Contending with a climate-driven agricultural frontier: Climate, technology, infrastructure, and land politics in the Northwest Territories, Canada

Keywords: Arctic; agricultural frontiers; Canada
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Now more than 1º Celsius warmer than a century ago and warming at three times the global average, the Arctic and Subarctic are being reimagined as a new frontier for food production. The literature suggests that increasingly favorable climactic conditions will enable a circumpolar agricultural frontier. Based on extensive archival and ethnographic research in the Northwest Territories, Canada, I show that climate change plays a lesser, and more nuanced role in the lifecycles of one Arctic and boreal agricultural frontier. This paper argues that frontier imaginaries of the circumpolar north are overstated and that material, cultural, political, and infrastructural challenges obfuscate the viability of large-scale agriculture in the North. Investments in technology and infrastructure may support the development of an agricultural sector, but sociocultural and political factors continue to provide unique challenges for individuals and communities who grow food. This paper contributes to recent work on agricultural frontiers and agrarian change literature by foregrounding the rupture between local peoples’ experiences of land use change and public narratives that govern them.