Human rights begin with breakfast: maintenance of and access to stable traditional food systems with a focus on the European High Arctic

Food systems include a range of activities from food production to consumption. Traditional food systems (TFS), specifically those in the European High Arctic (EHA), include activities such as berry picking, hunting, reindeer herding, fishing, and processing and consuming these local foods. The maintenance of a stable TFS faces challenges due to climate change and increasing human activities. This chapter focuses on the interplay between human rights and the TFS in the EHA. It concludes that local people, including Indigenous groups, play a key role in TFS. The maintenance of a stable TFS is vital for local Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. This chapter explores the threats to fundamental human rights resulting from ongoing threats to food systems in the EHA. It highlights the importance of food systems to both physical sustenance and sociocultural, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. It also examines how a human rights framework integrates TFS and thereby shows how a stable food system promotes food security and food sovereignty as aspects of human rights.