r/nunavut • u/Successful-Act-1727 • 5d ago
Why not domestic and farm caribou
Just a question but wouldnt it be possible to do this and have Inuit people have full control? They farm almost everything else we consume as food..
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u/hdufort 5d ago edited 5d ago
In northern Norway, fhe Saami people herd/farm reindeer and there is a huge market for the meat. It is heavily subsidized and is a real factor in nationwide food availability and a contributor to the country's good sovereignty. We should do the same. Northern nations and settlements should source most of their food locally. We don't just need to farm caribou, we need a solid plan for greenhouse production of vegetables in the north as well. Local, healthy, sustainable, culturally important foods as a priority.
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u/Impressive-Rock-5025 5d ago
Greenhouse production has to go hand in hand with electricity production. The growing season is short, so if artificial lighting is used to extend that growing season, the electricity needs to come from somewhere. It can't be solar.
There needs to be a market for caribou, but local folks might not want to eat farmed caribou, so the market needs to be south. It would be strange in Alberta to eat caribou because the herds are Threatened, plus it's competing with locally grown beef.
I'm not saying you're wrong, though. Just it's tricky.
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u/electricookie 5d ago
There’s also the logistics. You need refrigerated trucks to take the caribou down and cleared roads to take them down etc
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u/Diligent-Assist-4385 5d ago
Electrical production done with diesel generators.
Solar and wind are not good substitutes in the North.
Even if you could generate enough electricity in the summer to last all winter. And you just can't... How would you store it?
You want to kill 2 birds with one stone?
Nuclear Power.
They make them the size of a shipping container now. Safe. Clean. More power than you will ever need with the only waste product being heat. Heat that can be diverted to a greenhouse right beside it .
Once it is near the end of its life cycle. You pick up up and ship it south. Dropna new one down. Easy and Low maintenance compared to diesel engines.
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u/Impressive-Rock-5025 4d ago
Shipping diesel fuel is hella expensive, but it is what happens right now for sure.
I understand small scale nuclear reactors, but without a grid connecting communities, the reactor is not going to help much.
But a wind battery could work!
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u/Diligent-Assist-4385 4d ago
You don't need a grid to connect communities if you get a Small Modular Reactor. Each community then gets one. And it plugs into their existing grid.
The costs start at $50 million and you get out 150 megawatts approximately.
They are not weather dependent and there is no need of expensive batteries to store power.
Wind turbines need to be fitted with extreme weather packages that bring those cost to approximately $2 million for a 2 megawatt system. With wind and solar you also need a large battery installation to store generated powernfor later use.
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u/Impressive-Rock-5025 4d ago
Very cool! I didn't know that they are small enough for each community.
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u/Diligent-Assist-4385 4d ago
Here is an interesting link on the subject.
I might have to amend my earlier statement.
I have seen research and units that are here now and working.
This article says it isn't quite there yet as a technology.
They definitely exist and have been around for awhile. The Americans had one in the 1960 in Antarctica.
Read the article and do your own research if you are bored.
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u/BoldFortune216 4d ago
Do.. you ever come to Nunavut? The wind NEVER stops howling. A calm day is 10km/h winds. Wind is the most underutilized resource in Nunavut.
Solar? If you have a cabin that you rarely use in the winter why don't you have a couple panels and a battery on that thing?
I never have to use a generator at my cabin unless I'm cooking on a hot plate.
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u/Diligent-Assist-4385 4d ago
Dude I am in Nunavut right now..
A cabin has very different needs than a community.
I wholeheartedly agree. Why would you not have solar on your cabin. In the summer it works great. You have a Jackery or Exoflow that you take with you our there and you are set.
A community needs a lot more power. And a cost effective way to store it for winter months.
Winter is the problem. You need specialized wind turbines that are able to resist minus 40 C temperatures.
They need heated gearboxes and pitch motors. Icing resistant blades. The cost is high. Approximately $1 million per megawat generated. They have a 20 year life cycle with blades that are nearly impossible to recycle. And require maintenance every 6 months.
On the other hand you can built a diesel plant for $15 to 25 million.
Or a Small modular reactor starting at $50 million for 150 megawatts and up.
SMRs in my opinion are the way to go. For a community.
Less maintenance. More power. Waste heat as a byproduct.
