NSF-NFRF: Reimagining Food Systems for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

Inspired by Indigenous-led approaches to food systems, this project will explore the degree to which Indigenous-led concepts and approaches resonate and affirm the perspectives of all the systematically disadvantaged people who participate in the Reimagining Food Systems project. The project’s collaborative methodology will generate scientific evidence to advocate for real-world solutions to food and nutrition insecurity made worse by climate change. Rooted in community assessment and engagement, this project aims to establish best practices of growing wild rice for the goal of mitigating climate change. The project’s broad scope is to tackle the immense problem food systems resulting in the loss of traditional foods and medicines that have nutritional, economic, and cultural significance. The project will generate scientific evidence using Zizania palustris, aka Northern Wild Rice (NWR), as a model for these types of food systems, which could be applied in other regional contexts or field crops of cultural and nutritional importance. Using a whole-ecosystem approach, the environmental, physiological, and genetic characteristics of present-day Z. palustris populations and their ecosystem counterparts will be assessed to provide a foundation for future production as well as conservation efforts. This research will also explore a new avenue of seed storage using a hydrogel casing, which could allow for longer-term storage of seed and improve the health of seedlings. This work will contribute to the project’s goal to provide climate-vulnerable populations across diverse regional contexts with modeled evidence for self-designed, human rights-based food system interventions and a pathway to implement them. Mitigation interventions will be mapped to specific vulnerabilities (e.g., water, energy, nutrient flows) and adapted based on community or demographic priorities in order to prioritize local needs and goals. This is a project jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and funding agencies from Canada, Germany, Norway, South Africa, and the United Kingdom via the 2023 International Joint Initiative for Research on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Competition. This Competition allowed a single joint international proposal to be submitted and peer-reviewed by Canada. Upon successful joint determination of an award recommendation, each agency funds the proportion of the budget that supports scientists at institutions in their respective countries. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.