A Deadly War Over Dried Meat

The Pemmican War was a violent Canadian conflict fought entirely over the export of pemmican, a high-energy mixture of fat and dried meat. Rival fur companies nearly destroyed each other to control this essential survival food.

Pemmican was the superfood of the 19th-century fur trade because it lasted for years without spoiling. When a regional governor banned its export in 1812, it crippled the supply lines of the North West Company. This sparked a decade of raids and battles between rival trading empires. The chaos only stopped when the two companies finally merged, proving that control over food supply was once the most powerful weapon in North America.