Abstract: The aim of the research is to analyse theoretical aspects of food industry and life sustaining of the Northern indigenous peoples. Ragulina examines the component structure of the life sustaining concept, its cultural-environmental and social-geographical aspects. She defines the potential of industrial security and the main topical units, strong and weak points thereof. Based on the analysis of the experience of the foreign states, the author demonstrates that the approach to food industry taking into account interdisciplinary interaction may help to solve methodological difficulties arising in the process of subsistence support of indigenous peoples as part of the environmental and economic policies. The research method used by the author is the synthesis of the domains of food security and life sustaining of the Northern indigenous peoples. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author extends the conceptual framework of food industry of indigenous peoples by means of inclusion of the terms 'life sustaining', 'industrial landscape' and 'cultural landscape' into the research. As a result of the combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, the author offers an integral basis for studying the states adn risks of food security of the Northern ethnic communities.