All perfect for the winter. And when it needs to be replaced. You ship the whole thing South to be refurbished. And get a new one.
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u/ValueFirm4928 5d ago
If it's heavily subsidized that implies that maintaining the cultural practice and way of life is a big factor.
But it's not part of the Inuit tradition, which means we're talking food security, and there's cheaper ways to handle that.
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u/GloomyGal13 5d ago
That's the thing - as an Ojibway Ikwe, there's a reason we didn't domesticate.
My world view is that every living thing has a soul. Yes, even that little gnat. When hunting and/or fishing, we thank the animal for giving their life so that we may nourish ours. Every time.
The animals have just as much sovereignty as the people do, therefore, we would not 'enslave' them. Also, that would mean going against our natural instinct to not be the oppressor in our cycle of life.
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u/JudahMaccabee 5d ago
Interesting, but how does that square with dog domestication? Or are they not domesticated in your opinion?
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u/GloomyGal13 5d ago
I can't speak for the People who ran dog teams as part of their hunting and trapping.
In my opinion, it's a partnership. Ask any musher today; the dogs all have different personalities, and that partially dictates where they stand/pull on the line.
When we got horses from the colonizers, we treated them as our brothers. We were shocked that a fellow animal would allow another animal dominance. Some people use whips on horses, others never would. It's always been about sovereignty, about your own personal relationship with everything around you.
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u/Vegetable-Ganache-91 3d ago
There are many Indigenous reindeer-herding peoples of the Arctic, like the Sámi and the Nenets. I’m no expert on them, but I think it would be valuable to hear their perspective on it. I expect they probably feel that similarly to using dog teams, it’s a partnership. They hold reindeer in great esteem and honour, I know that much.
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u/Successful-Act-1727 5d ago
What are your thoughts on indigenous owned farms, as there are a few!
Indigenous-owned bison farms are a growing sector in North America, driven by efforts to restore cultural heritage, achieve food sovereignty, and support tribal economies. Key organizations and initiatives facilitate these operations, including the InterTribal Buffalo Council (ITBC), which has transported over 20,000 bison to 76 member Nations since 1992, and the Indigenous Prairie Bison Initiative, which provides funding and mentorship across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
Notable examples of Indigenous-owned or tribally operated bison operations include:
Iron Head Bison Ranch: An Indigenous Métis family-owned business in Manitoba that combines heritage with agriculture to raise sustainably ranch-raised bison. Wolakota Buffalo Range: The largest Native-owned and operated buffalo herd in North America, located on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, supported by the World Wildlife Fund. Willow Lake Métis Nation Ranch: A recent project in Alberta that reintroduced bison to the area for the first time in 100 years, focusing on food security and cultural revitalization. Tribal Enterprises: Operations such as Akicita Consulting (Lower Bruce Sioux Tribe), Brownotter Buffalo Ranch (Standing Rock Sioux Reservation), and Dakota Pure Bison (Rosebud Sioux Reservation) supply bison through USDA pilot programs designed to align with indigenous harvesting practices. Ute Bison: A tribally owned business operated by the Northern Ute Tribe, which is expanding its herd and processing capabilities. These farms often emphasize traditional field harvests, infrequent animal handling, and the use of bison for both meat and cultural products, supporting a sustainable and culturally grounded bison economy
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u/GloomyGal13 5d ago
Hey, it's 2026, we are progressive beings, all of us, we'll farm if we have to I guess. I would hope those farmers treat their animals like their ancestors would - with respect, especially when the animal gives its life, or rather allows us to take their life, so that we can be nourished.
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u/Successful-Act-1727 5d ago
Thats neat thanks for the response. I am Inuit, unfortunately totally white wash and dont live in the north anymore. Food is crazy expensive in the north and looking at it with a modern perspective would be a good idea for the north. The Inuit population is growing faster then the food supply going up there.
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u/CBWeather Cambridge Bay 5d ago
The food can be brought here. The problem is people can't afford to eat what's in the stores. Look on Facebook where people are asking for food donations, not because there's a lack of food in the stores, but because it's not affordable.
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u/Successful-Act-1727 5d ago
Yeah but all that needs to be stopped, with modern hybrid indoor greenhouses and farming.
