This has rarely felt as true as it did this past week in Sisimiut, Greenland.
We travelled between settlements with no roads or sewage systems, tasted dried seaweed and whale meat, spoke with the director of a shrimp factory — and then met a young entrepreneur growing vegetables in an old warehouse. A mix of past and future, side by side.
Greenland is a society in constant transition. Inuit traditions, Danish colonial legacy, and the lasting imprint of American presence all shape daily life. In Sisimiut, cruise ships are both opportunity and strain: thousands of visitors in a single day bring income but can empty the shops before the next supply boat arrives. Climate change softens winters and lengthens summers, but undermines hunting grounds and turns permafrost into mud.
I am here with partners from East Iceland, Bodø, Orkney and the Faroe Islands — together with local stakeholders — to understand how North Atlantic communities can strengthen their food system resilience in a time of geopolitical instability and rapid climate shifts.
Our project, funded by the Arctic Cooperation Programme of the Nordic Council of Ministers, highlights that resilience depends not just on supply chains, but on the enabling systems behind them: transport, energy, local production, and the capacity to maintain continuity, diverse supply paths, and acceptability of available foods. And across the North Atlantic, one insight keeps returning:
A strong mix of traditional knowledge, entrepreneurship and public investment is essential.
In Sisimiut, we saw exactly that mix in action. And it gives reason for optimism.
Stay tuned for more Nordic Insights!
0 Comments