetary health, moving beyond traditional Western epistemologies to include diverse perspectives and methodologies.
  • Bloom I. Meet Three of the Women Behind an Indigenous Land Back Effort to Reclaim an SF Peninsula Farm. KQED. Published April 23, 2022.
    • The California Report Magazine’s Sasha Khokha and Izzy Bloom visited a 38-acre farm in San Gregorio, 40 miles west of San José, to follow a new project aimed at returning land to the Ramaytush, the Indigenous people of the San Francisco Peninsula.
    • The project is spearheaded by Deep Medicine Circle, a nonprofit group led by women of color, whose goal, according to its founder Rupa Marya, is to “heal the wounds of colonialism through food, medicine, story, learning and restoration.”
  • Burlingame B, Dernimi S (editors). Sustainable Diets: Linking Nutrition and Food Systems: Chapter 7: Indigenous Food Systems: Sustainable Food Systems and Diets 
    • Sustainable diets for indigenous peoples are derived and maintained from indigenous sustainable food systems. 
    • Indigenous food systems do not differentiate between the environment and the people, perceiving that living beings and territory are interconnected, and embedded with spirituality. This holistic view does not place humankind, nor the production of food itself, at the center of the food system. Instead, maintaining the equilibrium between the environment and the beings inhabiting it is the central focus. The key concept is equilibrium between the different parts that make up the system.
    • Being highly adapted to their environment, indigenous food systems have the capacity to generate food in soils with low fertility, are resistant to stress factors (reduced rainfall, increased temperatures) and have a low demand for inputs. Some indigenous crops are climate resilient, Indigenous peoples’ knowledge emanates from their collective experience in managing 22% of the world’s ecosystem and land mass and preserving the majority of the planet’s biodiversity.
    • Indigenous peoples understand how their local foods are resilient and adapted to their local environments, even when climate challenged.
  • Ceddia, M Graziano et al. Transforming food systems through agroecology: enhancing farmers’ autonomy for a safe and just transition Lancet Planet Health. 2024;8(11):e958-e965.
    • Food systems contribute to multiple crises while failing to deliver healthy, nutritious food for all. A substantial amount of research suggests that the root cause of this issue lies in the complete integration of food systems within global capitalism and the consequent subordination of fairness and sustainability to profit accumulation.
    •  we illustrate how this subordination erodes the autonomy of food producers, with strong environmental and social consequences for consumers and society at large. Lastly, we discuss how agroecology could transform food systems and enhance producers’ autonomy, while mitigating environmental and social dysfunction.
    • Agroecology can help reorient food systems away from profit accumulation and towards better meeting community needs, in line with the tenets of food sovereignty.
  • Cordera B. Supporting Young Farmers of Color Can Help the US Meet Its Climate Goals. YES! Magazine. Published October 19, 2022 ***.
    • Getting young, climate-conscious farmers on the land “is the best way we can fight climate change,” Polanco said. “But we desperately need climate investments that are part of a safety net for farmers, so they can continue stewarding the land when a disaster strikes.”
  • Crook, M., Short, D., & South, N. (2018, August). Ecocide, genocide, capitalism and colonialism sage journals. Sage Journals. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/136248061878717
    • The long, ever-so-present legacy of colonialism can be seen directly connected to farming practices in the U.S. and other countries. Whether it be through deliberate or negligent means, the conversion of the natural world to industrial farms is committing acts of ecocide. An act that steals more land from indigenous peoples, taking away lands that their history, heritage, and spirituality stem from.The taking of this land, and converting it to farms, directly destroys native biodiversity through physical removal and destruction, taking away resources from locals who relied on the land for hundreds of years.
  • Davis J, Moulton A, Van Sant L, Williams B. Anthropocene, Capitalocene, … Plantationocene? A manifesto for ecological justice in an age of global crises. Geography Compass. 2019;13(5):e12438.
    • This manifesto critiques dominant environmental narratives by centering race, colonialism, and capitalism. It introduces the concept of the “Plantationocene” to describe enduring systems of land and labor exploitation. As a vital interdisciplinary contribution to environmental justice and decolonial thinking, it sharpens the capstone project’s critical framework by naming the systemic forces that undermine culinary heritage and ecological relationships.
  • Decolonize Your Food. Indigenous Terra Madre Network.
    • The aim of the Decolonize Your Food campaign, run by the Slow Food Indigenous Peoples Network, is to share some of the on-going efforts to protect the foods of indigenous peoples from extinction and help people uncover the perhaps little-known indigenous origins of everyday foods as well as the places where they are still produced by local communities. We also hope it will inspire indigenous people to discover and take pride in their own food heritage. 