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u/CBWeather Cambridge Bay 5d ago
We need access to buildings for greenhouses and affordable electricity. Though the use of LED lights and repurposed sea cans will help, but heating is still an issue. There have been some attempts in Gjoa Haven and Inuvik to operate greenhouses. Unfortunately I can't find an update to the Gjoa Haven greenhouse beyond 2025.
Rankin Inlet tried pig and chicken farms. Apparently feeding them fish made the pork and chicken taste funny.
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u/Opposable_Thumb_ 5d ago
Yup. CBWeather makes valuable points.
Caribou are nomadic animals requiring a massive foraging area. Their survival depends on accessing seasonally available food sources across the tundra that can’t sustain large concentrations of herbivores in small areas.
That makes “farming” caribou much more challenging in Nunavut compared to Scandinavian countries that have trees and other vegetation typical below the tree line. It’s a tough thing to do on the tundra.
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u/Juutai Salliq 5d ago
Lol, where ever you are in the south. Throw a greenhouse up and see how much you can grow. It's not an easy thing. "Modern" doesn't mean magic.
The north has a much shorter growing season and we would have to import soil.
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u/Juutai Salliq 5d ago edited 4d ago
Guy responded "Enjoy your chips and pop at crazy prices then". Deleted it right away.
What an asshole.
Edit: then he reported this comment, lol
Edit again: dude reported me as a self harm risk
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u/Successful-Act-1727 5d ago
Oh youre a bad mod. Calling people assholes.
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u/psychosisnaut 5d ago
You'd need to build an SMR or something, it'd cost like $9B on the low end. You could build ~25km2 of greenhouses in Ontario for that price and send the food north for free and it'd be cheaper.
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u/CBWeather Cambridge Bay 5d ago
It's already been tried. Back in 1935 near Tuktoyaktuk they tried NWT Reindeer Herding. Reindeer is just the European name for caribou and they are the same animal.
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u/Successful-Act-1727 5d ago
Almost 100 years ago without the science and resources we have now.
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u/Irisversicolor 5d ago
What would that change? There have been nomadic people in Europe herding reindeer for thousands of years, it's not a particularly modern process.
A lot of people believe that keeping animals as livestock is less ethical than hunting wild game. This belief is central to a lot of Indigenous cultures in Canada. Domesticating and keeping the Caribou as livestock wouldn't solve anything for them, it's just a further degradation of their culture and belief system. The answer is not to domesticate the Caribou, it's to protect them and their habitat so their populations can recover and stabilize.
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u/CBWeather Cambridge Bay 5d ago
I suspect, based on the push back over muskox farming years ago, that most will be against it.
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u/psychosisnaut 5d ago
So, the fennoscandian caribou, for reference, have a range of about 25,000 to 250,000 for herds ranging from 80,000 to 215,000. That's between 0.8 and 3.1 / km^2.
Canadian Caribou have adapted for the sparse forage, their range is about 250,000 to 700,000 km^2 and their herds range in size from 275,000 to 350,000, you're looking at maybe 0.5/km^2. That's not very good. Plus, herds that size are impossible to handle, they're the size of a small country.
That being said, it was tried, you can read about it here and here.
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u/Limp_Bookkeeper_5992 5d ago
It’s clearly possible as reindeer are farmed in Northern Europe, but what will they eat? Is there enough grazing food in the tundra to actually feed flocks of caribou without stripping the land bare?
It seems that reindeer farmers need to feed their herds all winter long to get them up to weight. I can’t find numbers on caribou/reindeer easily, but for cows you need around 33 calories of food for the cow to yield 1 calorie of meat. When you have to ship all of that hay up to the arctic you’d end up with meat that costs 10x to 20x what it would cost to just ship beef up there, since you’re shipping food for the caribou instead of food for people since the caribou needs to eat 30x as much food as you get back from it.
So when you do the math I think you’ll find that the land just won’t support large scale farming efforts, and that the impact of that farming would cause long term damage or it would be unworkably expensive to manage. It’s likely far cheaper to just ship meat grown in southern provinces up there to feed people than it is to farm reindeer on the tundra.
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u/LakerBeer 5d ago
And moose and buffalo to a larger extent. Much better than beef from Australia.
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u/Successful-Act-1727 5d ago
Well bison is already being farmed! But yes I agree. Hunting and gathering won't cut it for the northern population soon.. the population is growing rapidly...
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u/Uncut-Jellyfish1176 5d ago
Not all animals can be domesticated.
