Grain of the Day: Rice

Why am I thinking about rice today? Cause I love rice. Cause 50% of the planet lives on rice. Cause rice is a staple.

Today, cosmically, I heard on BBC that we (the US of A) are a significant exporter of rice. Well, must be those rice paddies in the "Cadillac desert" of California. Didn't see any, but they are probably further south (with that nice, overallocated Colorado River water perhaps?).

Rice producers receive major subsidies. The statistic on BBC was that our federal government (our tax dollars) spends more subsidizing rice producers than we send to Haiti in foreign aid.

Why is this important? Haiti *used* to be able to produce its own rice crop. To feed its people. Then, in part due to US subsidies to make rice cheap ("cheap food to feed the world" may have been a good intention..) this no longer allowed Haiti to produce a profitable crop. It was cheaper to just buy it from the US.

However, the price, as agricultural prices do, fluctuated, got higher. No longer very affordable. Meanwhile, the land and techniques for growing rice had already been lost in Haiti.

Food is a national security issue.
I also heard today (possibly from a political candidate, since it is, after all, the season) how manufacturing was a national security issue. Indeed. If we do have to go to war, are we going to import tanks from China? I believe military equipment, including uniforms, boots, etc. - are required to be manufactured in the US. But it is also important to maintain a manufacturing base, so we have enough people, understanding, processes, etc. to be able to spin up a war machine if we need to (and, if peace fails).

I am not planning to grow rice in the backyard. Maybe some other grain, that would be fun. Honey, now that we are staying here - lets grow golden fields of grain on the side yard, and water them with our well! That would be fun (really!)

Meanwhile, write your congress person and tell them to stop subsidizing rice production in this country. As I've said 10 times daily, we live in a global world. Lets act like it.

Number of the day: 22
The one time I was in the World Trade Center, I was 22 years old. I visited the 22nd floor. Those days are gone, but something reminded me of that riding an elevator today...