- Ami Eckard-Lee: Our connection to food
is a lot deeper than just eating to survive.
Food invokes memories.
It is a way to express ourselves, where we come from,
and what we believe in.
Food is part of cultural identity
for people all over the world.
For example, wild rice, known as manoomin
in the Anishinaabe language,
is a significant part of Anishinaabe culture.
But it's becoming harder to find and harvest
due to climate change and other human impacts.
But how exactly does climate change
impact culture and community?
And what can we do to protect these traditional foods?
[bright music]
Northern wild rice, or manoomin,
is a species native to the Great Lakes region.
For hundreds of years,
this species has grown in the shallow waters of lakes
and slow-flowing rivers,
and has been a traditional food source
for First Nations people.
However, climate change has impacted wild rice habitat
and is making it difficult to grow and harvest.
As people lose access to foods that were once abundant
and a significant part of their diet,
they begin to lose their food sovereignty.
Food sovereignty is a person's right
to healthy and culturally appropriate food
produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods.
It is the power to have control over your food,
where it comes from, and how it is grown.
But why is food sovereignty so important?
- Sagen Quale: Food is medicine.
What we put into our bodies
and the way in which we harvest and grow it is really important.
Manoomin is just so central to Anishinaabe
or Ojibwe identity that really with, like, a loss of manoomin,
people have felt, like, a loss in that identity.
I always think back to our migration story.
Ojibwe people were originally on the east coast
of Turtle Island.
They were given a prophecy to say that
in order to continue to, you know, survive
and thrive and live, you need to go
to where the food grows on water.
People say it took a couple hundred years
to move all the way from the East Coast
to the Great Lakes region.
And once we got here
is when Ojibwe people came to find manoomin,
the good berry, wild rice.
So, I was taught that that rice is really special.
Passing along the knowledge of manoomin
is something that was done for me,
and that is what I need to do for others.
- Wild rice plays a significant role
not just in Anishinaabe culture,
but also within its own ecosystem.
It helps stabilize the banks of lakes and rivers
by holding sediment in place with its root system.
It filters the water.
It provides habitat for fish and waterfowl
and food for birds, insects, and people.
It's a vital part of the ecosystem.
But as the ecosystem changes,
this species is having a hard time growing
where it used to thrive.
So, what exactly is causing this decline?
Let's get down in the weeds and talk to some researchers
from the UW-Madison Center for Limnology,
who are working up at the Trout Lake Station
in northern Wisconsin.
What does your research focus on?
- Gretchen Gerrish: I think our project started on wild rice,
with the more recent declines.
So, for the last five years, we've been surveying populations
to look at which populations are doing well,
which ones have experienced decline,
and which ones may be threatened.
There's a lot of questions about the seed storage.
So, rice that falls one year can actually fall into the mud
and sit there for many years before it germinates.
- Ami: Oh! - Yeah.
A lot of annual plants have seed banks.
- What does annual plant mean?
- The difference between an annual and a perennial plant
is that annual plants grow from seed each year.
A perennial plant can actually have a root
that stays in the dirt or in the lake,
and then it'll start growing out of that existing root structure.
So, based on that seed bank question,
and we've also been taking sediment cores.
And so, this is where you just take a tube
and shove it down in the mud, cap it off.
You pull it up and you sieve it.
And then you look at how many seeds
are in a section of sediment,
how deep they are in that sediment.
And that gives you an idea of how much seed goes
from one year to the next,
or how much goes from fall to summer.
So, it's common in a sparse population like this,
where your core might contain no seeds.
- So, what changes are happening in the environment
that threaten wild rice growth?
- Climate's threatening the wild rice.
Water level rise and fall is definitely one.
And those are two big ones.
But the other ones are herbivory.
And then, of course, wave action.
You know, if you have rice on a lake
where there's boats creating big waves,
it can uproot the plants.
- Ray Allen: And I think there has been worries about people
because you can get a state permit to harvest wild rice.
You don't have to be a tribal member to do it.
Is that, people just don't know the techniques.
And yet, since it's, like, such a delicate plant.
And it's, as Gretchen mentioned, it's annual.
Like, if you lose that seed that one year,
you're not gonna have it the next year.
- Yeah. - And you'd have to rely
on your seed bank.
- Yeah, I think when we get into discussions
about loss of wild rice too,
the loss of human connection to the rice
over the years, there's a lot of knowledge about harvesting.
So, if you harvest rice before it's ripe,
the seed that falls
can't actually germinate for the next year.
And so, there's a timing for harvest
that's very, very important to think about.
And so, having that deeper understanding
of when it's ready to harvest
is knowledge that needs to come forward
to help protect the rice.
- Ami: Climate change and other stressors,
such as human impact,
are causing wild rice beds to decline.
But losing manoomin isn't an option
for those dedicated to protecting this species.
Let's meet up with Kathy Smith, a strong advocate for wild rice,
to learn why the species is so important
for its ecosystem and how we can help protect it.
Can you tell me a little bit
about the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission?
- Kathy Smith: So, what we do is we help our 11 member tribes
in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan
with their hunting, fishing, and gathering rights
for off reservation only.
- Manoomin, it's wild.
But you are stewarding it.
What does that look like, and how do you monitor it?
- What we also do at GLIFWC, is we do aerial photos.
We fly over, you know, parts of Minnesota, parts of Michigan
and northern Wisconsin here within the ceded territories.
So, we continue to monitor, you know, rice from the air.
We have all these tools that are given to us to be able to,
you know, work alongside that Ojibwe knowledge.
- What changes have you seen?
- I've seen some beds really decline
where they were not doing too well.
It's a indicator species
that really tells us what's going on,
you know, within this natural environment.
If it's not doing so well,
something could be impacting it by pollution,
invasive species, or even water quality.
But that's what happens, you know,
when we have the shifting of the seasons or of the climate,
you know, just really impacting some of these rice beds.
- What kinds of restoration projects do you do?
- So, the types of restoration projects that we do
is we get the seed from the rice
and then go and spread it in areas
that, where it's sparse to help things along.
So, that's what the purpose of reseeding, you know, today
is to be able to, you know, put the rice where
there was a little bit sparser,
maybe build up the density for the rice.
So, for our future, I hope our kids get really excited
about good, clean food,
and food sovereignty, I think, is a big thing.
This is our grocery store right here.
You know, we got a lot of wonderful foods and medicines.
- You just have to know what you're looking at.
Climate change is a threat to food sovereignty everywhere,
not just for Indigenous food systems.
But there are ways we can support
and protect these resources.
Be conscious of where you get your food,
and make sure you're obtaining it
from a sustainable source that prioritizes the health
and care of the ecosystem as a whole.
Participate in restoration efforts,
such as reseeding events, in the places
that you live or visit, and advocate for regulations
that protect sensitive habitats and encourage others
to learn about the species that live and grow
in their communities
so that they can be better stewards of these areas too.
Food is part of cultural identity.
By protecting our environment,
we're also preserving heritage, traditions, and communities.
So, know where your food comes from,
how it's harvested, and ways that you can help protect it
so you can continue eating it for years to come.
[bright music]
- Videographer: I'm rolling. - Okay.
What's the vibe?
Casual?
- Producer: There's a snake. [water splashes]