123“bottom up” the local cultural principles of what is
good food and how to harvest and best use it.
None of the interventions had focus in single nutrient
solutions to single nutrient inadequacies. Rather, the
strategies employed worked to improve food provi-
sioning from local sources, and to improve dietary bio-
diversity for all age groups. All projects were in rural
areas without access to large markets that stressed
industrial food products. When market (store bought)
food was discussed, it was in the context of how to in-
crease the demand and supply of nutrient-rich, good
quality foods with minimal processing.
- Discussion
With positive attitudes and confidence that the local
food is credibly healthy, local networks in these com-
munities of Indigenous Peoples have developed a
wide range of activities to create community em-
powerment for sustained use and food and nutrition
security. However, sustainability of these foods for
Indigenous Peoples depends on cultural and ecosys-
tem sustainability. It depends on continued cultural
expression; for example, to use food harvesting and
appreciation as an avenue in youth education and fit-
ness training, as well as guiding understanding of
their natural surroundings. It also depends on
ecosystem conservation to protect the food provisioning
lands, waters, forests and other essential resources.
Measures of intervention programme success with
small populations of culturally defined Indigenous
Peoples preclude measurements that depend on
large sample sizes and control groups. With the
exception of improved underweight, changes in
anthropometric measures, whether to improve
stunting or reduce obesity, were not found within
short time periods, as expected. More importantly,
the root causes of being “big” or “small/short” were
identified and addressed with expectation for long-
term improvements in general community well-
ness. Measures of improved financial security were
found within our case studies to be less important
than perceptions of improved community wellness.
In fact, in the Thai Karen case study, leaders ex-
pressed that “food is a part of happiness”, and that
it is meaningless to try to measure it with money.Many policies that fostered improved food and nu-
trition security were developed, and are discussed
more fully in Kuhnlein et al.(in press). It is crucial
to maintain databases of health statistics that are
disaggregated by culture and ethnic groups within
nations to identify areas of health risks and to
track change. Only by knowing the risks can they
be addressed with multisectoral government
agencies which logically include those responsible
for health, human rights, education, agriculture,
culture, commerce, environment and its conserva-
tion, energy and transportation – ministries that
need to form cooperative partnerships to protect
ecosystems and cultures against degradation and
loss of biodiversity in both rural and other popula-
tion areas where Indigenous Peoples live. Re-
specting and protecting indigenous knowledge and
the peoples who hold this knowledge can lead to
better understanding of research policies to use
the genetic potential for crops to become resistant
to pests, heat and drought.It is well recognized that Indigenous Peoples expe-
rience challenges in expressing their human right
to adequate food (Knuth, 2009). One serious chal-
lenge is that of climate change, which is expected to
continue and threaten many ecosystems where In-
digenous Peoples live. This then impacts the human
rights of Indigenous Peoples who lack the physical,
technological, economic and social resources to
cope with resulting ecosystem damage which causes
risk to biodiversity and sustainability of the diets that
can be provisioned from it (Damman, 2010).5. Conclusions
In all areas where our programme has been in effect,
there are several threats to cultural sustainability and
to ecosystem sustainability, which in turn threaten the