BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

"You've got the perfect meal on, and just need that extra touch. The gentle sweetness of our cranberries compliment our fluffy wild rice pilaf for a full flavor northwoods variation on this Mediterranean flavor." Native Harvest/White Earth Land Recovery Project

In purchasing this tasty pilaf, you are helping to save Native American wild rice from genetic modification

Manoomin, or wild rice, is a sacred food to the Anishinaabeg, and a key part of the ecosystem of the Northern Minnesota Lakes region. Over the past decades, plant breeders have developed wild rice for paddies in Minnesota, and today most of the wild rice on the market comes from rice paddies, and indeed sixty-seven percent of it from California Each fall, millions of pounds of California wild rice comes into the state to be processed, some of that rice, if genetically engineered would irreversibly contaminate our manoomin.

Minnesota is the center of the biodiversity of all wild rice. There are over 60,000 acres of natural wild rice growing throughout the lakes and rivers. Today, new work on wild rice threatens the genetic integrity of this plant. We need your help to stop any potential genetic contamination of wild rice.

The prospect of a corporation or individual having exclusive rights to wild rice, or processes associated with the plant, is antithetical to a worldview which sees natural resources as belonging to all people. While much of the earth's biological diversity resides in developing nations, the lion's share of patents on those resources belong to industrialized countries. Further patenting of life will likely lead to further economic exploitation and by wealthy nations of poorer ones. Preventing genetic engineering and patenting of wild rice will be a strong step in the protection of indigenous peoples, their cultures, and the natural resources that they have been stewards of for millennia.

In November of 2003, the White Earth Land Recovery Project was one of ten International recipients to receive the prestigious International Slow Food Award for the Defense of Biodiversity. The project was recognized for its work to preserve wild rice, biodiversity, and restore local food systems on the White Earth reservation, and joined projects from Ethiopia, Madagascar, England, Australia, Burkina Faso, Brazil and a host of other countries in receiving the award.

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