Nutrition
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This grain has a high protein and carbohydrate content, and is very low in fat (Anderson 1976). The nutritional quality of wild rice appears to equal or surpass that of other cereals. Lysine and methionine comprise a higher percentage of the amino acids in the protein than in most other cereals. The SLTMvalue (sum of lysine, threonine, and methionine contents) often serve as a measure of the nutritional quality of cereals, and is a little higher for wild rice than for oat groats, which is one of the better cereals for humans. Amino acid composition of processed and unprocessed wild rice is similar, which indicates little reduction in nutritional quality during processing. Wild rice contains less than 1% fat, of which linolenic and linoleic acids together comprise a larger proportion of the fatty acids (68%) than in wheat, rice, or oats. Although these two fatty acids are easily oxidized and make wild rice prone to develop rancid odors, the high levels of linolenic acid make the fat in wild rice highly nutritious. Mineral content of wild rice, which is high in potassium and phosphorus, compares favorably with wheat, oats, and corn.
Processed wild rice contains no vitamin A, but serves as an excellent source of the B vitamins: thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin.
Commercialization/Domestication
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Perhaps the first individuals to attempt to increase availability of wild rice for food were Native Americans (Steeves 1952). Often suitable lakes or rivers were seeded to wild rice by mixing seed into clay, rolling it into a ball and dropping the clay ball into the water. This resulted in some, but not significant, increase in natural stands.
Businessmen and botanists have thought about cultivating this plant for over 100 years (Steeves 1952). Early European explorers collected seed for planting in Europe but these failed probably because the seed was not handled properly to remain viable. In 1828, Timothy Flint in Geography and History wondered why so little attention has been paid to wild rice. In 1852, Joseph Bowron suggested wild rice be seeded for agricultural purposes. In 1853, Oliver Kelly, founder of the National Grange, made the same proposal.
Mechanical harvesting of private lands in Canada started in 1917, by H.B. Williams and Z. Durand (Trevor 1939).
Since about 1950, wild rice has been in the process of becoming a domesticated crop in the United States and is now being grown commercially in both the United States and Canada (Oelke et al. 1982; Stevenson 1988). Prior to that time, natural stands were the only source of the grain, and supplies were limited and varied greatly from year to year. With the advent and growth of commercial production, supplies of wild rice have increased tremendously over the last 25 years. Natural stands continue to be harvested, but the proportion of total supplies derived from natural stands has steadily declined. In some areas, including the entire state of Minnesota, natural stands of wild rice, by law, must be harvested only by traditional canoe-and-flail method, whereas in some parts of Canada, mechanized harvest is permitted. Included in Table 1 are annual harvest estimates from natural stands in Minnesota since 1963. Of all the wild rice harvested by hand, Minnesota is likely to account for more than half in any given year.
In Canada, commercial production of wild rice takes place predominantly in lakes leased from the various provincial governments (Winchell and Dahl 1984). Lease provisions vary by province, but generally lease holders are permitted to seed the lakes and, in some cases, to control water levels, and are granted exclusive harvesting rights. Much of the wild rice acreage in these leased lakes is harvested with the use of airboats (Stevenson 1988). Shown in Table 1 are annual harvest estimates from lakes and rivers in four
Canadian provinces since 1963.
In the United States, wild rice is being produced commercially as a "domesticated" field crop in diked,
flooded fields. Minnesota and California account for most of the hectarage (8,000 and 4,000 ha, respectively, in 1992) with additional amounts in Idaho, Wisconsin, and Oregon. Table 2 shows production totals from cultivated fields in Minnesota and California since 1968.
Growing wild rice as a field crop was first attempted near Merrifield, Minnesota in 1950-1952 (Oelke et al. 1984). James and Gerald Godward diked a 0.5 ha area, planted it with seed collected from a nearby lake, and flooded the field. The field was drained before harvest and the crop was harvested by hand. An additional 16 ha were planted by them in 1953 and harvested with a small pull-type combine. They had good crops the first few years, but leaf blight (Bipolaris oryzae B. de Haan) caused serious losses
thereafter. However, they continued their pioneering efforts, and today one of their sons has nearly 1,000
acres in wild rice production.
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