4th June: Rice

The first Sunday in June is the Day of the Rice God in Japan, a rice transplanting festival. Here are a few things you might not know about rice.

1. People have been eating rice since 5000BC - the first traces of rice cultivation dating back this far were found in China, India and Thailand.
2. There are more than 40,000 varieties of rice which grow everywhere in the world except Antarctica. In terms of the varieties we eat, they can be classified into three basic types - short grain, medium grain and long grain. Common food varieties include Thai Jasmine rice, the Italian Arborio rice used in risottos and Basmati. Basmati means ‘the queen of fragrances’ in Hindi and the word also means something in Arabic - ‘my smile’. The rice used for sweets and puddings are still more different varieties. Brown rice and White rice aren't different varieties - just the same ones that have been milled differently. White rice has been milled more and the bran and germ layers removed.
3. Rice is the second most produced crop in the world. Maize is the first, but maize is less important for human consumption. Rice is the most important crop for human food. This is reflected in the language of many of the countries where it is a dietary staple. In China, the word for rice is the same as the word for food. In Japan, the word for meal is the same as the word for cooked rice. In Thailand, people call their family to a meal by saying "eat rice."
4. Drive a Japanese car? The word Toyota translates as "Bountiful Rice Field" and Honda as "The Main Rice Field". Also in Japan, Rice grains are called ‘Little Buddhas’.
5. Of all cereal crops, rice is the most productive. One rice seed can produce up to 3,000 grains. Production is labour intensive (More than half the labour force in Thailand is involved in rice production) and requires a lot of water (5,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of rice). Rice grows best in water-logged fields. Hindus believe that Indra, the god of bad weather, first taught people how to grow rice after the god Vishnu had created it from nothing. In some parts of Asia, farmers still use buffaloes to plough the fields. The harvest takes place once a year and when all the rice has been harvested, some farmers keep their fields flooded so that migratory waterfowl can live there over the winter. China produces the most rice, and 90% of all the rice eaten in the world comes from Asia.
6. People in Asia are also the biggest consumers. People there eat on average 150 kg of rice a year while in Europe, people only eat about 5kg a year.
7. Rice contains (thiamin, niacin) Zinc and phosphorus, with brown rice being richer in it than white. Brown rice has significantly more fibre, more fat and more calories. Rice contains more protein than any other cereal, and no cholesterol. It is not only used for food - you can make booze out of it, too. Rice wine, rice beer, grappa, and sake are all made from rice.
8. In medieval China, they used to add rice to walls to add strength and stability. The walls of the city of Nanjing contained rice.
9. In India, rice is associated with prosperity and with the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi. In Japan, the sun-god Amatereshu-Omi-Kami is associated with it. In Thailand, the goddess Mae Posop, who is considered to be the ‘mother of rice’. Men are not allowed to enter the rice fields there. Rice is commonly a symbol of life and fertility as well as prosperity, which is why people throw it at weddings.
10. A Taiwanese artist has carved a portrait of the new Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a grain of rice.