Native Americans have been scammed in many ways in their history, but before I read this article I didn’t know that the genetic modification of seeds was another thing to add to the depressingly long list of wrong doings. When white settlers first came to the US they brought many problems for Native Americans, but it was interesting to learn of a current problem that they have been faced with: the manipulation and patenting of wild rice. Wild rice is an incredibly important food source and way of life for the Ojibwe people of Minnesota. It has been their main trade and their livelihood, but in 2000 scientist of the University of Minnesota mapped out the wild rice DNA and since then wild rice has become a major US agricultural commodity.
Something that struck me in the article was “Ironically greed knows no state boundaries.” This part of the article was talking about how after Minnesota was able to mass-produce “wild rice” in rice paddies not so soon after California also began to produce paddy rice, but at an even larger rate. “By 1983 (California) produced over 8.3 million pounds, compared to Minnesota’s 5 million pounds. By 1986, more than 95 percent of the wild rice harvested was paddy grown, the vast majority produced in California.” This I found unbelievable, the wild rice had originally been produced on an incredibly small scale by the Ojibwe people then Minnesota state got ahold of the seeds and began to mass produce it, but as if Minnesota’s production wasn’t large enough California began to produce even more. This greed from state to state only stemmed from the original greed of the scientists and big agriculture to modify the rice crop in the first place and in the process took something that was precious to the Ojibwe people.
Another thing that really disturbed me was that California sent its rice over to Minnesota to be packaged and labeled and one of the labels that they were using had “two Indians on a canoe who appeared to be picking wild rice.” It’s insulting that a paddy rice company put a picture of the original growers/growing method on their package when this rice had actually been produced as a monocrop in California. Luckily, for the Ojibwe people they were able to fight this and had many small victories against big agriculture, one other labeling victory they had was that Minnesota paddy rice had to say that it was paddy rice on the label.
In class we watched a video of Winona (the author) speaking about their wild rice and the problems they faced. She mentioned in the video that when one of the members of the tribe asked about the scientists coming to test their wild rice and work to change their DNA, the member asked, “Who said they could do that?” This I found very powerful, because who did say that they could do that, you can’t just modify a livelihood/a way of life. It’s sad that they were taken advantage of and have been looked down upon. She also mentioned in the video that non-native people have often seen their native way of farming wild rice less developed, but they are not less developed people they are just farming in a less industrial way, the way they have for generations.
A final reaction I had to the article, was the part about the possible contamination of the wild rice from the domesticated crops. I was in disbelief to read, “there is little chance of cross-pollination as long as approximately 660 feet separate the two kinds of wild rice.” This quote is immediately followed by the fact that pollen can travel up to two miles and ducks are able to carry that pollen even farther. University of Minnesota’s plant geneticist even acknowledged this problem, yet the wild rice is still at risk.
Overall, this was a great article, but its unfortunate that the Ojibwe people have been subjected to this problem. It was encouraging to learn that they fought back and had small victories, but something that needs to be remembered with science is that the people have to be thought of too and the affects on a community must be recognized.
The problem stems from the history of western knowledge, the view of “rice” was nothing more than just an object to be tested with and used. The question of “rights” was always an issue that America tried so hard to justify, and with nature has no righteous owners they tried to monopolize it. So what are the possibly methods of changing the law to acknowledge that nature and water comes to the “rights of the people” rather than “rights” of the individuals. What can America do to give back to what they taken from tribes and nature? Starting from Ojibwa people, rice should be given back to them and remove all monopolization on food and nature.
After reading your post, I thought to myself, so much about “wild rice” when it is not really wild anymore. They should change its name to “greedy rice” or something. We cannot deny mass production did some good to our society but we cannot forget that there are consequences. Such as whites came to the US and freed themselves from the Britain but only to transfer their position to Native Americans. Patenting seed is one of many things bothers me quite a bit. It really taking advantage over indigenous people who basically does not have to follow our society but because seed is now has patent they cannot use it freely anymore, I feel like considering those acts as stealing. A you mentioned, it was at least good to see Ojibwe people got something but overall not so much, and our society needs to find a way to respect them or indigenous people in general.