Growing Hope in Northern Manitoba Communities
“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
In this video, Indigenous people in northern Manitoba talk about their struggle for food security and the barriers of extremely high food prices (in some communities, a 4L jug of Milk costs $14.99), poverty and either a lack of healthy choices in stores or any store in their community.
This—coupled with the isolation of remote communities, as well as winter roads and the overall decline in the consumption of traditional food–has led to some of the highest rates of food insecurity in Canada. According to a recent survey of 534 households by the University of Manitoba, food insecurity stands at 75 per cent in Northern Manitoba communities, compared to 9.2 per cent for the rest of Canada.
Despite these challenges, just as much because of them, more and more community members are turning to themselves, planting their own gardens, building their own greenhouses, teaching their children and families traditional ways and gardening, involving elders and sharing the food through traditional community freezers and community dinners.
In growing this food, they are growing hope, restoring the relationship to the land and renewing a memory that many of us have forgotten: no one has to suffer, no one has to go without. We have everything we need as long as we work together.
Growing Hope in Northern Manitoba was created by students and a professor at the University of Manitoba’s Natural Resources Institute.
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This video gave me a small bit of hope! I have been saying for many years that we should reclaim the seeds of our lands, of our Ancestors. Mono culture will be the death of our environment and the way of our people. The North and South of this great Island was developed by the native peoples of these lands for thousands upon thousands of years into dementia.
Our peoples where the first geneticists, something most people who live on our lands just don’t know. But we gave the world foods like potatoes, tomatoes, bean, corn, squash peppers, to name a few….that we, for thousands years, painstakingly hybridized. Then you get corps like Monsanto who have… at the genetic level contaminated our seeds like corn. The funny part is that they did not even ask the original people permission to do so. We have the Flora and Fonna treaty that I think we should reexamine. Personally, I have never seen this treaty and would just love to…. hint, hint!
I can’t stress the importance of starting seed banks, if we don’t have control our own seeds, then corps like Monsanto will. Our Ancestors did all of the work and corps like Monsanto collect and control the profits….
I myself garden every year. I love it!!! I share seeds with the family, friends, even strangers who lean on the fence and ask what kind of tree that is or what kind of wild flower is that? I even taught the kids down the street how to grow pumpkins and squash a few years ago when they tried to steal a pumpkin for Halloween. I told them that the pumpkins weren’t ready yet for a few weeks. They would stop by and visit with their pumpkin and found themselves learning even more about the garden.
Five or six years ago, My landlord and I put in a small garden that has grown into a super huge garden all around the house. In the first year we only saw a few bees. Then we all had heard about the decline in bee populations around the world. I was horrified… with out the bees we all don’t eat.
Flowers have a sent for a reason and in a city there is to many cars and fumes like the McDonald’s just down the street, that affects their sense of smell, it has been proven by scientist that this is in fact the case. So we decided to plant as many different plants to attract the bees through out the whole growing year! To date we are visited by hundreds of bees and we have between 9 or ten different bees. In all this time I have not been stung once. Plant it and they will come!
There are other Ideas I have for growing up north I would be happy to share if anyone is interested, let me know. Carver.
A thought just occurred to me tonight, that one day in the future it may very well be that the North will feed the South…. Hmm.
We shouldn’t plant our food like our non-native brothers and sisters in the South. Just don’t plant in rows… For example: In the spring, if you have large field filled with what some people might mistake for weeds; Don’t plant a lot of the same thing in one area. If you want to grow 20 cabbages, then spread them out over the whole area. In doing this you will have less bug damage if any at all, because the plants that already grow there are the food—and do this with all the different food plants you will want to grow. They will even grow larger! Just don’t disturb the soil too much as last years “weed” seeds are in the soil. Was it in the 1990s that everything became, “Location, Location! Well, today it should be said, “Diversity, Diversity, Diversity!
I would like to propose that our people in the North start propagating their lands for internal food safety and seed security. More and more of our native species of plants and birds, bears, moose, bees etc, are in danger of extinction. If their numbers do rebound they are going to need an intact ecosystem and something to eat…
Our ability to be the “Stewards of the Land” has been hampered at the federal level of management for the economic engine that is corporate profitability. From our lands and resources. To the tune of billions upon billions of dollars a year, while we, maybe, might possibly, make millions over said number of years, oh and maybe a few jobs at the Mine, or the Hydro dam, eh!”
