Navajo Nation

GOOD LAWS,GOOD FOOD: PUTTING FOOD POLICY TO WORK IN THE NAVAJO NATION May 2015 WRITTEN BY THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL FOOD LAW AND POLICY CLINIC IN PARTNERSHIP WITH COPE (COMMUNITY OUTREACH & PATIENT EMPOWERMENT) AND THE NAVAJO NATION COPE Community Outreach & Patient Empowerment Images by COPE, Shepherd Waldenberger, and Chip Thomas TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ...............................................................................................................1 About the Authors ......................................................................................................... ..3 Section I: Diné Food Ways ........................................................................................4 Section II: The Structure of the Navajo Nation Government ................................ 6 Overview ......................................................................................................................6 The Source of Law in the Navajo Nation .................................................................................6 Navajo Nation Government .............................................................................................. .7 Local Government ..........................................................................................................11 Section III: The Role of the Federal and State Governments ................................14 Overview ....................................................................................................................14 The Interplay of Tribal and Federal Law ...............................................................................14 The Role of States ..........................................................................................................16 The Role of Tribal, State, and Federal Law on Specific Food Policies ............................................16 Opportunities for Tribes in the U.S. Farm Bill .......................................................................18 Section IV: Food Production ...................................................................................20 Overview ....................................................................................................................20 Water .........................................................................................................................21 Land Use .....................................................................................................................25 Agricultural Infrastructure ................................................................................................29 Section V: Food Processing, Distribution, Waste ..................................................34 Overview ....................................................................................................................34 Processing ...................................................................................................................34 Meat Processing ............................................................................................................38 Aggregation and Distribution .............................................................................................41 Managing Food Waste .....................................................................................................43 Section VI: Access to Healthy Food ........................................................................46 Overview ....................................................................................................................46 Farmers Markets and Other Direct-to-Consumer Sales .............................................................47 Healthy Corner Store Initiatives .........................................................................................50 Mobile Food Vending, Delivery Services and Transportation ......................................................54 Section VII: Food Assistance Programs ..................................................................57 Overview ....................................................................................................................57 SNAP .........................................................................................................................57 FDPIR ........................................................................................................................64 WIC ..........................................................................................................................69 Note on Encouraging Breastfeeding in the Navajo Nation ..........................................................72 Section VIII: School Food and Nutrition Education ..............................................78 Overview ....................................................................................................................78 Structure of School Systems ..............................................................................................78 School Food Environment ................................................................................................79 Farm to School Programs .................................................................................................88 Food and Nutrition Education Initiatives ..............................................................................94 Conclusion ................................................................................................................97 INTRODUCTION The Navajo Nation is the traditional heartland of the Navajo people, a tribe that has continually inhabited the region for nearly a millennium. Diné Bibee Nahaz’áanii Bitsésiléi, or Navajo fundamental law, are principles that have guided the Diné people since long before European colonizers arrived on this continent 500 years ago. Today, Navajo fundamental law continues to be the principle framework that guides the Nation’s 174,000 residents.1 Spread over 25,000 square miles, the Navajo Nation is the largest tribal jurisdiction in the United States.2 Today, the food environment in the Navajo Nation is filled with highly processed, low-nutrition foods, and many Navajo residents have challenges accessing traditional foods and other healthy foods, which can be hard to find and more expensive. This food environment, coupled with high rates of unemployment and low-wage jobs, has led to many households within the Navajo Nation becoming food insecure, meaning that they lack access to enough food for an active, healthy life.3 Lack of access to healthy foods and many people’s disconnect from traditional Navajo foods contribute to significant health challenges among the Navajo people.4 Close to 26,000 Navajo—around 22% of the total population—are living with diabetes,5 and another 75,000 are prediabetic.6 Regions of the Navajo Nation have obesity rates ranging from 23- 60%.7 In addition to its negative health impacts, the current food system also economically disadvantages the Navajo people. Because land and water are difficult to access, the Navajo people are now largely dependent on foods imported from outside the Navajo Nation. In addition, many Navajo residents no longer know how to grow and harvest traditional foods, and there are insufficient market opportunities for Navajo farmers to earn a living selling food. Despite these challenges, the Diné people can rebuild a healthy, sustainable food system, and indeed many passionate advocates are already working towards the goal of Diné Food Sovereignty, defined by the Diné Policy Institute as “[T]he right of people to define their own policies and strategies for sustainable production, distribution, and consumption of food, with respect to Diné culture, philosophy, and values, and is considered to be a precondition for food security on the Navajo Nation. Diné Food Sovereignty ensures the ability to establish our own culturally appropriate and sustainable systems of managing natural resources including lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity. Diné Food Sovereignty empowers Diné people by putting the Diné people, cooks, farmers, ranchers, hunters and wild food collectors at the center of decision-making on policies, strategies, and natural resource management.”8 1 TINA NORRIS, PAULA L. VINES, AND ELIZABETH M. HOEFFEL, THE AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE POPULATION: 2010 CENSUS BRIEFS, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU 14 (Jan. 2012), available at http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-10.pdf. 2 Navajo Nation, INDIAN HEALTH SERV., http://www.ihs.gov/navajo/index.cfm?module=nao_navajo_nation (last visited Apr. 18, 2015). 3 Pardilla et al., High Levels of Household Food Insecurity on the Navajo Nation, PUBLIC HEALTH NUTRITION 17(01), 58-65 (2014) (76% of households in Navajo Nation are food insecure versus 14.3% of households nationally); Alisha Coleman-Jensen et al., Food Security Status of U.S. Households in 2013, U.S. DEP’T OF AGRIC. ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERV. (Sept. 2014), available at http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/1565415/err173.pdf. 4 K.A. Lombard, Diabetes on the Navajo Nation: What Role Can Gardening and Agriculture Extension Play to Reduce It?, RURAL AND REMOTE HEALTH 6, 4 (2006), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17044752. 5 Navajo Nation, PARTNERS IN HEALTH, http://www.pih.org/country/navajo-nation/about (last visited Apr. 18, 2015). 6 Navajo Nation Code Ann. tit. 24, § 11 (2014) (Healthy Diné Nation Act: Findings). 7 Id. 8 DINÉ POLICY INSTITUTE, DINÉ FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: A REPORT ON THE NAVAJO

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