  • Ferguson R. Losing Ground: Farmland Consolidation and Threats to New Farmers, Black Farmers, and the Future of Farming. Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists. Published April 14, 2021.
    • While the proportion of new farmers has declined across the country over the past four decades, we found that in these states it declined 56 percent faster in counties experiencing more rapid consolidation than in those experiencing slower consolidation.
    • Racist discrimination amplified the pressures brought by consolidation, and together these forces drove a 98 percent reduction in the number of Black farmers between 1920 and 2017.
  • Hayes CR, Carbone ET. Food justice: What is it? Where has it been? Where is it going?. Journal of Nutritional Disorders & Therapy. 2015;05(04). doi:10.4172/2161-0509.1000179.
    • Consequently, despite the capacity for such alternative food movements to shorten the links in the food commodity chain, a disconnect can emerge between alternative food activists who support local, sustainable, and community-owned food practices and the reality that these practices often represent the ideals and values of white, middle-class communities at the exclusion of more vulnerable populations.
  • Harris, S. B., Tompkins, J. W., & TeHiwi, B. (2017). Call to action: A new path for improving diabetes care for Indigenous peoples, a global review. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 123, 120–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2016.11.022
    • over 50% of Indigenous adults (>35 years of age) have type 2 diabetes mellitus
    • Aside from non-traditional Indigenous diets high in sugar, fats, and processed foods, there are unfairness and disparities in Indigenous peoples’ health, such as “economic poverty (income, unemployment, lack of education, food insecurity, poor living conditions), social poverty (cultural identity and isolation, lack of social support and racism leading to negative stereotyping and stigmatization), and cultural poverty (loss of language and connection to the land, environmental deprivation, and spiritual, emotional and mental disconnection
  • Heim T. The Indigenous origins of regenerative agriculture. National Farmers Union. October 12, 2020. 
    • This blog post from the National Farmers Union examines the Indigenous origins of regenerative agriculture and explores the foundational concepts of intercropping, agroforestry, and permaculture, along with water management practices that preserve resources through climate-specific adaptations. The recognition of these contributions is relevant to the work of returning to an organic and resilient food system, understanding the value and expertise of Indigenous perspectives, and the importance of incorporating this knowledge to advance sustainable agriculture and land stewardship
  • Hoover, E. (2017, September 30). Environmental reproductive justice: Intersections in an American Indian community impacted by environmental contamination. Taylor & Francis.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23251042.2017.1381898?scroll=top&needAccess=true&role=tab&aria-labelledby=full-articl
    •  Lands that are typically less protected by our government or areas more impoverished see an unequal amount of contaminants. Industrial practices that release environmental contaminants that cause negative effects on physical and cultural reproduction especially in indigenous communities.
  • I tried to prove that small family farms are the future. I couldn’t do it. The Counter. October 19, 2021 (Layperson article) 
    • This opinion piece in The Counter, a nonprofit news site acquired by nonprofit media organization Grist, explores the history of small family farms, the symbolism of American family farming, and its viability in terms of cohesive stability, resilient food supply, and economic prosperity. It examines alternative food systems through the experiences of BIPOC communities and the transition of environmental stewardship through stolen land, and argues that, “People of color throughout North American history have proven that alternative farming systems are viable even when they’re not favored.” It stresses the need to reconsider the disproven family farm ideal, and shift into a community/team model operating under fundamentally different principles that are “not measured by their rugged individualism and radical independence, but by how well they provide good food, good jobs, and good environmental outcomes.”
  • Jull, J., Giles, A. & Graham, I.D. Community-based participatory research and integrated knowledge translation: advancing the co-creation of knowledge. Implementation Sci 12, 150 (2017). ^^.
    • CBPR and IKT bring distinct strengths to a common aim: fostering democratic processes in the co-creation of knowledge. As research approaches, they create opportunities to challenge assumptions about for whom knowledge is produced, how it is generated, and what is defined as knowledge. They also support the development and integration of research findings into health systems.
    • When used appropriately, CBPR and IKT both have the potential to contribute to—and advance—implementation science focused on the conduct of collaborative health systems research.

Lived Experience as Food Systems Science ^^

  • Neve et al. 2021. Understanding Lived Experience of Food Environments to Inform Policy: An Overview of Research Methods ^^
    • evidence of the lived experience of food environments provides a unique source of knowledge on why policies designed to improve diets succeed or fail. Evidence into how people navigate their food environments in the context of their everyday realities can thus provide insights into how to design policies that more equitably and effectively improve diets, nutrition, health and wellbeing.
    • A wide range of qualitative methods is available to provide evidence of people’s lived experience of food environments, including in-depth interviews, photo elicitation, go-along tours, community observation, group model building, and co-design methodologies. Each method has different potential for gaining insights into how people interact with food environments.