You got to thank Ahni for being a lone voice and giving voice to native issues, when the national media casts a “Conservative Eye” at what the beautiful Britney Britney is doing today;)
So while we are facing some kind of future in this brave new global economy, that is rolling past all of us. If the past is any indication, we must evolve.
Seed banks are a great start and cost very little to start up. All one would need is a lot of envelopes, a pen and a box to store them in, which will grow in number!
We should study the areas of our lands and collect all of the different seeds and record their locations from trees to cat tails, wild flowers to medicine plants like yarrow, goldenseal, sage, sweet grass, etc… just in case of any future environmental collapse. You can’t replace what you did not save. We must share the seeds with other bands and their seed with us. He who controls the seed control the future. All of us or Monsanto! You decide.
Carver
Thanks for commenting, Carver. I’ve never heard of a “flora and fauna treaty” before, unless it’s a metaphor for the tradition of respecting the land, but you’re certainly right about the need to protect seeds. I know there’s a massive effort in India to do this (there used to be like 200 thousand varieties of rice there, but now it’s down to small fraction of that) It’s the exact same thing with corn, here. Most people here don’t even know what good corn tastes like. As you once pointed out, most of the time all we get at the store is “cattle corn.”
I think the idea of getting away from planting in rows is excellent. I don’t think a garden is supposed to look like a bunch of aisles in a supermarket! And I love the idea of corn, beans and squash, “the three sisters.” When they are planted together, each sister provides vital nutrients to the others and they protect one another, creating a symbiotic relationship.
One thing about planting diversely though, I think, we need to know what works and what doesn’t, what plants shouldn’t be placed together, etc. If there are any, it would save a lot of trouble.
I’m also wondering, is it true that pumpkin can grow in any climate?
Ahni said, “One thing about planting diversely though, I think, we need to know what works and what doesn’t, what plants shouldn’t be placed together, etc. If there are any, it would save a lot of trouble.”
I think that the plants will figure that out for us, even teach us (if we pay enough attention,) as they have since who knows when? There is plant chemical warfare going on in every and any garden, field, marsh, bog, forest, valley, dessert. For every square inch/cm of earth there is life from microscopic bacteria and fungi to Buffalo and Muskox. All are independent and interdependent of each other, beyond our conscience and sub conscience awareness or understanding; a duality that is the essence of life.
Let me give an example: At one time before contact over 100 millon buffalo ruled the plains of this continent. Where ever they road the land was very fertile because of the dung beetle. Large black beetles that numbered in the millions dug in billions of billions of tonnes of Buffalo scat down below the soil. A perfect duality, the buffalo eats the grasses and sages and in turn spread compost with seeds to be spread in other areas. The beetles dig the compost back in the grown that in fact feed the plants and conditioned the soil as well as retains much needed moisture in the soil.
After the Buffalo genocide happened, another happened silently for the dung beetle. From a duality to a singularity. It comes down to peoples becoming conscience of their actions and relationship with nature and themselves.
We will talk soon about soils, pumpkin and lolly pops next time boys and girls! Smile, life is short!
Carver
Soils: I have learned a great deal about the very soil that surrounds the house where I live. Living on a flood plain presents a lot of challenges, beside mosquitoes… Gumbo, a clay based soil that can drive gardeners straight to the lolly pop factory! But with a little toil one can create the environment to grow a lush garden that not only is pleasing to the eye… but also to the taste buds!
One of the worst plants to grow in a gumbo based soil is grass, as it strips the ground of nutrients. One just has to look down their street and witness the amount of grass and we can’t eat grass. I see my neighbors out in the growing season with “chemicals of mass destruction,” for dandelions and chemical based fertilizers and herbicides trying master the perfect lawn and are doing more harm then good. As these chemical based fertilizers and herbicides build up and contaminate the ground water and makes its way into rivers and streams… lakes… all the back into your kitchen tap for your morning glass of water. Cheers!
One simple test one can do to test the type of soil and its ability to retain water is to grab a clump of soil in your hand and squeeze it into a ball, then open your hand if the ball of soil fall apart then your soil need some tender loving care, but if your ball of dirt remains in a ball that means that your soil can retain moisture. But if your ball of dirt drips water from your hand, your soil hold to much water. Soils high in gumbo need to have a mixture of sand and compost added.
Something has come up, so I will write more later…. Carver