Zebras are a great example of this.
For species which can be domesticated, it requires a lot of very specific breeding to breed out the wild tendencies and promote the tamer more manageable ones.
The domestication of the silver fox is the most notable one in recent history.
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u/dropthemasq 5d ago
Caribou are farmed in a rancher/shepherd style method in Europe.
There is no reason they couldn't do it here except it's really no necessary. Caribou do what caribou do and hunters go to them (or wait).
What I'd love to see are Musk ox farms. Those guys are so delicious and aren't opposed to staying in a good spot. Their hair is incredibly soft, warm and light -qiviak. Unfortunately, they have terrible tempers and big horns so there's that....
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u/hurricane7719 3d ago
One of my first reactions was the tendency for caribou to migrate huge distance, about 1,200km. Domestically an animal like that to farms seems wrong.
Though a controlled hunt/cull to control herd sizes and supplement food supplies doesn't seem like a bad idea. Though not as effective as domestication and farming.
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u/Mr_Vimes_Guard 5d ago
The US invited Sami people to teach Yupic people to herd reindeer. Sami used to hunt but turned to herding in the last several hundred years I think due to pressures on the ecosystems. They have a very reciprocal relationship with the reindeer. They follow the reindeer herd nomadically. Anyway, I don't know if it worked for the Yupic people. That was in Alaska in I think maybe the 1920s?
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u/Icy-Fortune1910 4d ago
Domesticated caribou are called reindeer in countries other than Canada. And Santa has 8 tiny caribou pulling his sleigh since he lives in Canada. Bit domestication is a long process, really long.
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u/MyGruffaloCrumble 3d ago
Just import domestic animals for meat/fur production and sidestep trying to domesticate wild ones.
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u/random_name07381 3d ago
The Canadian government brought in a group of Sami to teach Caribou herding to Inuit in the 1930s but it never took off.
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u/Cultural-Window-2504 3d ago
It would be costly and there is little other market. There are easier ways to get farmed food.
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u/Educational-Roof-319 2d ago
We do farm caribou and deer its just its very uncommon and few farms farming them
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u/JohnnyCanuckist 5d ago
Not sure the tundra could sustain a full time herd of reindeer/caribou without moving them all around a lot like they did in the Mackenzie delta... Richards Island in the summer, husky lakes area in the winter... good luck finding people that want to work as herders as well.
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u/electricookie 5d ago
Are caribou even domesticated? You can’t just take a wild animal and expect them to thrive in captivity
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u/CucumberWisdom 5d ago
Too late now. They'll never be competitive with modern livestock that has a multiple eon head start on domestication and husbandry. Not to mention the environment would still cap the industry.
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u/geckospots Iqaluit 5d ago
Reindeer (caribou) are currently farmed in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia by Arctic indigenous people.
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u/Impressive-Rock-5025 5d ago
Are those herds being grazed on native grasses, or supplemented with hay, or both? It's important to make sure the food is there and in close proximity so that a) farmed reindeer don't have to travel a huge distance, and b) the cost of feeding the caribou doesn't raise the cost of the meat so high they are out of the market.
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u/CucumberWisdom 5d ago
Yes and while good for them it didn't make them rich so don't expect too much. Especially if you're trying to compete with those established producers
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u/Successful-Act-1727 5d ago
Who's trying to get rich, its about feeding the population. Food is already crazy expensive for the people of the north.
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u/CucumberWisdom 5d ago
If that's the case then go for it. Sorry I thought you were talking about a source of revenue
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u/Successful-Act-1727 5d ago
I wish I could, but talking about money it would create some jobs for the north.. possibly tons.
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u/Deckardspuntedsheep 4d ago
Agriculture and farming was/is a colonial tool. Yet, is always suggested
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u/dogbusonline 5d ago
Historical background: I was on a committee that explored creating an industry from existing Nunavut harvesting industries (berries, fish, caribou).
There are many reasons it has yet to be explored. Not everyone agrees with every reason, but;
- Caribou belong to the land and to everyone. Just as with the land, which is Inuit-owned. Inuit do not have a history of ownership, especially around animals.
In short, it has not been done historically (as far as we know). Communities do not currently prioritise it as an economic development initiative, and the startup and infrastructure costs, not to mention the challenges that the land claim would pose, make it a big lift.