The love of my life: rice

This is a grain of rice. The 21st century has seen more changes in the world than any other time in history. The advent of technological advancements and scientific discovery continues to evolve our society however this puny, insignificant grain of rice arguably still remains the backbone of many civilisations.

Can you imagine Italy without risotto? Spain without paella? or the UK without rice pudding?. Rice is the most consumed grain in the entire world. More than half the world’s population relies on this cereal every day. Rice is one of the cheapest and most readily available food. For many in impoverished societies, rice is their main source of nutrition and after the creation of golden rice (which is rice genetically modifies to contain more indispensable minerals) rice is the only GMO patent that people can use for free. This crop plays a vital role in the lives of many and is key for the daily sustenance of millions.

Give a man a bowl of rice and feed him for a day or teach him how to cultivate the crop feed many. Rice grows on all continents excluding Antarctica. Over 50 million families rely on rice cultivation for their livelihoods. Despite it being one of the world's largest industries, for the extreme poor, who live on less than $1.25 a day, rice accounts for nearly half of their food expenditure hence implying that the growing industrial production still lags global demands

Rice is the most powerful and courageous superhero to have ever lived. The grain has saved millions from the danger of poverty and rescued billions from the villainous malnutrition but on a more local scale has probably come to the aid of your best friend, drowning. Of course, by best friend I mean phone, and by drowning I mean water damage. There are many more daily uses for rice that you are probably not aware of. It is often burnt for fuel, used to thatch roofs and even some of the clothes you wear every day were likely crisped using the rice starched. Whilst people in the past slept on rice straws, used them to sew clothing, even create instruments to liven up the streets, today these uses are not so element. However, it is still common practice to use rice in artwork. From the famous ‘Kon Tum” who can make massive murals and sculptures from the cereal to even the less famous natives who can supposedly paint entire pictures or even write entire stories on a single grain. Whether it be poetry, music, or film rice has prominence across all media and prominence in worldwide society.

The grain has been so influential on people's daily lives that it has deeply embedded itself in the cultural heritage of many regions. In various Eastern languages you start your day off by saying morning rice and end it with ‘ evening rice’ in Thailand you don’t say ‘have you eaten yet ’ you say ‘kin kao’ which translates to ‘have you consumed rice yet’. In Japan, they physically refer to rice as their “mother” and regard the growers of the grain as the guardians of their culture. Wherever the crop has been planted, festivals, traditions, rituals, and languages celebrate its importance. Even for those for whom rice is an everyday sight, something magical — more like spiritual — still radiates from the depths of the green paddy fields.

I am an avid rice eater, but as well as holding a deep connection to the crop, whenever I consume rice. I am reminded of how lucky I am. I like most take this simple, unadorned cheap grain for granted. however, I am reminded that a large proportion of the world doesn’t have enough money for this. The Thai and Filipino people teach their children that rice is food not to be wasted and any rice remaining should never be thrown away. Whilst we don’t need to be as strict, it is important that we are aware and should be grateful for how privileged we are.

Most people are either ignorant or underestimate the religious importance of rice. In Thailand, farmers pray to God asking to give blessings to their rice. in India, rice is used as an offering to the gods, in Bali, there are rice gods and goddesses themselves. Throughout the year's rice has become so important that people truly take it to be a gift from god. Just as mothers give food and milk to their children, the rice goddesses give their bodies and soul to the people on earth in the form of rice.

I personally have a very wistful connection to rice. Every day I walk into my kitchen moody, temperamental praying for some exotic new interesting food to be kept on the table. Unsurprisingly I open my eyes to a bunch of beady grains piercing into me and mocking my soul. I take the same tedious, monotonous bite. Whilst chewing and chewing the starchy, grainy, plastic in my mouth I am unintentionally reminded of all the memories of me running back from school. the sticker the teacher awarded me, the test that had just been postponed, and sometimes even the disputes I had with friends. All the memories of my youth summed up in every bite. I may not have come home to the most gastronomical delights, but they become embedded in my mind like folklore. When I taste or smell or even hear the sound of rice boiling I am instantly transported back to my house, my kitchen, to the small bickers, and to the uncontrollable waves of laughter we felt at the family dinner table.

I know it may sound like I’m romanticising it and well — at the end of the day it's a bowl of rice. It wasn’t grown with the softest of hands, it wasn’t cooked by the most talented chef it certainly was not consumed in the best of moods. It was grown in a haste by a dependent farmer who relies on its sale for an income, it was cooked by my mother who was probably doing million other things simultaneously and it was consumed by me, or rather force-fed to me whilst being lectured that its bad to waste food. Rice is really not that special but if anything doesn’t that sum it all up. Rice symbolises human day-to-day action…nothing special. From the production to the consumption, indirect or direct: rice somehow seems crucial to everyone. In a society where all our gender, our colour, every dissimilarity between us is drawn attention to. In a world where we are all struggling to make something out of our lives. No social class, no political view, no difference, can stop you from sitting down and enjoying a simple bowl of rice.

This is a rice grain… but it is also much more than that. This is a job for a human, food for a community, and everything for the world. This is a grain of rice.