They’re just trying to write words that make you click

Love how it says “your bowl of rice” not “the modern farming industry”. Gotta blame the individual people, not the companies! (sarcasm)

Rice is… really really no where near the top of the chain on problematic crops. It’s mostly grown for direct human consumption, unlike corn and soy, and, although quite water intensive (at least for wetland rice cultivation) most of the production is done in areas with the water resources to support it, Yangtze river, peal river, Mekong delta, Ganges river, the lower Mississippi river, ect ect.

Obviously there are some serious issues with conventional rice cultivation, but, in terms of the number of people it supports relative to the over all impact it has… it’s definitely not something the average consumer should be putting at the top of their list to cut out.

so. on this upsetting piece of doom and gloom i’m going to ask people to bear in mind the following

1. grain farming is the most intensive form of vegetation farming because of its requirements for irrigation at scale
2. most of the world’s grain is not eaten by humans but by food animals that we then eat
3. based on point two, eating more rice for most people will still be a net benefit to the world because that’s rice you ate instead of a cow or a sheep or a chicken that ate the rice
4. based on point one you should diversify the vegetarian crops you eat to include more greens, root vegetables, and fruits
5. there’s a lot to learn about how to eat healthy from pre-colonial/pre-imperial cultures. of particular interest to me are the nomadic tribes of North America who prior to European colonization were post-colonial/post-imperial

Food uses water to grow, extracting water uses fossil fuels. Don’t grow food!

you should worry more about whether the rice itself will kill you, rice can have quite worrying levels of arsenic depending on where it’s grown.

but in general just, like, think about what you’re buying? if you live in europe then maybe go with pasta or potato as your main starch rather than something grown halfway across the world.

I’m always annoyed when people go “oh but rice and beans is the cheapest food possible!” bitch rice is more expensive than pasta and beans are only barely cheaper than ground pork (the cheapest meat) here in sweden. The actual cheapest food here is onion stew with potatoes and peas, and as a bonus all 3 of those are grown domestic.

Thanks, I hate it