    • Despite the potential of these methods to generate evidence to inform more equitable, effective policies, the amount of research conducted using these methods remains modest compared to quantitative studies of food environments. Policy-makers should pay more attention to the evidence generated by lived experience research while also generating demand for it to inform their nutrition and health policies
  • Redvers N, Celidwen Y, Schultz C, et al. The determinants of planetary health: an Indigenous consensus perspective. Lancet Planet Health. 2022;6(2):e156-e163. doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00354-5. ***
    • Indigenous Peoples’ sovereignty has been strained by the increasing effects of global environmental change within their territories, including climate change and pollution, and by threats and impositions against their land and water rights.
    • This continuing strain against sovereignty has prompted a call to action to conceptualise the determinants of planetary health from a perspective that embodied Indigenous-specific methods of knowledge gathering from around the globe. A group of Indigenous scholars, practitioners, land and water defenders, respected Elders, and knowledge-holders came together to define the determinants of planetary health from an Indigenous perspective. 
  • Sanchez-Pimienta CE. Fostering planetary health in polluted environments: lessons from the Xonacatlán Indigenous Council in Mexico. Lancet Planet Health. 2024;8 Suppl 1:S4. doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00069-X
    • The article emphasizes the value of incorporating Indigenous knowledge systems into broader environmental and health strategies. Recognizing these perspectives can lead to more holistic and effective approaches to planetary health challenges.
    • The Xonacatlán Indigenous Council exemplifies how Indigenous communities can lead efforts in environmental restoration and health promotion, even in polluted settings. Their initiatives highlight the importance of local knowledge and community engagement in fostering planetary health.
  • Sands, B, Machado, MR, White, A, Zent, E, and Gould, R. Moving towards an anti-colonial definition for regenerative agriculture.Agric Hum Values. (2023) 40:1697–716. doi: 10.1007/s10460-023-10429-3
    • While the interest in RA has gained recent attention, the practices that characterize regenerative farming today have been used within Indigenous systems for millennia 
    • Practices that are foundational to RA including, but not limited to tillage reduction, crop rotation, intercropping, rotational grazing, cover cropping, and agroforestry, all emerged in pre-colonial Indigenous communities
    • Any final definition should also consider previously silenced Indigenous epistemologies around the world and be rooted in values of reciprocity, respect, collective well-being, knowledge co-creation, and (re)localization 
  • Sarkar D, Walker-Swaney J, Shetty K. Food Diversity and Indigenous Food Systems to Combat Diet-Linked Chronic Diseases. Curr Dev Nutr. 2019 Sep 2;4(Suppl 1):3-11.
    • Loss of plant-based food diversity and subsequent changes in dietary patterns closely associated with higher daily intake of more hyperprocessed and calorie-dense foods have partly contributed to the rapid rise of diet- and lifestyle-linked noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs) across different communities worldwide
    • Improving food and nutritional diversity based on the diversity of traditional plant-based foods is an important dietary strategy to address the challenges of rapidly emerging diet- and lifestyle-linked noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs) of indigenous communities worldwide.
    • Recent studies have indicated that many traditional plant-based foods of Native Americans provide a rich source of human health–relevant bioactive compounds with diverse health benefits. Based on this rationale of health benefits of traditional plant-based foods, the objective of this review is to present a state-of-the-art comprehensive framework for ecologically and culturally relevant sustainable strategies to restore and integrate the traditional plant food diversity of Native Americans to address the NCD challenges of indigenous and wider nonindigenous communities worldwide.
  • Suárez-Torres J, Suárez-López JR, et al. Agroecology and Health: Lessons from Indigenous Populations. Curr Environ Health Rep. 2017;4(2):244-251. doi:10.1007/s40572-017-0146-z. ***
    • Agroecology and ancestral knowledge are being adopted by a growing number of organizations, indigenous peoples, and social groups in various parts of the world, as development alternatives that respond to local needs and worldviews.
    • Pesticides have generated important agricultural benefits. Unfortunately, they have shown to be toxic to different species and have generated public health problems, mainly in developing countries.
