Discuss: Ricekeepers

Of course wild rice is not, ultimately, the Ojibwe’s? This cultural loss ought not justify improving this rice for human consumption. Stop using scare words. (genetic research) Stop using emotional words (patent this food). The issue is obscured in this article - what is the best way to use this food. The preserved culture of the Ojibwe could not be nearly worth the expanded knowledge gained through research and the increased accessibility of a great food product. This is an instance where it is better to join, not fight.

I disagree with Ryan. This story is one example of how our science is reducing one of the most basic sacred things on earth - our food - to genomes and patents. Food should be about culture, sharing, learning, and gratitude, not limitation. The cultural significance aside (which cannot be ignored but is a related issue), food “rights” cannot be owned.

Sacred? I am from California - but that word still goes too far! It is food, and it exists to be used. Yes, there are great side benefits such as culture, sharing, gratitude and so forth - but the cultural significance is valuable to a small segment of the population (who has ever right to pay a premium). Stop ceding grown to the overwhelming minority who would have the overwhelming majority (people who just want some rice) suffer at the salvation of ‘culture’.

I live in Colombia. We need jobs, we need food, and we need profit-driven people willing to bring them to us. Culture is a luxury that the overwhelming majority - (think East of Prague, West of San Luis Obispo) can not afford! Shame on the Ojibwe on the literary dramatization in Orion. Although I must say, Orion rocks!

The issue is not so obscured.  This is not about a tradeoff between the Ojibwe’s cultural heritage and a “better food product.” Indigeneous communities all over the world do us all a huge favor by continually fostering genetic diversity.  Genetic diversity gives us food security, without which societies, and economies, can’t function, let alone prosper.

By the way, according to Amartya Sen, Indian nobel economist, at the present, the issue is not about creating enough food (though we do need to protect its sources).  There is enough food.  It’s not a matter of production, but of distribution.

Agreed. All business is in distribution. It is what America does best - come, claim, and commercialize. Ojibwe selfish interest in maintaining their cultural heritage (which, example shows, is mostly profit-seeking)can only limit distribution...it is precisely a tradeoff

hmm- I truwely liked Winona’s article and learned quite a bit of interesting info.thanks Orion!
.. in the end I think that “Mans Domain Over Nature” never rings as true to me from anyone as “WE Are Part Of the Whole”
The Sacred is personal. very personal. Some of us, sadly, never feel the sacred in action in our lives. Some of us do not have a connection to family traditions or have a special thing they did with their parents or grandparents in nature. (gathering wild flowers, berrys, hunting, fishing, meditating, walking, having a personal talk, etc)
Thats a true pity.
Some of us find it easy to not seek new and different “jobs”, but want what others have already done. It seems to me that is a pity, too.

There is an infinite creativity to our species. Surely we can come up with less harmful more respectful work to do than to take other peoples livelyhoods and traditions into a lab.
Just my thoughts. Be well and be blessed. Find ways to get out into Nature, and be happy.

I disagree with Ryan. Unfortunately, all life is now within the genetic code for use by private companies. Genetics is not really for sale, is it? Or should I rephrase, should it be?

As an organic farmer in the deep south of India, trying to grow native Indian rice varieties amidst the onslaught of high yielding hybrids and state department propaganda, this story makes a deep impact. It is very significant that all those in favour of the bio-tech industry can be classified into 2 categories: 1. Those who stand to gain financially from the seed business and 2. Those in authority or research!

Food is as holy as life; no less , no more. But the real problem starts when profits become more sacred than food or life. Culture is not a luxury; cultures before the advent of industrialization show us the way to live integrally with Nature and get food from adverse situations like drought or flood for life sustenance.

All talks of food insecurity or nutrition insecurity or the need for scientific farming to feed the world are all complete nonsense. There is enough and more land to feed the whole world population from existing land and resources, without resorting to genetic engineering or chemical farming - even if our population were to double! This kind of panic-mongering is a deeply planned strategy of agri businesses.

All that is required for preserving food sovereignity, security , nutrition security and bio-diversity is for the agri business corporations to leave the farmer alone. But that is like asking the timber businesses to leave the rainforests alone!