Would you pay C$28 (US$27; £18) for a cabbage? $65 for a bag of chicken? $100 for 12 litres of water? That's not the cost of a meal at a world-class restaurant, but the price of basic foodstuffs at supermarkets in the territory of Nunavut, in northern Canada.

Residents in Iqaluit, the territorial capital, and Arctic Bay, Pond Inlet and Igloolik, and sympathisers in the national capital, Ottawa, have been protesting in a bid to raise awareness of the high cost of food in remote communities. So why is their food so expensive?

Nunavut is as large as Western Europe and covers most of the Canadian Arctic, with a population of more than 30,000, mostly Inuit. Its harsh, northern climate means there is no agricultural industry.

The answer The Arctic climate means there is no local agriculture industry

All fresh produce has to be flown in daily, or less often in more remote communities

Stores have higher running costs

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, indigenous people in the area survived by hunting, fishing and gathering. But lifestyle changes mean local people are now reliant on imported food. And for most of the year, these communities are only accessible by air.

"We don't have any roads or railways from the south so all goods have to be flown up every day," says Madeleine Redfern, mayor of the capital, Iqaluit. "Fresh produce, milk, bread is delivered here daily, and less frequently in smaller communities further away."

Michael McMullen, vice president for the northern Canada division of the North West Company, which runs 132 stores in remote Canadian communities, says getting food into stores in the north can cost 11 times more than it does in the south of the country.

Image caption This water pack weighs over 20lbs

"Transport generally makes up 13% of our costs," he says. "It costs typically one cent a pound to send stock to Winnipeg, and 30 cents a pound to send something to Iqaluit by sea, but it costs $1.27/lb to air freight stock to Arviat in southern Nunavut, and $3.65/lb to fly something to Clyde River in northern Nunavut."

"We also have higher running costs," Mr McMullen says. "Our electricity costs up north are 68 cents a kWh, whereas they are six cents a kWh a typical store in Winnipeg. A typical store in the north will use $686,000 (£430,140) worth of electricity in a year.

"Fresh food doesn't travel well either. We lose five to six times more food during transport to the north than we do down south."

Nunavut Food Prices Clyde River: $6.69 for 1kg of apples

Pond Inlet: $8.64 for two litres of semi-skimmed milk

Pond Inlet: $7.43 for 750g of fresh broccoli

Pond Inlet: $5.23 for a fresh celery

Chesterfield Inlet: $36.99 for 663g tin of Enfamil 0-12months infant formula

Arctic Bay: $73.99 for 84 Pampers

Arctic Bay: $24.49 for 1kg bacon Prices in Canadian dollars. Source: Feeding My Family Facebook group Feeding My Family

And while it is cheaper to send non-perishable items by ship in the summer, this creates its own problems. "There are issues with storage," says Ms Redfern. "Imagine a whole year's worth of toilet paper for a community."

Leesee Papatsie, who organised the protests and lives in Iqaluit, has a good job but still spends more than a third of her pay on food - about $500-$600 (£314-£376) a week.

"Food has always been expensive," she says. "The cost doesn't shock me any more. Luckily, I live in a large town, smaller towns are more expensive."

The minimum wage in Nunavut is the highest in the country at $11 an hour, but high living costs mean it doesn't have the same purchasing power. And the unemployment rate is high, at 16%.

"Most people will know someone who is hungry or has been hungry," says Ms Papatsie. "Lots of kids go to school hungry and don't have proper meals. It's cheaper to buy an oven dinner than the separate ingredients, it's not a good diet, but people think at least they have food."

She started a Facebook group earlier this month to raise awareness of the issue, which has grown to 20,000 members and has been flooded with pictures of high-cost foodstuffs.

Food security The Nunavut Inuit Child Health Survey conducted in 2007-2008 found that nearly 70% of Inuit children aged three to five years in 16 Nunavut communities resided in food-insecure households, meaning they did not have sufficient access to appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. Overall, 31% of Inuit children lived in homes with moderate child food insecurity; many were fed less expensive food or did not eat enough because there was no money for food. Another 25.1% lived in homes with severe child food insecurity; many skipped meals, went hungry, or did not eat for a whole day. The UN's Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, recently travelled to Canada, where he said 2-3m people couldn't afford the diets they needed to lead healthy lives. He said one million First Nations people and 55,000 Inuit were in a "desperate situation". Nunavut Inuit Child Health Survey UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food

Many southern Canadians have been asking the group whether locals hunt and gather for traditional foods to mitigate the impact of costly imports.

Foraging and hunting for so-called country foods are important, says Ms Redfern, but it can hard for people to get hold of them.

"They often have to travel for days, and it is expensive," she says. In summer, hunters need boats with motors, fuel, nets, gun and bullets. In the winter they need snowmobiles, sleds, tents, stoves and warm winter clothing.

Hunters used to be able to use meat to feed their families and sell pelts to offset the costs, but Ms Redfern says an EU and US ban on seal products has meant many people can no longer afford to hunt.

A federally funded programme, Nutrition North Canada Program (NNCP) , gives subsidies to retailers who are supposed to lower the prices of essential healthy foods in communities without regular road or water access.

Mr McMullen says the scheme, which pays $53.9m a year, has brought the cost of four litres of milk down from $15.19 to $7.79, but he concedes that more needs to be done to make food affordable.

Reporting by Sarah Shenker