    • Adverse effects of pesticides on human health include damages to the nervous system (e.g., Parkinson’s disease), as well as pulmonary, reproductive, endocrine, and immune system damage. Chronic toxicity results from the cumulative effects associated with the development of chronic diseases such as: leukemia, lymphomas, sarcomas, other cancers, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, congenital malformations, renal disease, and autoimmune diseases such as lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
  • Transforming the Food System Is the People’s Work: Experiential Knowledge Shows Us the Way (book review) ^^
    • By de-centering the professional experts, the editors fulfill their “call for the recognition and affirmation of Indigenous, local, traditional and other non-mainstream knowledge systems” (p. xix). Instead of reporting knowledge simply based in science and scientism, the editors have brought together a group of author participants who share an under­standing of a broader set of knowledges driven by co-production in nonhierarchical dialogue, includ­ing multiple indigenous epistemologies. If you have read, or written, about how society needs a trans­formation in how we go about addressing social justice and environmental sustainability or regen­eration in the face of mounting global challenges, this book will be a valuable contribution to your reading list
  • Vernon, R.V. A Native Perspective: Food Is More Than Consumption. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. 2015;5(4):137–142. DOI:https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2015.054.024.
    • Food systems research and outreach that focuses narrowly on consumption and access risk oversimplifying Native communities’ relationship to food as well as their movement toward food sovereignty.
  • Wallerstein et al.  2010  Community-Based Participatory Research Contributions to Intervention Research: The Intersection of Science and Practice to Improve Health Equity ^^
    • Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has emerged over recent decades as a transformative research paradigm that bridges the gap between science and practice through community engagement and social action aimed at increasing health equity. CBPR expands the potential of translational sciences to develop, implement, and disseminate effective interventions across diverse communities by addressing power imbalances; facilitating mutual benefit between community and academic partners; and promoting reciprocal knowledge translation that incorporates community theories into the research process.
    • One key challenge involves external validity—translating findings from highly controlled trials into real-world community interventions across diverse contexts. These contexts often vary widely in culture, resources, organizational structures, and receptivity to research.
    • A second challenge concerns what counts as evidence—specifically, the need to listen to and incorporate Indigenous practices, beliefs, and theories that inform community interventions and motivate collective action for change. Indigenous knowledge is local, culturally specific, and oriented toward problem-solving, and it forms the foundation for community decision-making in areas such as health, education, and resource allocation.
  • Sarkar D, Walker-Swaney J, Shetty K. Food Diversity and Indigenous Food Systems to Combat Diet-Linked Chronic Diseases. Curr Dev Nutr. 2019;4(Suppl 1):3-11. Published 2019 Sep 2. doi:10.1093/cdn/nzz099.
    • There is a direct link between noncommunicable chronic diseases and the loss of diverse plant-based foods among the indigenous communities worldwide. Cardiovascular diseases and type-2 diabetes are the cause of consuming too much ultra-processed foods.
    • NAFSA is reengaging all indigenous communities in North America by sharing resources and providing solidarity among the tribal seed sovereignty projects.
  • Schapiro M. After Centuries of Exploitation, Will Indigenous Communities in Biodiversity Hotspots Finally Get Their Due?Civil Eats. Published March 7, 2023.
    • In one of the most significant developments at December’s global Convention on Biological Diversity  96 countries agreed to create a new Access and Benefit Sharing Fund to ensure that moving forward, those who develop commercial products derived from genetic resources will be compelled to ensure a fair and equitable sharing of “monetary and non-monetary benefits from the utilization of genetic resources. (the Earth’s plants, animals, and micro-organisms)
    • The U.S. is not a signatory to the treaty behind December’s convention
    • Thirty-four percent of the lands with the highest rates of biodiversity on Earth are on Indigenous territory
    • One of the U.N.’s motives is to slow the rate of extinction of these wild relative species and thousands of other species in what the U.N. and others have called a biodiversity crisis on par with the climate crisis.
    • The history of colonialism can be told from the history of plant extractions that became food or flavors for rich countries in the Global North—from vanilla (Madagascar) to nutmeg (Indonesia), potatoes (Peru), corn (Mexico), and chili peppers (Jamaica), the list goes on. For centuries, this process played out in colonial patterns of extraction. No one bothered asking for permission to explore, “discover,” dig, or leave with satchels of plant samples.
    • Indigenous communities are often far more effective at preserving biodiversity, using traditional stewardship on lands they’ve lived in for centuries, than more top-down laws and policing have been.

PODCASTS AND VIDEOS

  •  North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS), founded by The Sioux Chef Sean Sherman, is dedicated to addressing the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways.
    • You Tube Channel: Indigenous Food Lab
      • This channel is an educational platform dedicated to sharing knowledge of Indigenous foodways, including traditional ingredients, dishes, culinary techniques, and food philosophies rooted in culture, land, and community. Through storytelling and teaching, it centers Indigenous knowledge systems and supports cultural and nutritional revitalization by reconnecting audiences with Native foods and practices.
  • Two webinars on Food and Knowledge Systems of Indigenous Peoples to Advance Healthy and Sustainable Diets, hosted by the International Union of Nutrition Sciences (IUNS) task forces on Traditional and Indigenous Food Systems and Nutrition (TIFSAN) and Sustainable diets.